Trucks in India can now legally carry 20-25 per cent higher pay-load with the Road Ministry issuing a notification that increases the gross vehicle weight that can be carried in a truck.

While the Road Transport and Highways Ministry issued a notification to this effect on Monday, which will be implemented for new vehicles, the Minister Nitin Gadkari said the vehicle makers had communicated to the Ministry that their vehicles are manufactured taking into account higher loading limits, based on the market reality; and highways are also built for higher loading limits. The Ministry will issue an advisory to this effect.

“The move will help in increasing the carrying capacity of goods vehicles by about 20-25 per cent,” he said, adding the decision was taken based on inputs from all stakeholders. Administratively, the registration of existing vehicles — which carry the gross vehicle weight — will have to be increased.

Toll collection

Existing rules require logistics players who overload to pay extra toll — ten times the specified toll charges and drop off the cargo. This was difficult to implement. To manage this, the Ministry is simultaneously working on newer toll rules that provide for graded penalties, depending on the extent of overloading. “We will now enforce the overloading rules very strictly. We are also requesting the States to enforce provisions against overloading and not allow any overloaded vehicles to move till the excess load is taken off,” he said, by installing weigh-in-motion bridges.

Industry watchers point out that overloading is already rampant on Indian roads, beyond what has been legalised. The move will only partially “legalise” the extent of overloading.

Pirojshaw Sarkari, CEO, Mahindra Logistics, said the move will undoubtedly reduce the cost of logistics and improve the overall Logistics Performance Index of India. However, Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training’s SP Singh had doubts on whether the freight charges will drop given that the practically there is not much change.

That said, overloading does have an adverse impact on road safety, an it is not clear whether the move will further increase the extent of overloading. The issue has been under discussion for long, although the decision comes days ahead of the transport strike called over a range of issues, prompting IFTRT to say that it is timed to appease the transporters.

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