In a move that may bring huge relief to truck vehicles, the road transport ministry has proposed an exemption on vehicles carrying excess load up to 5% of the gross weight without having to pay heavy fines.

The Road Transport Ministry has proposed to provide relief to truckers with a new proposal that exempts vehicles carrying excess load up to 5% from heavy fines. The ministry issued a draft notification on Friday for amending a section of the NH Fee Rules post a series of discussions with one of the key bodies for truckers, AIMTC. The fine was approximately ten times of the toll charge for a particular vehicle category and this was a major issue raised by truckers in the course of a meeting with ministry officials. These meetings were part of the negotiation framework for ending the AIMTC strike.

Gross vehicle weight is the entire vehicle weight and the certified load registered by the authority under the Motor Vehicle Act. The gross vehicle weight of a 407 truck is 6.2 tonnes and the longest trailer allowed in the country has a gross vehicle weight of 49 tonnes. According to experts, though this 5% exemption in overloading will definitely bring down overall harassment for truckers, the government should make sure that there is no increase in this limit. Zero tolerance is the way forward for any violations of this norm. The government should also implement the order issued by the Supreme Court that every vehicle or truck is liable to offload extra weight at their own risk. It should not turn into a situation where they pay a fine and keep operating.

This exemption has been proposed considering that several big cargos cannot be reduced or cut down. Truckers should now ensure that rules are followed and should be ready to face action if they load more than the weight that is allowed according to officials at the road transport ministry. Compliance of overloading leads to deterioration of overall road conditions and increases crash related risks.