East African Business Week

KAMPALA, UGANDA - East African Community (EAC) with support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is in the process of harmonizing the regional vehicle overload control laws and regulations.
Speaking at a stakeholders' workshop to deliberate on the harmonization of the laws and regulations governing vehicle weight limits in the region held in Nairobi, Kenya, Dr. Richard Sezibera, the EAC Secretary General said that the current set up 'penalizes producers, consumers and the industry as a whole, further increasing the cost of doing business.
"If we can ensure efficiencies  in the transport  sector  we shall  be able, literally overnight, to reduce costs  of doing  business  and conducting  trade  in our region by  over 50%. This would be a big boost to the competitiveness of the East African Common Market," he asserted.
The workshop, the second of three such workshops was held to review the Interim Report of the JICA/EAC Study on the Harmonization of Vehicle Overload Control Laws and Regulations.
 "What does a transporter forced to conform to the two [different] axle weight loading requirements do with the excess tonnage on crossing borders? Unload? Hire more trucks?" the EAC chief executive wondered. "In any case the increased cost and inefficiency is passed on to the customer," he added.
"We have little option but to discard the existing system and harmonize the axle load requirements," he declared.
Dr. Sezibera noted that harmonization of the axle load control measures also provides the bonus of East African  roads being kept at a high standard  through the avoidance of overloading of infrastructure. He said that a conservative estimate is that each one-hour reduction in such crossing time would bring $7 million per year in benefits to the EAC region.
The current practice of different axle load and gross vehicle mass (weight) limits among the Partner States is one of the major factors impeding efficient transport within the region.
The application of different procedures and basis on axle load control has also been raised as a major challenge at past EAC Ministerial Council Meetings and EAC Secretariat has been mandated by Council to fast track this study to empower it to consider the matter comprehensively.
Against this background, the EAC approached JICA to assist in developing a harmonized framework for axle load and gross vehicle mass limits in the region. This Study was launched in December 2010 to propose the harmonization of regional axle load and overload control region.
With the support of JICA, the study is being executed by a team of consultants led by a Japanese firm PADECO. The study is a sub component of the Transport component of the East Africa Trade and Transport Facilitation Project (EATTFP). At the moment, weight limits vary between 48 and 56 tons and such disparities contribute to delays experienced by good vehicles, especially at weighbridges.
A key outcome expected from the workshops is that a harmonized legal framework will be agreed among the Partner States by August 2011.
The workshop reviewed the existing charges, fees, fines and the proposed strategy for harmonized charging; discuss axle load and gross vehicle limits and accommodation of vehicle technology development; weighbridges and their operations and management; and formulation of a proposed EAC regional legal instrument.
EAC publicist Richard Owora told East African Business Week that cross-border transport is 3-5 times more expensive in Africa than in Asia and Latin America.
He added that for example, truck transport from Mombasa to Kampala over a distance of 1,100 km takes 5 days, of which 19 hours are spent crossing borders and weighbridges.
The EAC Tripartite Agreement on Road Transport signed by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in 1998 and later acceded to by Rwanda and Burundi set the stage for application of axle load controls and other harmonized operations to apply across the entire East African road network, from the Kenyan and Tanzanian ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam respectively to the hinterlands of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi and on to South Sudan, Ethiopia, DRC, and southern Africa.