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Govt. needs to enforce weight, speed restrictions on trucks – AFC
– Roads suffer excessive damage, sinking and potholes
The Alliance For Change (AFC) is calling for the enforcement of weight and speed restrictions on trucks, since the present batch of 20 and 25-tonne trucks were designed for the highways of North America and Europe, not Guyana.
This notion was expressed by AFC Executive Member Gerhard Ramsaroop at the party’s weekly press conference at Fourth Street, Campbellville headquarters on Wednesday.
He said while some of these heavy duty trucks may be a sign of progress, which shows progress that is exemplified in Guyana by the rich getting richer; there are a number of other significant negatives.
The East Bank Highway is used by most heavy duty trucks.
Adding that the AFC has noted with concern the marked increase in three and four-axle trucks in recent years on Guyana’s roads, Ramsaroop said such trucks on the roadways were not meant in any way, shape or form for the country’s road systems, both in terms of weight and speed.
He explained the problems with such trucks are made worse by overloading and “hard” driving, especially by inexperienced drivers. “This leads to much greater than normal damage to our roads, and can be seen particularly on the East Bank Highway. The northbound (to Georgetown) lane suffers severely from excessive damage, both in terms of sinking and potholes.”
Noting that the larger trucks have also forced most of the smaller 7-tonne trucks, out of business, with very few from just ten years ago still working today, Ramsaroop said drivers of 10 and 12-tonne two-axle trucks in an effort to compete, overload severely.
“This leads to premature failure of among other things, engines, gearboxes, axles, springs, brakes and tyres. These are all imported, leading to unnecessary foreign exchange expenditure which slows economic growth. Making this worse is that these drivers generally undercharge in relation to the damage their trucks suffer.
“We call for separate speed limits for trucks as well, which is normal in many other countries in the world with roads similar to ours. Trucks being allowed to drive at 80 kph on our regular roads are but a disaster in the making. Given the present unabated vehicular carnage, and the continued exodus of our people, this is something we can ill afford as a young nation needing all hands on deck,” Ramsaroop asserted.
He said another significant positive from these seemingly simple measures, is that small truckers will be able to compete once more as the speeds and weights of the larger trucks are restricted.
Ramsaroop said an AFC government would implement policies to promote articulated/semi-trailer trucks. Traditionally, rigid chassis trucks have been preferred to articulated trucks because of their better performance in bad conditions.
He said that recent innovations such as sliding bogie trailers and various anti-jack-knifing technologies, along with lift axles and differential locks have however, improved their performance substantially.
Ramsaroop explained that the articulated vehicles allow for a lower amount of trips with better fuel consumption – loads can be up to 50% more using the same amount of fuel as a rigid, better weight distribution – hence less damage to roads and lower tyre replacement costs, greater manoeuvrability, increased reliability – if a tractor breaks down, another can come and replace it, and lower costs to a comparable fleet of rigids – one tractor can pull a variety of trailers.
He underscored that, if articulated trucks are used wherever they have advantages over rigid chassis trucks, it can add significantly to economic growth with a lower environmental impact, and resulting in less traffic at the same time. It can also lead to the establishment of a meaningful trailer industry in Guyana.
“This embodies the AFC’s approach to development in Guyana; development that will see all our people progress, and not just the rich and connected.”
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