Jakarta – The Transportation Ministry will punish drivers of overloaded and oversized freight trucks, which are believed responsible for premature damage to roads.
The ministry's land transportation director general, Budi Setiyadi, said in Jakarta on Friday that many Asian countries such as India, Vietnam and Thailand had managed to stop the problem of overloaded trucks, which caused premature damage to roads. "The drivers have felt too comfortable with such practices," said Budi.
Under Law No. 22/2009 on traffic and road transportation, the drivers of the oversized and overloaded trucks may be sentenced to two months in prison and be required to pay fines up to Rp 500,000 (US$34.76). However, a lack of law enforcement caused the problem of overloaded trucks to remain rampant.
Citing data from the Public Works and Housing Ministry, Budi said the government had to spend Rp 43 trillion annually to repair roads prematurely damaged by overloaded and oversized trucks.
Budi said his ministry would soon carry out trial operations of three weighbridges in Balonggandu and Losarang in West Java and in Widang in East Java, and unload goods from overloaded trucks, starting on Aug. 1.
The ministry would prepared temporary storage for the unloaded goods and would expand the weighbridge operation to other regions.
Budi said the ministry had disseminated law enforcement to related stakeholders, like the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda), as well as distributed brochures to truck drivers. (sau/bbn)