A Perspective of Overweight Truck Problems in Saudi Arabia

A.K. Azad, H.I. Al-Abdul Wahhab and S. Parvez

First Gulf Conference on Roads - Kuwait 11 -13 March 2002

Abstract

In a survey of commercial vehicles in Saudi Arabia, the overweight problem has been examined to check the severity of the problem and the effectiveness of the weight control exercised through the wayside weighing stations which are installed at various traffic corridors. Data over one million trucks covering samples from the database of 1413-1416H were collected randomly and then analyzed to record axle weights and the gross weights.

It has been observed that over 40% of the common classes of four-axle and five-axle trucks are overweight, the amount of overweight varying from a small percentage to as high as over 80%. However, on a positive note, the revelation that a high percentage of the violations exceed the legal load limit by only about 5 to 15% signals the beneficial impact of the weighing policy. The study, however, reveals that despite the regulatory control, the overweight problem still exists at an uncomfortable level. The problem is further compounded by the tendency of the truck operators to seek various manipulative ways to avoid weighing and penalty. The magnitude of these undesirable practices which have severe damaging impact on roads and bridges is not fully known.