The use of mobile weigh stations to combat overloaded transport trucks will be extended next month to factories, warehouses, quarries, construction sites and other sources of heavy shipments, the Transport Ministry has announced.
“The Ministry of Public Works and Transport hopes that transport company owners, heavy truck owners and drivers and members of the public will cooperate to implement the law properly, transparently, loyally and responsibly,” it said in a statement on Friday.
The new initiative will begin on August 1, the ministry said, also asking drivers to report any inspectors demanding bribes.
Spokesman Var Sim Sorya said the ministry decided to expand the use of mobile weigh stations to prevent overloaded trucks from evading inspections. “Some trucks were avoiding our weigh stations” at fixed locations, he said.
Overloaded trucks have recently been ripping up the country’s roads and bridges, including a truck hauling first-grade timber causing $50,000 in damage to an iron bridge in Kampot province last month.
Efforts to police excessive loads, however, have met active resistance from truckers, with more than 80 drivers blocking a highway in Stung Treng province in March to protest fines for overloading their vehicles with cassava crops.
