One year ago, Ghana began implementing regional rules that limit how much trucks can weigh when using the country’s roads. There was almost immediate chaos and the main port was paralyzed – more than 800 trucks were stuck. 

“Drivers were not prepared to leave because they knew they were overloaded,” recalled Fred Peseo of the Ghana Highways Authority. “There was serious congestion at the port to the extent that ships were not even able to dock.” 

The trucks’ weight was not the only problem, he said.

“The port weighbridges were not in working condition and we had to get mobile weighbridges to assist,” Peseo said. “The customs service did not have a way to deal with excess cargo that should have been unloaded (to abide by the rules). They did not have a protocol for issuing a second transit document on that cargo.”

Niger had similar chaos at its borders when it implemented the rules months earlier, in January 2009. Hundreds of trucks were stuck at the Burkina Faso-Niger border and prices on basic goods like rice increased.

But maintaining the rules has fueled a significant decline in the number of overloaded trucks on Niger’s roads: In 2008, 77% of trucks were overloaded; a year later, the proportion was 21%.

Lessons from Ghana

With the new rules on axleweight set to go into effect across the region on July 1, Ghana’s experience is useful. The country’s quick action to address the problems that arose can help other countries avoid similar difficulties. 

“Clearly, it was not pleasant for Ghana for the first few months,” said Trade Hub Transport Advisor Andy Cook. “But the way the authorities handled the problems is highly commendable and now there are some best practices that can be used to help other countries implement the rules successfully.”

Everyone agrees that getting overloaded trucks off the roads is important: Heavy trucks do not just accelerate the destruction of the road surface, they cause accidents and the roads they degrade send many trucks to the junkyard at an early age.

The stakes are high: Bad roads make moving goods more expensive. Reducing road transport costs 10% leads to a 20% increase in trade, according to the World Bank. The Trade Hub’s recently released study of costs along the Tema-Ouagadougou corridor offers more than two dozen recommendations to policy makers and the private sector for reducing costs.

But reducing the number of overloaded trucks on West Africa’s roads is hard, too, because trucking companies are paid per ton they carry. That creates  a powerful incentive to overload trucks, particularly to many small and informal trucking companies.  At the same time, there is pressure from cargo owners and clearing agents – they want their cargo to go on a minimum number of trucks.

“Reduced weight means reduced revenue for truck drivers,” said Abraham Ocloo of the Ghana Shippers Authority. “Ghana is losing trucking business because of the new rules. We have virtually no trucks today carrying goods to Mali and trucking to Burkina Faso and Niger has declined, too.”

Other factors may explain the decline, though, experts cautioned. More research is necessary to clarify the impact of the axleweight rules.

The trucks have apparently migrated to ports that do not enforce the rules. The answer, he said, is regional implementation of the axleweight rules. That’s what will happen on July 1.

Nine West African countries are implementing the rules in two phases according to a roadmap they agreed upon at a meeting in March. The first phase begins July 1 and sets somewhat generous limits on axleweights. The second phase begins Jan. 1, 2011, and requires countries to fully implement the rules. See graphic.

Ghana’s difficult experience last year is helpful now as countries install weighbridges and enforce the rules. Togo began weighing trucks in September 2009 at its port and Niger actually began first, in January 2009.

What Ghana did

Ghana dealt with problems in a variety of ways. First, it fined drivers and then sent them on their way. Then, it relaxed the axleweight limits (it will, however, have to strictly enforce the rules on Jan. 1, 2011, as called for in the roadmap). But its best move was setting up a focal group involving Burkina Faso representatives to deal with the problems of enforcing the rules as they arose.

“Before the focal group, there was a blame game and some people seemed to think that the answer was to simply bring the port to a standstill until the authorities backed down on implementing this rule,” said Yaya Yedan of the Burkina Shippers Council and a member of the group. “It was imperative to find neutral parties who could talk to agents, drivers, truck owners, who understood their concerns and liaise to the authorities.”

“Once issues come up, we’re on the ground, especially at the port,” said Peseo, who is a member of the group. “We deal with the issue, educate drivers, take measures. Whenever there’s a difficulty, the committee can take action to resolve it.”

The Ghanaian focal group has a troubleshooting and facilitation role, rather than merely the monitoring and reporting role specified for the focal points in the road map.  In particular, it aims to help two key agencies – the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) and the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) – commu¬nicate with each other, truckers and other involved organisations to solve problems.

The focal group comprises senior officers from GHA and GPHA, as well as from the National Security Council (NSC), and the Conseil Burkinabè des Chargeurs (CBC).   This small unit operates flexibly and informally, meeting to solve problems as they arise, as well as planning remedial activities and brainstorming on challenges, keeping minutes of its activities and decisions.

“It may help to think of it as a rapid-response unit or even, in some cases, as a crisis-management unit,” Cook said. “It does a good job of bringing together organisations that do not otherwise have strong formal relations.”

Other insights from Ghana’s experience include:

• Installing weighbridges. Ghana currently has 14 permanent weighbridges on its roads with plans to increase the number to 26. The harbour authority has four at the port.
• Identifying a weighbridge to measure a truck’s weight and axleweight when it’s empty – the tare weight – is critical.
• Training of weighbridge operators. It was critical to properly train the staff, committee members said. Weigh stations were not new in Ghana but their systematic use to limit degradation of the country’s roads was.  Initially, GHA and GPHA staff operated their weighbridges.  Before initial weighbridge operations started, the focal group ensured that all partners were aware of why weighing was important and how these operations would work. Training is critical to help opera¬tors deal disputes about a truck’s weight that could easily become contentious.
• Raising awareness. Ghana paid for ads and printed a variety of materials to raise awareness about the new rules.
• Tackling corruption. In practice, the operators of the weighbridges and the truck drivers are corruptible.  When a truck arrives overloaded at a weighbridge, the operators may take a bribe not to weigh the truck or to discard data about the weighed vehicle, thus leaving the driver free to continue but without proof that he passed through that weighbridge.  If challenged for being overweight at a later weighbridge, the driver will be in limbo and the operator at the earlier weigh¬bridge will insist that the driver must have found a route that bypassed his weigh¬bridge to reach the later one. The committee has checked weights when disputes have arisen to weed out corruption and has sacked weighbridge staff when corrupt practices were revealed.

The Trade Hub is preparing a report on Ghana’s experience to help other countries understand better how it resolved problems.

“The only challenge we have now is the fact that we will have to strictly enforce the UEMOA rules at the end of December,” Peseo said. “We will have some challenges to deal with that.”

But he was optimistic that the industry would find solutions.

“We are organizing some studies to look at economic costs and financial costs to transporters to find a way out,” Peseo said. “Gradually, everyone is beginning to understand that this is the way the country is going and they are abiding by the rules.”