State «blitzkrieg» in the «dimension and weight war»

The new, more powerful and seems to be decisive round of the struggle of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine (MIU) for weight control on the roads of the country, especially in the direction of the sea ports, – was the main transport trend of the second part of this summer. And it is no surprise that, the absolute «leader» from the beginning of the struggle, in the number of fines imposed for «overweight» was Odessa region, where the largest ports of Ukraine are situated, including the most deep-water harbor on the Black Sea.

The attempts (much more timid than the current one) to limit the weight of the cargo transported on the roads in the seaports were made by the authorities in the past, but were ignored by the offenders, i.e. truck drivers (read – shippers). And sometimes – were even «suppressed» by them: an attempt to set a weight complex in Nikolaev region a few months ago ended up when the complex was removed from the road by protesting drivers.

The team of the current Minister of Infrastructure Vladimir Omelyan got down to this business rather strongly. Only in May, the new head of the Ministry announced his intention to begin a brutal fight with vehicles overweight, which destroys the road surface and ruins Ukrainian roads.

In the mid-summer, the Ministry sent to the sector enterprises the commission of the deputy minister of infrastructure Yuri Lavrenyuk about the travel ban for vehicles, weight parameters of which exceed the standards, to the territory of the state port operators, and also about progress monitoring of appropriate control by private port terminals located outside the perimeter of the controlled territory of the seaports.

«The first shot» was Odessa. In July this year, Port Authority reconciled with State Service of Ukraine for Transport Safety (SSUTS) the procedure for cooperation on dimension and weight control of loaded vehicles – in the framework of the program, initiated by Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine of measures aimed at fight against the destruction of public roads. The specialists of «SSUTS» learned the routes of the trucks movement at the entrances and exits from the port, and two stationary weight complexes were made at the port itself, after which there were defined the places, for additional equipment to be installed.

Soon, the press service of the Port Authority reported that, compared with July 2015, the average weight of a motor vehicle in the «export» mode decreased by 33%. The number of trucks in violation of the dimensions and weights decreased from 21% to 6% of the total. This has been achieved thanks to the documentary and logistics control, and automate analysis of the dimensions and weights, completely excluding the human factor.

At the end of the month to the officially taken measures joined the Port Yuzhny. At a special meeting with representatives of the «SSUTS» and stevedoring companies the head of the Port Authority Maxim Shirokov emphasized the necessity of unconditional execution of the deputy’s order. The stevedores also promised to work closely with the State in matters of social responsibility and the implementation of norms and rules of freight traffic, said the press-service of the Port Yuzhny.

In the course of the teleconference, taking place a few days after, led by Deputy Chairman of the Administration of the Ukrainian seaports concerning logistics Vyacheslav Voronoy, the representatives of all seaports declared the permanent control and close cooperation of administrations, operators and entities of «State Service of Ukraine for Transport Safety» in the issue of observance of weight standards. It was noted that all of the cars with the «overweight», pointed in the bill of lading, documented or on the weight complexes are not allowed into the territory of the port. If any of such things happens «SSUTS» staff is immediately informed, and trucks themselves are sent to the disbanding of the cargo.

The representative of the Association of International Road Carriers Dmitry Sergienko stressed that the responsible carries are also interested in the observance of weight standards, as overweight vehicles leads directly to troubles with the cars. He also suggested the issue of mutual responsibility for «overweight» on the part of carriers and shippers to be considered.

Soon, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Yuriy Lavrenyuk informed of the purchasing decision of more than 70 additional dimensions and weight complexes. In a media interview, he noted that for the cropping period all the available facilities are concentrated in the south – in Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson, Zaporizhzhya and Donetsk regions. The deputy minister stressed that not all private port operators were receptive to the measures taken by the State. «For such, we will furnish all entrances to them by dimension and weight complexes», – he said.

What’s interesting is that sometimes the people themselves took up this matter. Thus, according to the «Centrе of transport strategies», the inhabitants of the village Noviy Bug in the Nikolaev region blocked the road and the six cars which had completed the destruction of t
he road in Noviy Bug. The carrier had to fulfill the requirements of the protesters, send new autos and bring the weight of the cargo to the nominally permissible.

According to the data of the Ministry of Infrastructure press service, from the beginning of 2016, as at August 11 on the dimension and weight check points there was set more than 1.2 million UAH of fines. The absolute leader in this issue was Odessa region, which accumulated 204 thousand «fine» hryvnias. In total, in the country there are 24 dimension and weight complexes in 20 regions of the country.

Serhiy Lyalikov, «Shipping»