By William Isau
SIBU,bOct 9: The Federation of Sarawak Lorry Associations deeply regrets that its appeal to the authority concerned to raise the laden weight (BDM) of their lorries continues to be rejected.
Speaking at a press conference today, its president Ling Kah Kiong said as a result of this, about 90 per cent of lorries with high load capacity are not allowed to travel on town roads.
He said while the Road Transport Department (JPJ) approve their vehicle licence according to their lorry’s BDM, the Public Works Department (JKR) was against increasing the allowed laden weight of the lorries on the road.
“For the past 30 years we have been asking for the increase in BDM but the reply from JKR is always the same. They told us that they could not do so as roads in Sarawak are still under List 2 of Weight Restriction Order (WRO) that only allows a maximum load capacity of 38 tonnes,” he said.
Thus the 90 per cent of lorries above 38 tonnes are barred from town roads.
“If we carry full loads, we are disallowed from traveling on town roads as they (JKR) said we will damage the road. We can’t survive if it continues like this,” he said.
“We know that road maintenance cost is very high but why not just allow the 90 per cent of the lorries to operate on town roads,” he said. — DayakDaily
