Axle load limits in Kenya and East Africa, axle by axle.

Which law applies

The East African Community Vehicle Load Control Act, 2016 harmonises axle load rules across the EAC partner states. Section 8(1) requires a transporter operating a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of 3,500 kg or more to present it for weighing at every weighing station on the Regional Trunk Road Network, or at any station a national roads authority designates. Section 8(2) requires the weighing to be done by an authorised officer.

In Kenya the national roads authority is the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), which enforces the limits at its static and virtual weighbridges and through mobile teams under the Kenya Roads Act, the Traffic Act and the EAC Act.

Permissible axle loads (Second Schedule)

• No single axle within a tandem or tridem group may exceed the single-axle limit (Second Schedule, note 3).
• An axle group may have at most three axles (note 4).
• A tolerance of 5% of the permissible axle load is allowed on the axle limits (note 1).
• Liftable axles must have the manufacturer's dead man's switch and drop automatically when the vehicle is loaded (note 2).

Gross vehicle weight (Third Schedule)

The permissible maximum gross vehicle weight is 56 tonnes, on two conditions: the vehicle has no more than seven axles, and the gross weight is further limited by the spacing of the axles under the bridge formula. A seven-axle combination is therefore not automatically entitled to 56 t; its axle spacing must support it.

The 5% tolerance, in kilograms

Kenya's Traffic (Amendment) Rules, 2013 mirror the Act's 5% allowance on axle and axle-group limits to cover cargo shifting in transit. The Shippers Council of Eastern Africa publishes the resulting figures.

The tolerance applies to axle loads. The Shippers Council guidance is that a vehicle overloaded on an axle or group but within the gross limit for its configuration is allowed to redistribute its cargo and be re-weighed without a charge, while a vehicle that cannot bring its axles within tolerance is charged.

What happens to an overloaded vehicle

Section 17 of the Act deals with overloading fees and detention. Under section 17(6) an overloaded vehicle is detained without charge by the national roads authority for the period set in the regional operating regulations, after which a daily parking fee applies until proof of payment is produced. Section 17(7) keeps the detained vehicle under the transporter's responsibility, and section 17(5) makes it the driver's duty to notify the owner of the overload and the fees.

Vehicle dimensions (Fourth Schedule)

What this means at your own weighbridge

A truck that is legal on gross can still be illegal on an axle. A full-length weighbridge gives you the gross; it cannot tell you whether the tandem at the back is carrying 18 t or 21 t. Sites that load trucks, whether a quarry, a cement depot, a mill or a container yard, are the last place an overload can be fixed cheaply, by moving cargo rather than paying fees at a KeNHA station.

An axle weighbridge, or a full-length bridge with axle-group weighing, lets the software check each group and the gross against the vehicle's configuration before the ticket prints. KiloSahihi carries the EAC configurations and limits, confirms with position sensors that the group is fully on the deck, and flags an overload on screen and on the ticket.