The Truckers Association of Kenya is a SACCO-based organization which was formed to bring sanity to the trucking community.
Its members include 360 SACCOs that operate thousands of trucks and trailers within Kenya.
We spoke to Secretary-General Karisa on their journey to ensure safe trucking and axle limits.
Tell Us about your organization and why it is so important in enforcing the axle-load schedule.
The association is a perfect example of self-regulation done right and our success in helping truck companies abide by the law is simply a result of us working together to achieve the same goal which is doing business in a regulated environment.
What do you think is the source of this overloading menace?
Overloading stems from a variety of factors. One is competition for customers. The truck with the most load gets the most clients. All this is made possible by brokers and middlemen who unfairly pick overloaded trucks for business. However, in the TAK, we eliminate the middlemen by providing a regulated playfield that has effectively weeded out middlemen.
How does TAK liaise with government agencies to ensure compliance with directives?
Our key policymakers include the Kenya National Highways Authority, National Transport Safety Association and the Police. We work with several others to be able to sensitize our members on regulatory changes, and most importantly compliance with axle load requirements.
How does TAK go about educating its members on axle load requirements?
We are a bit different from the Kenya National Highways Authority in terms of enforcement, not that we dont like their style, but because we like to do it our own way. Our sensitization meetings are done from the point where a truck owner buys a truck, up to when the lorries are being loaded. And we dont walk alone. We tag along police officers and NTSA officials so that we can talk to you about the importance of this.
The first rule of joining the association is to pledge to uphold the axle load requirement. The second is adherence to traffic rules. And number 3 is discipline. We have a way to deal with this.
For example, if a member calls me and tells me he has overloaded by 10 tonnes, what is that. Pay the fine and… infact we will talk to the SACCO and organize for you to be penalized.
We do not want our members embarrassing us because we have an image to maintain.
Is there an instance where a member has been expelled from the association?
There was a SACCO that operated along the Thika Garissa highway that wanted to join the Sacco. these were basically sand traders who were transporting building materials that were excavated from Ukambani areas.
When we finally had them onboard, the SACCO had several run-ins with the Axle load unit. We finally said enough and expelled these members from TAK. I can assure you they did not have it easy outside our umbrella because we have a lot of programmes to aid our members in doing their businesses.
How do you advise members of the public on matters of overloading and their effects?
Bad roads increase in maintanance costs of the truck. There is nothing that we are doing known as cutting costs when you have the bad infrastructure. And this is caused by overloading. In fact overloading should be classified as a safety issue. Let us mind our roads.
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