The Department of Highways (DOH) is set to open its first one-stop service (OSS) centre for registering heavy lorries to drive on public roads by November, in a bid to reduce unnecessary damage to roads and overhead bridges.
Department chief Thanin Somboon said yesterday the centre, located on the first floor of the DOH's parking building on Rama VI Road and across from the DOH headquarters, is currently undergoing final testing of the new system.
According to him, the system, which involves a database and route maps for lorry drivers and business owners to examine their possible routes, cost about two million baht to develop and install.
"These lorries have special conditions on account of their weight and what they are carrying, so they need to be registered in order to run on roads legally," Mr Thanin said.
"Roads will not crack immediately after heavy lorries drive on them. However, after being worn down by these lorries and other vehicles, they can wear down long before their planned life expectancy."
Registration with the DOH is a required procedure for heavy lorries as a measure to prevent instances where lorries are suddenly not allowed to pass for exceeding the weight limit or for being too tall to pass through bridges.
The department specifies maximum tonnage for lorries of all sizes. For instance, four-wheeled lorries with two axles cannot carry more than 9.5 tonnes, while 20-wheelers with six axles cannot exceed 50.5 tonnes.
However, according to the department, only around 10 new lorries were officially registered with the DOH last year.
That number has jumped to around 130 lorries in the first half of this year, Mr Thanin said.
Prabpol Loveera, director of the DOH's Office of Traffic Weight Control, said lorry drivers and business-owners have not been registering because the previous process was too tedious and complicated.
"As per the requirements, each vehicle must receive a signature from a certified engineer indicating it has adequate weight distribution of its cargo," he said. "At present, companies essentially have to go out and find their own engineers, or at least get a firm's name from the DOH.
"With the new OSS network, registration, including the signature of the engineers, will be found within one process, which will encourage more companies to register."
The Transport Ministry announced in November last year the registration period for heavy lorries will be reduced from 61 days to 15 days, from the point of filing a request to approval.
Meanwhile, Mr Thanin said the DOH is working on an amendment to lorry-related penalties which would see more fines directed at the individual firms involved in violations, as opposed to fining only drivers.
