Transit time along the central corridor in Tanzania has been reduced thanks to a new directive that allows transporters to save up to 78% of weighbridge stoppage times.
Tanzanian President John Magufuli introduced the directive in April 2016 to permit transit trucks to stop at only 3 instead of maximum of 8 weighbridges.
Weighbridges are machines for weighing vehicles to calculate the load carried by the vehicles in order to curb overloading and protect the roads from destruction.
According to a recent analysis by the Central Corridor Transit Transportation Facilitation Agency (TTFA) drivers now spend only 48 minutes on average at weighbridges in Tanzania instead of nearly 4 hours before the new directive.
For transit trucks or buses to be able to stop only at 3 weighbridges, they need to obtain special stickers designed by Tanzania’s Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications at USD40 each, which is paid once.
Tanzania Central Corridor Weighbridges
The Central Corridor is a collection of transport routes (rail, road and lakes) that connect Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda from the Port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Weighbridges installed along the Central Corridor in Tanzania include Vigwaza (Coast Region), Njuki (Singida), Nyakahura (Shinyanga), Mikese (Morogoro), Kihonda (Morogoro), Nala (Dodoma), Mwendakulima (Shinyanga), Kyamyolwa (Kagera) and Mutukula (Kagera).
According to TTFA’s 2015 Annual Report, average crossing time at these weighbridges is 8, 35, 34, 51, 16, 31, 19, 13 and 15 minutes respectively.
Magufuli’s new directive allows transit trucks and buses to only weigh at Vigwaza, Njuki and Nyakahura.
