Kumasi, March 22, GNA -Dr Richard Anane, the Minister of Road Transport, has advised haulage transport owners not to let huge profit margins lure them into conveying goods beyond the 10-tonne axle load permissible.

He said such practices constitute a major factor to shortening of the life span of roads and the collapse of most bridges.

Dr Anane said this when he addressed the inaugural ceremony of the Ghana Haulage Transport Owners Association (GHATOA) in Kumasi on Sunday. He said statistics from the Asuoyeboa weighbridge station in Kumasi indicated that out of the 486 trucks weighed in 2003, 20 per cent of them were found to be over-loaded.

At the Ofankor weigh station, 18 per cent out of trucks that were weighed in 2002 were overloaded.

Dr Anane commended haulage transport owners for initiating the move to form the association and advised them to use it as a platform for devising strategies to complement efforts of the government at ensuring sanity in the transport industry.