Weighbridges for trucks

[frenchian]

We've bumped into a Swiss family heading south who have told us about weighbridges in Zambia and Tanzania "for all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes".
As they're driving a car they don't know the details - can anyone confirm if non-commercial vehicles such as camper trucks have to stop and be weighed - if so is it at every one (apparently there are a lot in Tanzania and big queues), or just at the "first"?
Any other countries in East Africa with similar requirements?

Thanks,

Ian

[wwwutz]

Hi Ian

Don’t distress yourself too much, on approx 50.000 Km allover Africa (2003 -2006) in a 12ton truck we have never been weighted! Slow down, pass the queue, get eye contact to the “officer” (if there) and after they had noticed (sooner or later) your vehicle as a tourist one they typically wave you through. Finally you don’t have a commercial car, so even if they pull you over (never done with us) this should have no consequences.

Keep in Mind: none of the “road officials” in Africa is used to a camper truck, so sometimes you have to bring some kind of evidence…e.g. a typical conversation on nearly every Sudanese toll booth:

Officer: “Good morning, sir! How many peoples?”
Tourist: “Good morning, officer, just we two.”
Officer: “How many in the back?”
Tourist: “None.”
Officer: “None?! How many cows?”
Tourist: “None.”

Officer: “None?! How many goods?”
Tourist: “No goods.”
Officer: “What’s in there?”
Tourist: “Just a kitchen, it’s our house, we live in this car!”
Officer: “????”
Later, after opening the rear door and when the excitement about the “car with a sink” had calmed down, they let you go, usually paying just the car fee (if you are lucky).

Enjoy your time in Africa
Jörn

Ps: take it slow, there are lots of speed traps in TZ! ;-)

[mgd06]

Hi Ian

the following was our experience two years ago (2010) in Tanzania with a 12ton camper truck.
We knew from a website from a german couple that they got problems at a weighbridge for failing to weigh their truck. So we decided not to take any risk and rather take the time in the queue to get weighed. After we went through a few of these without any issues, we still deliberately missed the one in Igunga west of Singida on the way to Rwanda. It didn't take long until a pick-up overtook and forced us to stop and return to the weighbridge. There the officers demanded to pay the US$ 2000 fine, which was clearly advertised on the boards at the site for failing to get weighed. It needed a lot of time and good arguments (no money though!) to get the officers to let us go without paying the fine.
My advice is clear: take your time and get weighed, it may save you some hassles.
And before I forget: As far as I remember, Tanzania was the only country, Cape to Cairo, where wheighbridges were an issue.

Cheers
Thomas

[frenchian]

Thanks for the information, it seems like the best plan would be to join the queue then while waiting ask the "officer in charge" if they really need to weigh the truck as it's not "commercial".
Out of interest, were the queues very long? (we've heard that they LOOK as if they will take a very long time in places)

Ian

[mgd06]

Ian,

If memory doesn't fail me, I'd say average waiting time was probably half an hour. It may look worse, because the queuing is quite caotic. Asking the officers straight away is a good idea, but I would do that before joining the queue, because you might find it difficult to escape once your jammed in...

Cheers
Thomas

[roamingyak]

Dutch friends in Mozambique with an 11 tonne DAF had problems - mainly language problems trying to explain their case and ended up paying about $250 altogether. They were very good travellers who came down the west coast and were good at arguing etc. River crossings are the hardest as you can't just drive through and speed off!

Use google translate to learn words like 'tourist' and 'not commercial' and 'private vehicle' in each language such as Arabic, Portuguese etc

Quite a few trucks had "Private Vehicle' painted across the front of them....