Overload Control Centre bypass detection system

Road transport is a significant economic necessity for freight movement in developing countries. The freight industry has a low profit margin resulting in overloading. As overloaded vehicles cause significant damage to road surfaces, Overload Control Centres (OCCs) are installed on freight corridors to identify and prosecute overloaded vehicles. Unfortunately some vehicles may bypass the OCC on purpose, accidentally or due to law enforcement errors. When an overloaded vehicle bypasses on purpose, severe damage is caused to the road surface. This paper aims to quantify the damage caused in terms of additional maintenance cost due to road wear and proposes a bypass detection system for OCCs. A cost-benefit analysis has shown that the proposed system must detect less than 100 vehicles bypassing in a year to have a positive internal rate of return for implementation.