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Members of the Tema-Accra Union of Tipper Drivers Association have urged Government to set comprehensive and requisite standards, to guide the importation of heavy duty trucks into the country to protect its roads from damage by overweight vehicles. They contend that the current axle weigh regime that debars tipper trucks from exceeding a maximum payload of 27,000 kilogrammes, was biased towards private trucks, whereas state-owned trucks flagrantly flout that government directive without being sanctioned by the authorities for such violations. They held that it was unfair for the authorities to exact penalties on private truck drivers who contravened the Ministry of Roads and highway�s directive when state-owned trucks and recognized companies whose vehicles� tonnage far exceeded the set axel load limits operated without let or hindrance. Mr Alfred Agbemehia, Chairman of the Association who spoke to the Ghana News Agency over the weekend expressed frustration at the happenings, and insisted that there should be a level playing field for stakeholders in the haulage business. �It is our candid opinion that government should come out with a comprehensive standard that all stakeholders must comply with�.This is because, we all use the road, the same pits but when it comes to issues concerning weights, it is only private trucks that become victims�, Agbemehia said. Mr Agbemehia suggested that the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Driver and vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), offered a common position on the matter, enable importers understand the technicalities involved in the importation of trucks into the country. He explained that for the past 10 years, there had been a consistent importation of trucks that weighed over the maximum allowable tonnage for a fully-loaded truck even when empty, and that it was the lack of standardization that had made buyers patronize those kinds of trucks. Mr Agbemehia also discounted the impression that truck drivers were the cause of the deplorable state of roads, insisting that that notion was erroneous, because several roads within the Accra-Tema Metropolis which are not regularly used by trucks, get destroyed soon after construction due to shoddy work by contractors. He said the Union agreed that there was the need to protect the country�s roads from destructive activities, pleading with government to give operators of such trucks a grace period of two years, to enable them face out all overweight trucks that were allowed into the country due to the lack of standardization, in order not to create more unemployment. �We are ready to do anything to preserve our roads, but government should play its cards well and to ensure that its directives are binding on all�. Mr Agbemehia also urged government to sensitize the public, drivers, owners and importers of trucks on the implications of the new directive, to enable them appreciate what government was trying to do to prolong the life-span of roads in the country, and maximize the usage of the Road Fund. He said as part of measures to adhere to the directive, the Union has instructed its members to, with effect from January 1, 2014, observe the load limits, and has also cautioned sand winners and contractors at the various loading points, to comply with the order, adding that offending parties would be severely sanctioned. Tipper trucks were initially permitted tonnages exceeding 30,000 kilogrammes, but this was revised downwards to a maximum payload of 27,000 kilogrammes, to prevent the rapid depreciation of roads and related investments, due to the effect of excessive axel weights heavy duty vehicles. But recently trucks imported into the country that have three axels, have an empty weight of 14,000 kilogrammes, with the cubic capacity of about 29,000 kilogrammes, totaling a gross weight of about 43,000 kilogrammes, a clear 16,000 kilogrammes over the permissible axel payload.