Police announcing that officers will have the discretion to ticket truck drivers for breaking the speed limit by 1km/h has drawn ire from a Timaru transport operator and the chief transport industry body.
Hilton Haulage chief executive Scott Crampton told the Timaru Herald that while the firm’s trucks were speed limited to 90km/h, and that the company could monitor the road speed of each truck by GPS, he says that drivers will have to hope that Police officers use their discretion in a reasonable way.
“If they want to ticket truck drivers travelling 1km/h over the limit, they won’t do a lot of work,” Crampton commented to the Timaru Herald.
The Road Transport Forum (RTF) has been supportive of the 4km/h speed limit tolerance previously imposed by road transport police but says a 1km/h speed limit tolerance is foolish.
Shirley told the Timaru Herald that he held the same view as Crampton and that he is also concerned about the accuracy of speedometers and says they were often inaccurate.
If the speed limit for light vehicles was pushed up to 110km/h, the RTF might request the heavy vehicle speed limit be elevated to 100km/h but Shirley says the current 90kmh was the optimum speed for trucks.
