We recently had an interesting overloading case in court, which has received quite a bit of press attention. It has highlighted the unfairness for farmers and truck drivers when it comes to interpreting road rules.

In our client’s case, the truck was an overload by dimension width. If you have a heavy vehicle you are allowed a certain amount of allowed width. If you have a load that goes over that width, you are deemed to be overloaded or over-width and that is an offence.

Our client had purchased a NSW Class 3 Baled Commodities Dimension Exemption Notice from the RMS which enabled him to extend the load width from 2.5 metres to 2.7 metres. But, how the law works is that if you are over-width of that extended notice, it defaults back to the allowed width in the first place.

Unfortunately for our client, even though his width was only over his extended width by 2cm, the law deemed that he was over by 22cm. He was then facing a fine of $10,000.

Interestingly the law changed in the meantime, and the allowed dimension increased to 2.83cm. But, our client was still charged under the old laws.

This case highlighted the complexity of the road regulations, which are essentially in place to ensure road safety and save lives. There are difficulties with determining where responsibility lies with many offences. The rules also change regularly. People in the transport industry are expected to interpret and keep up to date with these rules, while making a living.

Fortunately in our client’s case, the magistrate took into account our client’s good driving record, the efforts he had taken to do the right thing (an ‘Overload’ sign displayed, warning lights, and flags on either side of his truck) and that fact that in reality the breach concerned 2cm. The magistrate dismissed the charge.

To read more about this case, see the ABC’s article on our client’s story.