CLARKS TOWN, Trelawny — The management of the Trelawny-based Everglades Farms Limited has summoned its haulage contractors to a meeting tomorrow in an effort to address concerns raised by the National Works Agency (NWA) regarding the overloading of cane trucks.

“During the meeting we will review the current measures in place with a view to eliminating any possibility of overloading of trucks,” Christopher Hylton, the manager of public relations and government affairs at Everglades Farms Limited, told the Observer West yesterday.

He added that among the measures that will be re-enforced during the meeting are:

* the continuous use of a template by Everglades’ farm managers to measure the height of each truck load of cane before leaving the fields;

* the ensuring by the farm manager that each load of cane is properly trimmed to prevent spillage on the public roadways; and

* the insistence that there is “proper strapping down” of cane on the trucks.

The sugar company’s response came after an appeal from the NWA on Tuesday for the police and the management of sugar processing plants to ensure that the haulage trucks comply with their respective load limits.

Stephen Shaw, the NWA’s manager of communication and customer service, said since the start of the 2010/2011 sugar crop, overloaded trucks transporting cane to factories have rendered several signalised intersections along the north coast inoperable.

“These overloaded trucks oftentimes knock out of position signal heads and wires, putting the lives of motorists at risk,” Shaw said.

He added that his agency was particularly concerned with the haulage of cane along the Trelawny to Westmoreland section of the north coast highway, citing damage done in recent days by haulage trucks to the traffic signals at Greenwood, Flanker and the Fairfield intersections.

Yesterday Hylton said that while the issue of overloading has never been brought to his company’s attention before, Everglades Farms is “unreservedly committing itself” to ensuring that the matter is dealt with immediately.

“In fact prior to the start of the 2010/2011 sugar crop, representatives of Everglades Farms Limited and haulage contractors met with senior police officers and the chief traffic examiner in charge of Trelawny, where the issue of overloading formed a large part of the discussions and all parties at the meeting consented to the regulations,” Hylton explained.

Shaw argued that not only is the practice of loading the trucks far beyond their normal height proving costly to the signalised intersections, it also impacts negatively on the drainage systems.

“Sugar cane often becomes loose during transportation to the factories and fall from the trucks. These are then crushed by other vehicles and then end up in waterways, after a shower of rain,” he explained.

And head of the St James Traffic Department Inspector Amos Thompson has warned that operators of overloaded cane trucks will be prosecuted if they fail to comply with loading rules.

The police and motor vehicle examination officers, he said, will be out in their numbers to ensure that offenders face the full brunt of the law.