QUARRY operators in Bull Bay, St Andrew, and sections of St Thomas say they have downsized their businesses and laid off scores of workers because truckers are staying away from the eastern corridor to avoid fines and seizure of their vehicles since the weight-enforcement station in Harbour View opened last November.

Truck drivers are, instead, opting to purchase aggregate from quarries elsewhere in the island where there is no similar enforcement of the weight limit.

The quarry operators say the non-enforcement of the weight limits in other parts of Jamaica presents an unfair advantage to their competitors.

“All of the quarries here are affected, because we can’t do any business since the trucks are going to other places where they can carry whatever amount they want to,” said Kenneth Walker, operator of Walker’s Block Factory.

A group of quarry operators have since signed a petition requesting that the transport minister intervenes before their businesses go under.

Walker, who took over the business from another operator two years ago, said he laid off 18 workers and retained 10 on a rotation schedule of two to three days per week.

A frustrated Walker said he is now doing at least three-quarters less business than he did prior to the opening of the weight station.

“If I used to get like 10 trucks a day, now I am down to two; so it’s like an 80 per cent decrease,” he said.

While Walker and his colleagues are not opposing the weight limit, they say it must not be restricted to Eastern Jamaica alone.

“If they are enforcing the weight limit they should enforce it all over the entire island, because by doing this they have crippled the East,” Walker told the Jamaica Observer.

The permanent weight station, the only one of its kind in Jamaica, is manned by a team of motor vehicle inspectors and police. At the facility, which operates on both scheduled and random hours, trucks and trailers are stopped, screened, weighed, and inspected in order to ensure compliance with weight laws.

Operator of Shaw’s Quarry in Bull Bay, Courtney Shaw, said he has had to begin selling some of his equipment to keep his business open, given the significant decline in customers.

“I have been operating here for 35 years and this is the worst I have seen it,” he lamented.

“You see how much equipment me have park up because me can’t afford to make all of them work, and so me have to use the littlest one which burn less gas ,” he said, as he pointed to idle machines.

Shaw said he let go eight of his 16 workers after the trucks stopped coming.

“There are three operators in this quarry, and if we split it into three, me used to get about 10 to 15 of the trucks for the day, but now only two me get fi the entire day,” Shaw said, adding that all quarry operators on the eastern corridor are faced with a similar situation.

Shaw said it is now a struggle to pay the $600,000 per month electricity bill to operate the crushing plants.

“Is yesterday ah buy a box of filter for a tractor and me pay $28,000 for one dozen,” he said, showing the receipt.

Given the weight restrictions being imposed in St Thomas, Shaw said small operators are also impacted as they now have to pay two haulage cost to transport the same amount of material.

According to Shaw, he does not buy the argument that the overweight trucks are damaging the road as he questioned why the Government allows special permits for some huge trucks to transport up to 60,000 tonnes.

As such, he argued that the allowable limit, which is based on the trucks’ axle size, is not adequate and needs to be reviewed.

Fidel McFarlane, senior inspector of motor vehicles, told the Observer that there has been a marked decline in the number of trucks traversing the corridor since the station opened. Between May 1 and 21, only 15 truck operators were prosecuted.

He explained that a mobile scale is available for operation in Clarendon, but could not speak to the frequency of enforcement in that parish.

He explained that the enforcers operating from Harbour View ensure that no overweight truck goes by.

Once the trucks are found to be overweight, he said, the drivers are issued a $800 ticket by the police posted at the facility. In addition to the fine, the truck is also seized.

“The operator has to bring another truck to take the excess weight off, and as soon as that is offloaded he can proceed on his way,” McFarlane said.

He noted, however, that some truckers have been trying to outsmart them by bypassing the weight station and travelling along the river. However, the law allows the inspectors to re-route the trucks to the station to have the weight checked wherever they are stopped within a three-mile radius.

He admitted, though, that a permanent weight scale does pose an unfair disadvantage to quarry operators in the East, but maintained that the law has to be enforced.

Meanwhile, operator of Eastern Restaurant along the main corridor, Marcelle Wilson, said if things do not improve in another month he will be closing his business, as it is being severely impacted by the absence of the truckers.

“All mi having is big light bill and rent and no business, and so me can’t keep this up,” he said.

A resident, who gave her name only as Cynthia, said her two children can no longer attend school for an entire week as their father no longer has his job at one of the quarries.

“Things just tough ’round here because St Thomas did already slow from morning, and now with the trucks not coming it only going to get worse,” she said.