The 60-year-old owner of a towing company which became famous after one of its cargo lorry was spotted ferrying a Peugeot car on its back, says that the company had been using the same practise for over 20 years, and that ‘It’s perfectly legal.’
He also demonstrated how to load the car onto the back of the lorry, and said that the company has transported over thousands of scrapped vehicles using the method, reports Shin Min Daily News via Lianhe Zaobao.
A photo of one of its vehicle in action was snapped by a netizen last Saturday (Mar 11).
In the photo, the front wheels of the Peugeot car were openly dangling outside the back of the lorry, and the licence plate was also shaky and looked really to fall out at anytime, prompting many to ask whether such practices infringe on safety regulations.
The owner of the company who was driving the lorry at that time, upon realising that someone had taken a picture of his lorry, contacted Shin Min Daily News to clarify that the car on the back was on its way to the junkyard to be scrapped.
He also told reporters that the company had never been told to stop or gotten any fines for using the same way to transport the scrapped vehicles in the past 20 years.
In fact, he said that there had never been any complaints.
He explained that the weight, size and dimensions of the car transported were within the stated regulations, and that its center of gravity was still within the lorry itself:
“After I saw my lorry on the news, I went online to check, and found that compared to other lorry models and cars, there were no breach of safety rules.”
According to the data he showed, the heaviest a lorry can weight is about 3350kg, and an empty lorry itself weights 1760kg, which meant that he could ferry another 1500kg of goods on its back.
An employee also used a forklift to demonstrate the lifting of the vehicle onto a lorry’s back, while the owner added that they would further secure the car with ropes before moving on the roads.
Automobile Importer and Exporter Association president Neo Tiam Tin said that as long as the weight and length did not exceed the stated limit, it would be legal to transport the vehicle in said manner.
He also told reporters that every vehicle’s weight limit and initial empty weight differs, but as long as the accumulated weight did not exceed the limits, it would not be an issue.
He estimated the weight of a car to be around 1000kg.
As for the front of the car which was dangling outside the lorry, he said that the owner could tie a red cloth at the bark of the lorry to signal to other drivers the potential hazard.
According to traffic regulations, if a transported objected extends more than 1.8metres from the back of vehicle, or 40 percent of vehicle’s length, it would require a permit.
Mr Neo revealed that using small lorries to ferry scrapped vehicles was a common practice which had been adopted for the past 10 to 20 years.
Source: www.stomp.com.sg
