Efforts to get trucks transporting debris to install GPS – so that the vehicles can be tracked to ensure they don’t unload the rubble in illegal dumps – have come to nothing, according to media reports on Tuesday.
The Department of the Environment had approached the Road Transport Department, in a bid to persuade the latter to force such trucks to install GPS systems.
The initiative was intended to crack down on skip loaders and hook loaders that dump debris – from excavations as well as from construction and demolition sites – in the countryside, causing major pollution.
By tracking the whereabouts of the trucks, authorities would be able to determine when and where their owners engaged in this illegal dumping.
But citing legal reasons – having to do with the issuance of licenses for road transport operators – the Road Transport Department said this was not possible.
The relevant laws would have to be amended first.
Currently, a number of such trucks have been licensed by the Department of the Environment. They have had GPS systems installed on them.
But many other trucks operating in the debris transport and disposal business are not licensed in this way.
During a discussion in parliament in September, the former director of the Department of the Environment conceded the lack of controls in the business. Theodoulos Mesimeris had told MPs that the department lacked the necessary staff to check for illegal dumping 24/7.
Installing GPS systems on the trucks would help with monitoring.
The Department of the Environment proposed that, from now on, trucks without GPS systems should be prohibited from renewing their road tax – effectively removing them from the road.
But the Road Transport Department replied that, due to legal complications, it has no way to force these road transport operators to install GPS.
The trucks would have to meet a series of criteria, while the special road transport license costs €13,000.
