For decades, the practice was tolerated — often due to commercial pressure, limited enforcement reach, and a lack of viable alternatives for bulk cargo movement.
However, recent continuous and highly visible enforcement actions by the transport ministry and the road transport department (JPJ) are producing tangible results on the ground — fundamentally reshaping operator behaviour, driver decision-making, and the economics of road freight.
Both JPJ and the ministry must be congratulated for their sustained commitment and firm stance in addressing overloading issues.
The impact of these efforts is no longer theoretical. It is clearly cascading down from policy to enforcement, from operators to drivers, and ultimately onto the roads in terms of overall safety.
Safer highways, improved compliance, and rising awareness are now being observed in real operational scenarios.
Drivers’ perspective
Recent interviews conducted by my consultancy company with several six-axle lorry drivers provide a telling snapshot of how enforcement is changing behaviour.
Many of the vehicles in question — the larger freight carriers commonly seen on Malaysian highways — have a gross weight of 60 tonnes.
With an unladen weight of 15 to 17 tonnes, the maximum legal cargo load permitted would be approximately 42 tonnes.
During the interview, we observed that most lorries were carrying a lot less — for example either a single steel coil or steel bars, weighing around 24 tonnes.
These lorries were noted to be headed to the industrial areas of Shah Alam, Ipoh, Butterworth and Pasir Gudang, Johor.
Crucially, their drivers acknowledged that in the past, they would probably have carried two steel coils on the same trip — a total cargo weight of approximately 48 tonnes, exceeding the permissible limit.
The reason for this change is simple and decisive: strict enforcement.
Under current JPJ enforcement conditions, the penalties for overloading are severe.
Beyond financial fines, operators and drivers now face permit cancellation and potential revocation of HGV driving licences.
According to the drivers, this level of risk is no longer acceptable. Even when physical space on the trailer allows additional cargo, legal limits are now strictly observed.
This marks a significant behavioural shift. Overloading is no longer viewed as an “operational efficiency”, but an existential risk to livelihoods.
Route selection, risk and operational constraints
The results from these open-ended interviews also revealed how enforcement intersects with operational realities.
The drivers explained that their operations are largely confined to the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
Routes to the East Coast, such as Kuantan, are generally avoided due to the steep gradients, higher mechanical stress on vehicles, increased fuel consumption, and a greater risk of breakdowns.
Additionally, long-haul East Coast trips often lack guaranteed return cargo, making them economically unattractive.
Meanwhile, routes along the West Coast are notoriously congested, causing delays, leading to higher operating costs and affecting vehicle turn-around.
When combined with strict weight enforcement, these factors further reduce the appeal of long-distance road freight for heavy bulk commodities.
It confirms the long held belief that road haulage has cost and distance limitations, making their cost-per-km for longer trips much higher.
Interestingly, the drivers themselves were unaware of trip pricing. Freight rates tend to be determined centrally by the operator based on cargo weight and distance.
When asked hypothetically about a Kuantan trip, the expectation was that the operator would either decline outright or quote prohibitively high rates, further underscoring the diminishing competitiveness of road freight for such movements.
For rail operators, this is welcome news.
Labour shortages, rising costs
Another critical factor now affecting the road freight industry is the acute shortage of qualified HGV drivers.
Experienced drivers for large, multi-axle vehicles are increasingly difficult to find, and wages have risen accordingly.
This labour scarcity places additional upward pressure on transport operators, specifically on costs and operational reliability.
For operators, the combined burden of strict enforcement, higher wages, vehicle compliance costs and route limitations is forcing a re-evaluation of traditional business models.
What was once absorbed through overloading is no longer possible, and the financial consequences are now fully exposed. That makes a pricing strategy review necessary.
Strong case for rail freight
Taken together, these developments strongly favour a modal shift toward rail freight, particularly for heavy, dense commodities such as steel coils, steel bars, cement, aggregates, minerals and other similar bulky commodities.
Rail offers inherent advantages in terms of weight capacity, energy efficiency, safety and regularity, as well as regulatory consistency.
Unlike road transport, rail operations are not constrained by driver shortages to the same extent, nor are they affected by road gradients in the same way.
From a policy and planning perspective, this scenario aligns well with national objectives to improve logistics efficiency, reduce road damage, enhance safety and lower carbon emissions.
Continuous road enforcement does not merely discourage non-compliance, it actively redirects freight toward more suitable transport modes.
Conclusion
The ongoing enforcement against overloading in Malaysia is working. The message has reached the ground, and compliance is visibly improving. Operators and drivers are adapting, not because they want to, but because they must.
This is a clear testament to the effectiveness of sustained, consistent enforcement by JPJ and the ministry. More importantly, these changes reveal structural truths about Malaysia’s freight ecosystem.
Heavy bulk cargo has limits when moved by road, and with rising costs and tighter controls, those limits are now being enforced in practice.
In this environment, rail freight is no longer just an alternative; it is increasingly the logical and sustainable choice for the future of Malaysia’s logistics sector.
The author can be reached at: [email protected].
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.