A survey of commercial vehicle weights in Saudi Arabia

With the aim of characterizing the commercial vehicle composition and in or der to examine the overweight problem prevailing in Saudi Arabia under the imposed regulatory controls, a four-year truck load survey was carried out using truck data collected from the wayside weigh stations installed at var ious traffic corridors. The sample size, built on a random selection, excee ded over one million trucks. Additional field surveys were also conducted a t selected locations to obtain supplementary data and information. In this paper, the findings of this study are presented drawing attention to the re velation that overweight problem still exists at an uncomfortable level, wh ose damaging impact on roads and bridges cannot be ignored. Data analysis a lso shows that the four provinces, Eastern, Western, Northern, and Central Province, bear an astonishing degree of similarity with regard to truck com position and the extent and magnitude of overweight.