Truck makers race against time to comply with new axle load norms

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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Truck makers such as Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and Mahindra & Mahindra are racing against time to make their existing and future products compliant with the new axle load norms announced by the government.

Certain types of intermediate, medium and heavy load carrying trucks have to be re-engineered so that they can be certified to carry loads according to the newly notified norms.

The government has allowed an increase in axle load capacity of 12-15 percent on all trucks. All trucks approved on or after July 16, 2018, shall be tested for the higher axle loads by testing agencies.

All other trucks shall be allowed the revised maximum safe axle weight. Transport departments of states have been instructed to take necessary action to incorporate the revised weight in the registration particulars of transport vehicles.

Truck makers are now scurrying to develop new vehicles according to the new specifications. Most important, however, is the role of tyre manufacturers, who now have to develop new tyres that can handle the extra load because such tyres are not available in India at the moment.

"As far as OEMs are concerned we cannot declare our existing vehicles to have the newer load capacity for which we will have to redesign the vehicle. The biggest factor here are tyres because the tyre specification required for the new axle capacity are not available in India and they will have to be developed by the tyre manufacturers from scratch which typically it takes 12-18 months to develop a tyre like this," said Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra.

Commercial vehicles market leader Tata Motors started re-engineering its new batch of products as soon as the first notification came out.

"Our product development teams started to work on the changes some weeks ago. We are well prepared to adhere to the new norms," a senior Tata Motors official said.

Manufacturers can't sell trucks unless they meet the new standards, which is why all manufacturers are racing against time make all their products compliant with them.

"We have to update the axle, steering, brakes, chassis and all of this will take some amount of work. And given that we are working on BS-VI all this is creating some distraction for us. But everybody has to work towards this and those who do it faster will definitely have an advantage. So all manufacturers will work speedily to be amongst the first to launch the trucks with new axle capacity," Goenka said.

"We are working on the new models where there will be at minimum some fine tuning and adjustment to existing models where axle loads, tyre rating changes may be required. We are exceptionally well placed to take advantage of this increased loading because the available power and torque of our new engines the five liter and eight liter engines that we have for our heavy duty truck range are much better than maybe others," said Siddharth Lal, MD and CEO, Eicher Motors.

Meanwhile, the central government has instructed states to rigorously impose the overloading ban.

State enforcement authorities are requested to rigorously enforce the regulations and take strict action against overloading by goods vehicles on roads and ensure that such vehicles are stopped and made to unload the excess load before being allowed to proceed further.

This will be in addition to the levy of penalties under section 194 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, the government said in a notification.