KEPALA BATAS, July 24 — Being on the road as early as 4.30am and using ‘tontos’ (thugs who tip off overloaded lorry drivers on presence of enforcement authorities) to avoid being nabbed are the tactics being used by some transportation companies to protect their overloaded commercial vehicles.

Nevertheless, such activities were of no avail when the Penang Road Transport Department (JPJ) conducted ‘Ops Lebih Muatan’ from June 30 until yesterday involving 70 officers and personnel of the agency.

State JPJ director Adenan Md Isa said the department took action against 306 lorries for excessive load, using the cross border method in the operation, and most were nabbed at construction sites.

‘‘Through the method, JPJ enforcement personnel were sent to different districts to prevent their movements from being tracked by tontos who could tip off the lorry drivers,’’ he told reporters after the operation at the Penaga JPJ Enforcement Station here, yesterday.

Adenan said the department found that tipper-dumper lorries, which ferry construction wastes such as soil, sand and stones, committed the most overloading offences.

He said they not only broke the law by doing so but could also cause mishaps by going out of control, experience burst tyres, have loads falling off, obstructing other vehicles and causing traffic jams.

‘‘All the 306 overloaded lorries are being investigated under Section 57(1) of the Land Public Transport Act 2010 which provides a fine of not less than RM1,000 and not more than RM500,000 or jail of not more than a year or both,’’ he said.

He said that the department inspected 1,210 vehicles and acted against 946 vehicles by issuing 2,531 notices for various traffic offences during the operation. — Bernama