Overloaded Trucks Now Recorded

In a written statement quoted by the media on 11 August 2026, Indonesia's Ministry of Transportation announced the launch of Electronic Traffic Law Enforcement (ETLE) HUB to act against freight vehicles that break over-dimension and over-loading (ODOL) rules. The system links electronic roadworthiness test records with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Weigh In Motion (WIM) at 51 monitoring points: 26 at Motor Vehicle Weighing Units (UPPKB) and 25 on toll road sections. A trial from January to July 2026 at the Kertapati and Talang Kelapa units in Palembang and the Balonggandu unit in Karawang detected 198,127 violations. Offenders first received warnings only; the next stage adds electronic violation notices and fine payment through virtual accounts. The minister said ODOL must be tackled from upstream to downstream, including the responsibility of transport companies and cargo owners, ahead of the Zero ODOL 2027 target (Meilina, 2026).

A month earlier, Presidential Regulation No. 41 of 2026 on Strengthening National Logistics was issued on 16 July 2026. It revoked Presidential Regulation 26/2012 on the national logistics system blueprint and attached an action plan for 2026 to 2029 that names ODOL handling as one of its core issues (Hakim, 2026). This analysis reads the load rules in force and what they mean for shippers and fleet owners.

The Core Provisions

Law No. 22 of 2009 on Road Traffic and Transportation (the LLAJ Law) deals with loads in several articles (Pemerintah Republik Indonesia, 2009):

• Article 169(1) requires drivers and/or public freight transport companies to comply with rules on loading procedures, carrying capacity, vehicle dimensions and road class. Paragraphs (2) to (4) provide for load supervision using fixed or portable weighing equipment.
• Article 170(4) requires officers at fixed weighbridges to record the type of goods, the weight carried, and the origin and destination.
• Article 307 sets a penalty of up to 2 months' detention or a fine of up to Rp500,000 for a driver of a public freight vehicle who breaches Article 169(1).
• Article 315 allows offences committed by a public transport company to be charged to the company and/or its management, with fines of up to three times the base amount and additional penalties of licence suspension or revocation.
• Article 90 limits the working time of public vehicle drivers to 8 hours a day, with a break of at least half an hour after 4 consecutive hours of driving.

The Loading Point Gap

In our view, the main gap lies in who is named. Articles 169 and 307 target drivers and transport companies, while the owner of the goods, who decides how much goes on the truck, is not mentioned. ETLE HUB raises the chance that a breach is recorded, but the fine facing the driver stays the same, so the economic pressure to load more at the shipper's warehouse may not change. The minister's words about cargo owner responsibility are not yet reflected in the criminal provisions in force today.

The safety evidence also needs careful reading. A 100-day observation on the Jakarta-Tangerang toll road recorded an average of 628 ODOL vehicles a day. The number of ODOL vehicles had no statistically significant link with the number of crashes (r = 0.105; sig. 0.300), but it was strongly linked with congestion, correlating at -0.823 with speed and 0.802 with travel time (Wyldan & Naibaho, 2025). Crashes are rare events, so a short sample on one toll road is not enough to call ODOL safe. In basic physics, kinetic energy rises with mass, so excess load adds to the work the brakes must do, especially on long descents. The National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) has noted that brake failure still dominates public transport crashes because no regulation requires brake maintenance, and that around 70 percent of road crashes involve human factors, with fatigue the largest contributor (Sandi, 2026).

What Companies Should Do

The Haddon matrix sorts injury controls into the phases before, during and after an event, across human, vehicle and environmental factors (Haddon, 1980). Applied to freight, most pre-event controls sit with shippers and fleet owners rather than on the road:

• Weigh before departure and refuse loads above the carrying capacity in the vehicle's test documents.
• Write load compliance, brake maintenance records and driver working-hour limits into carrier contracts and prequalification, using Article 90 of the LLAJ Law as a minimum benchmark.
• Plan journeys: routes with long descents, rest stops, and no schedules that push drivers past their working-hour limits.
• Treat violation data as a performance indicator for transport suppliers, not just a driver's problem.

Nusa Safety can help companies map loading and journey risks through the Risk Assessment & JSA Workshop, write loading procedures and carrier requirements through Technical Guidelines & SOP Development, and build those criteria into CSMS Development & Prequalification. Nusa Safety issues internal training certificates only and is not a PJK3. Questions about legal liability in a specific case should go to an advocate, and other needs can be discussed with the Nusa Safety team.

This article is general information and not legal or professional advice for any specific case.

References

1. Haddon, W., Jr. (1980). Advances in the epidemiology of injuries as a basis for public policy. Public Health Reports, 95(5), 411-421. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1422748/
2. Hakim, D. (2026, August 9). Analisis penerbitan Perpres No.41/2026 tentang Penguatan Logistik Nasional [An analysis of Presidential Regulation No. 41/2026 on Strengthening National Logistics]. Maritim News. https://maritimnews.com/2026/08/analisis-penerbitan-perpres-no-41-2026-tentang-penguatan-logistik-nasional/
3. Meilina, K. (2026, August 11). Jelang Zero ODOL 2027, Kemenhub luncurkan ETLE HUB untuk tindak truk pelanggar [Ahead of Zero ODOL 2027, the transport ministry launches ETLE HUB to act against violating trucks]. Katadata. https://katadata.co.id/berita/industri/6a7ab54439d0b/jelang-zero-odol-2027-kemenhub-luncurkan-etle-hub-untuk-tindak-truk-pelanggar
4. Pemerintah Republik Indonesia. (2009). Undang-Undang Nomor 22 Tahun 2009 tentang Lalu Lintas dan Angkutan Jalan [Law No. 22 of 2009 on Road Traffic and Transportation]. https://jdih.kemenkeu.go.id/fullText/2009/22TAHUN2009UU.htm
5. Sandi, F. (2026, January 29). KNKT bongkar borok kecelakaan lalin di RI, tak terduga ternyata ini [KNKT exposes the weak points behind Indonesia's road crashes]. CNBC Indonesia. https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/news/20260129103626-4-706283/knkt-bongkar-borok-kecelakaan-lalin-di-ri-tak-terduga-ternyata-ini
6. Wyldan, A. A., & Naibaho, P. R. T. (2025). Pengaruh kendaraan over dimension over loading (ODOL) terhadap kecelakaan dan kemacetan lalu lintas [The effect of over-dimension over-loading vehicles on traffic accidents and congestion]. Teknika, 20(2), 87-96. https://doi.org/10.26623/teknika.v20i2.13087