Oversize loads play an important role in the New Zealand’s economy and are therefore permitted to travel on the country’s roads. To minimise disruptions and ensure the safety of other road users special operating conditions apply.
These operating conditions are designed to ensure that other road users are kept safe while using the road. These conditions may include:
- Restricted times of travel
- Load pilots to provide advance warning
- Special signage and lighting on the oversize load itself
Other road users may need to take care around overdimension and overweight loads that at times may need more road space than normal freight loads.
The range of different lighting and signage employed on pilot vehicles and overdimension transporters can give other road users an indication of the size of the load and what precautions that may need to be taken.
Any load that has load pilots in front of it with purple and amber flashing lights is wider than 5m in width, and will be at least partially in the lane for on-coming traffic.
Therefore other road users must heed the advice of the sign and the pilot to slow down and obey the directions of the pilot in order to safely pass the wide load.