Importing semi-trailers into Tanzania

Tanzania and Kenya share an axle load table and almost nothing else about the import. Different port, different corridor, different standards body, different agent list. If you are quoting both markets, the trailer specification can be identical and the paperwork cannot.

Axle load — the same EAC table

Tanzania applies the East African Community Vehicle Load Control Act, so the limits match Kenya:

Axle group	Tyres	Limit
Single	4 conventional	10 t
Tandem	8 conventional	18 t
Tridem	12 conventional	24 t
Tridem	6 super single	22.5 t

Maximum GVW 56 tonnes over seven axles, bridge formula applied, maximum three axles in any group. Dimensions are the EAC set: 2.65 m width, 4.3 m height, 17.4 m for an articulated vehicle.

Tanzania was already at 56 tonnes before harmonisation, so enforcement culture here is long-established rather than new. Weighbridges on the Central Corridor are routine, not occasional.

Ports and corridors — this is the real difference

Dar es Salaam is the main gateway and the start of the Central Corridor: Dodoma, then Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia and the DRC Copperbelt. This corridor carries a large share of Central African transit cargo, and it is a genuinely different customer base from Kenya’s Northern Corridor.

Tanga serves the north and is worth pricing if the destination is near the Kenyan border. Mtwara serves the south and the gas sector.

If your buyer is a transit operator running to Lubumbashi or Kigali, the trailer specification should reflect long-haul unsealed sections, not Dar city work. Ask them which leg the trailer actually runs.

TBS pre-shipment verification

Tanzania requires a Certificate of Conformity under the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) PVoC programme. The structure is familiar if you have shipped to Kenya or Nigeria — verification and testing happen in the country of supply, before shipment, and the certificate is issued per consignment.

What differs is the agent list. TBS appoints its own contractors — SGS, Intertek, Bureau Veritas and EAA among them — and a Kenyan CoC is not transferable. If you are shipping to both markets, you need two certificates from two programmes, arranged separately.

Consignments arriving without a valid CoC face rejection or fines at the port. As with every scheme of this type, the certificate cannot be issued retrospectively: the inspection has to happen at our plant, before the trailers load.

Our position is the same everywhere: we do not issue these certificates and no factory can. We make the trailers available for inspection on the date your agent sets and supply the drawings, material certificates and invoices the inspector asks for.

What suits Tanzanian conditions

• Three axles at 13 t on conventional duals against the 24 t tridem
• 2.55 m width to sit inside the 2.65 m limit with margin
• Mechanical leaf suspension for Central Corridor transit work — the failure mode matters more than ride quality when the nearest air-bag stockist is several hundred kilometres away. See the suspension guide
• Reinforced main beam for aggregate and mining feeder work
• Flatbeds and tippers dominate; tankers into the fuel distribution network are a distinct segment with their own approvals

What to send us

1. Destination — Dar, upcountry Tanzania, or transit to Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, DRC
2. Cargo and real operating weight, not plated weight
3. Proportion of sealed to unsealed road
4. Whether your importer has a TBS PVoC agent appointed
5. Quantity, since four or more units changes the shipping calculus

We will come back with a specification against the EAC table, a freight comparison between Dar and the alternatives, and a timeline that includes the inspection window.