COMMENT ON AMENDMENTS MAX BRAUN A fter close to 60 years of being in and around the business of trucking, supply chain management and freight logistics, I am speechless that the Minister of Transport (DOT) could put pen to paper announcing the intention to implement Regulation 318A to prohibit goods vehicles with a gross vehicle mass (GVM) that exceed 9 000 kilograms from operating on public roads for a total of six hours a day. The proposed restrictions will apply between Monday and Friday and will be split into two three hour periods from 06h00 to 09h00 and from 17h00 to 20h00 hours. Such ingenuousness - or should I say naiveté - as to how road freight transport operates begs the question: “Who comes up with such impractical and senseless wish lists?” I believe the current Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, is sincere and committed to achieving a meaningful reduction in traffic related accidents and incidents. However, why does she listen to people who have little or no meaningful knowledge or experience of the fundamentals of traffic flows, congestion and differential speed limits. Not so long ago, some transport consultants with apparently limited local knowledge or experience encouraged the DoT to introduce an 8-ton axle mass limit for vehicles plying “secondary” roads but retaining the 9-ton axle mass limit for vehicles travelling on national roads. There were no suggestions as to how vehicles transporting loads across both typologies were to operate legally and/or efficiently when moving from one typology to another. Click here for the article I wrote in FleetWatch at the time on that. Also click here for the industry’s reaction to that proposal at the time. Now we are being faced with Regulation 318A. If ever this is implemented, it will do little to reduce traffic congestion or accidents. It will, however, be seriously damaging to the economy Address the causes not just the symptoms By Max Braun FleetWatch correspondent and transport consultant. Meaningful knowledge or experience of the fundamentals of traffic flows, congestion and differential speed limits are needed in terms of the cost and efficiency of freight logistics as it applies to just about every value chain that makes up our local production and manufactured products, imports and exports. Let’s briefly consider just a few examples: • Daily collection of raw milk from dairy farmers. Milk tankers take to the road from 04h00 in order to collect fresh milk that has been stored in the farmer’s silo. This process takes most of the morning as the tanker travels from farm to farm until it is fully loaded. Tankers, depending how far they are from the dairy, return to base by early afternoon. Losing three hours from 06h00 creates a massive challenge for the dairy to process and pack the milk that must move to distribution centres, warehouses and retail outlets not to mention the hospitality industry. You can add to this a reduced speed limit and all kinds of overtime to get the job done after the evening ban comes into effect at 17h00 hours. • Similar situations would be compromised when we think of distributing and delivering animals for daily slaughtering and then distributing the slaughtered meat. Extend this thought to poultry where several million chickens must be slaughtered, processed and packaged and delivered far and wide. Imagine the chaotic situation on the roads to cope with this? Fresh fruit and vegetables present similar challenges for agricultural logistics • It is well-known that exporting fruit out of the Durban port is fraught with inefficiencies and delays. Kevin Martin, CEO of Freightliner Transport and recently retired chairman of the Durban Harbour Carriers Association, has warned that the port’s ability to cope with the number of containers going out and coming into the port will be reduced by 25%. This he sees as a major catastrophe for the port authorities and truck operators - not to mention the owners of the produce, and shippers. This, according to Martin, will result in the Transnet Port Authority having to acquire 25% more 16 2015 / VOL 29 FLEETWATCH 15