PUBLIC COMMENT AMENDMENT – NRTA EDITOR'S COMMENT THE SOUTH AFRICAN trucking industry was taken by surprise when the Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters issued a statement to the media a few months ago that goods vehicles with a GVM exceeding 9 000kg would be restricted from operating on public roads from 17h00 to 20h00 Monday to Friday and from 06h00 to 09h00 Monday to Friday. The Minister said her proposal was “in response to the increase in the number of road carnage that involves goods vehicles on the South African roads (sic).” FleetWatch has reported on this in recent issues but when the proposals were published in Government Gazette No 38772, the DoT called for comment on the proposed new amendments – which also includes changes to the speed limits as well as the carrying of passengers on bakkies and the renewal of driving licenses. Among these proposed changes, FleetWatch regards the issue around the restrictions on trucks as a potential “national crisis”. It is not going to achieve the Minister’s desired objective and the negative impact on the economy and our future growth will be huge (Please read the Editor’s Comment in this edition). The Road Freight Association penned a detailed response to the proposals and FleetWatch deems this issue so important that we have given up a number of pages in this edition to publish in full the RFA’s response. Also read Max Braun’s comments starting on page 15. Do not ignore this. Your future in transport – and the future of South Africa as a whole – will be affected if this legislation goes through. 4 Opinions that carry weight A summary of responses from the industry via the RFA to Regulations, (Notice 411 of Government Gazette 38772 of 11 May 2015) T he Road Freight Association is a non-profit, voluntary membership based Association representing both public and private road freight operators. Below are comments from both members and non-members with regard to the proposed regulations - thus these comments reflect the opinion of a vast number of road freight operators. The Road Freight Association (RFA) hereby submits the following comment with regard to the above gazette: FLEETWATCH VOL 29 / 2015