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At the heart of the dilemma facing DG transporters right now is the issue of getting accredited driver training. Haztranz Training Centre, a Heidelberg-based DG training operation which has been conducting DG driver training courses across southern Africa for some twenty years, now finds itself between a rock and a hard place reports
Paul Collings.
According to Haztranz training development manager, Russell Marais, "it's a very trying situation for us right now. Transporters need to send their drivers on accredited DG training courses but none exist. This is simply because TETA (the Transport Education and Training Authority) is being unrealistic in its 'unit standards' requirements and are simply not accrediting training institutions who have been doing the job for years."
Bottlenecks
Marais explains that only 13 DG training centres exist nationally and this is posing a problem for TETA which wants an equitable spread of training centres nationwide, not just in the major city centres.
"The Minister of Transport announced in August 2001 that PrDP 'D' (driver permits for DG) licences would only be granted to drivers who passed DG courses from accredited training centres. He said he would announce a date when training operations would get their accreditation. It's now 2005 and we're still waiting."
The obvious question is: Why no accreditation? Allan Nienaber, director of Haztranz Training Centre, has this to say: "TETA wants Outcomes Based Education (OBE) modules which require at least 80 hours of training. Which transport operation can afford to take a driver off the road for that period of time? What's more, with the tragic reality of HIV/Aids killing drivers, that kind of investment just doesn't make sense."
To further complicate matters, TETA doesn't compile a standard training manual for the DG trainers to teach by. "It's ludicrous," says Marais. "They expect every individual DG training operation to submit its own OBE training manual for review, which takes five months to be appraised by TETA personnel and then it comes back to us for revision after revision. It's mind-numbing, quite frankly."
Smoke and mirrors
From an outsider perspective, it all looks really confused and not a little ridiculous. If no accredited training exists and the law requires such training for a 'D' permit, how is it that DG operators can continue to run? Nienaber explains:
"That regulation of the Road Traffic Act (RTA) can't be enforced because the Minister of Transport has still not set the accreditation date, so DG trucks have to go to their local fire station after getting their COF (certificate of fitness) for a DG clearance certificate. The problem is most fire personnel are clueless as to what to check for."
Once again it's back to the training issue. Drivers, fire personnel, traffic officials and law enforcement officers need to be trained to ensure the safe transport of DG - urgently! This is not happening because, says Marais, "no action plan has been put in place by the powers driving South Africa's DG legislation, namely, the NDoT, TETA, the RFA and SABS."
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EXASPERATED
- Allan Nienaber of Haztranz is fighting an uphill battle
getting his training accredited by TETA |
Where are these people?
The Working Committee to 'harmonise' DG codes of practice is facilitated by SABS, says Marais, but because no common outcome has been established, no forward movement is made. "It leaves everyone feeling like a ship in the middle of the ocean, stuck, waiting for the wind to blow."
A prime example of this inability on the part of the Working Committee to deliver is the ongoing absence of the DG Inspectorate, a body of auditors to be overseen by the NDoT to control DG transport by road. "Where are these people?" asks Nienaber, "and why aren't they out there already? It's been four years since the announcement by the NDoT that such an inspectorate would be established."
Create a SWAT team
For Nienaber and Marais, the solution is simple: Create a DG "SWAT team" and tackle each issue step by step. Get TETA to compile a standard training manual and get all stakeholders to communicate in an open forum focusing on grass roots needs.
"Let the drivers, the firemen and women and the traffic cops have their input. They experience the problems on a day to day basis and will be invaluable in helping formulate a workable plan to overcoming the obstacles the industry is facing at present," says Nienaber.
