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Compliments on your hard hitting articles. In your June 2005 edition, FleetWatch posed a series of questions to a number of fleet management companies in your article titled 'A snap shot of Hawkeye'. One of these questions was: "Is VESA effectively lobbying for insurance premium discounts?" You received three very different answers and I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.

Firstly, the Control Instruments Omnibridge's answer of No, is totally incorrect. VESA has, for many months, been actively addressing this issue on behalf of its members and I am glad to say that much progress has been made on this issue. FleetWatch will soon receive some news regarding a dramatic step forward on this actual point.

Regarding the second answer by SmartSurv, there are currently two bodies involved in Vehicle Security Products, VESA and SAIA Approved with VESA the only organization which has and is maintaining a fleet management standard in South Africa. We would like to point out that SAIA Approved currently facilitates a standard on Vehicle Tracking and not Fleet Management. As such, Smartsurv's response may confuse your readers being that it is a fleet management article.

Orbtech's answer is accurate. Vesa, as a mandate from its board, actively promotes VESA to the end-users and such the promotion of its standards and members. I hope this clears up any misconceptions

Sean Staley
Chairman - Fleet Management 
VESA 

Editor's Comment: Many thanks for your letter but I'm not sure it does. The point is that if companies such as Control Instruments Omnibridge - no mean player in the market by any means - is deemed by you to have a totally incorrect view of what you do, then the 'misconception' is going to remain. What VESA needs to do is address its activities and visions clearly to its current and potential members and in that way, the 'record will be set straight'. It is no secret that VESA has, over the past years, been through some torrid times - what with members resigning etc - and the need is urgent to perhaps relaunch VESA into the market spelling out exactly what it is you do, who you represent and how you add value. The point you make that there is some good news on the horizon means you are active out there but you are hiding your activities under a bushel. VESA needs to become dynamic, value added and relevant. If it does this in a focused way, there will be no misconceptions to clear up.

Your comment

With regards to the letter from Andrew Parker and Patrick O'Leary's comments (FleetWatch, June 2005, I would like to say that in a perfect world this may be possible but the hard facts are that if you do not change what you always have done, you will always get what you always got!

We are all at fault as we all think it's always the other idiot that needs to change. So what can we do differently to change old habits? Well, for starters we can all agree that it is long past time that we approach this problem differently and use some lateral thinking if we really want results and not just so much hot air. Here is one idea I have been mooting for some years now to a deafening lack of positive response from the people that could make a difference - the traffic authorities. So lets' use lateral thinking to analyse the problem.

As Andrew so rightly points out, a big fine is meaningless to many of the worst culprits - either they have plenty of money or no intentions to pay anyway (our friends the taxi drivers will wait until they collectively owe millions and then stage a protest).

So let's find a meaningful penalty for these selfish people. After all, by their behaviour they obviously feel they are more important that the rest of us idiots and therefore being so important, they obviously have very important things to do with their valuable time. Valuable time? Herein lies the solution.

By looking at the highly competitive environment of professional sport - which is littered with persons of a like attitude to our reckless driver above - what is the most feared penalty such people fear? TIME! A ten minute sin bin in rugby, match suspensions in soccer, a compulsory stop or time penalty in motor racing. The cash penalties they can incur are meaningless compared to their pay-packets.

So I arrive at the answer of taking something traffic offenders value much more that money - their valuable time! So where to from here? What are the most cost effective solutions? 

The main problems of taking time are two fold - space and manpower. So who has plenty of space and available FREE manpower? The answer is - schools! Over a million pupils wrote matric last year in Kwa-Zulu Natal alone. Nobody gets more excited and full of zeal to a cause than a youngster (see your article on the R103, July issue).

If we can get some insurance company to sponsor some literature, train up the pupils in it's use and then get the traffic authorities to pull off offenders to park at the schools, we can get these pupils to educate the errant driver (and his passengers) as part of a school social responsibility programme. While the offender 'serves' his enforced stop, the scholars educate him/her on the dangers and consequences of his/her irresponsible behaviour.

The likely result? A bemused driver never wanting to be so embarrassed again. After all, it's hard to answer a question from a child as to why you want to kill him or her! More importantly, as I fear some older drivers will just not change, at least the future generation of drivers would be well educated.

In the above I have given you my thought process - and I feel it is at least worth a try. It is not perfect but it is better than doing nothing positive or different to-make that difference. What do you and your readers think?

Just a short note on truck stops. I had a letter published previously suggesting that all toll road users pay a small fee at the toll towards a truck stop fee, which would allow all drivers free entry to a truck stop (and build new ones) on presentation of a valid toll road slip for that day.

This section of the slip could then be removed by the truck stop operator and presented to the toll road operator for an agreed payment. Again the silence is deafening. Are the Authorities really serious about road safety or are they too busy blowing smoke up our collective backsides!

As an aside, I must admit that if they implement time stops for offenders at the local schools, I'll most likely be the first one to test drive the system! Patrick, they really do not make a mirror big enough for all of us to fit in.

Kevin Martin
Chief: Planning & Control.
Freightliner Transport

Editor's Comment: Thank you for taking the TIME to put forward your views and trying to make a difference. Some people may scoff at your idea but I love it. The point is, offenders are answerable to no-one at the moment. Having them answer to kids - many of whom would have lost parents in road accidents - in a school 'court' is, in my opinion, a great idea. And, as you say, it will also engender a culture of responsible road behaviour into the future generation of road users which is also desperately needed. I like it. It is lateral thought at its best. What do other readers think of the idea - that is, of course, if you have TIME to try make a difference and tell us?

Your comment

Congratulations on an excellent article in your June edition regarding Midlands Mayhem on the R103. I too have taken up the matter of controlling access to this road by heavy trucks with the Department of Transport on many occasions but without so much as the courtesy of a reply!

If Mr John Schnell regards the protest held recently by the residents of the affected area as "a juvenile exercise" - and if members of his department maintain that this road is quite safe for interlinks to use - then I suggest that they be invited to drive an interlink one busy school afternoon between the towns of Mooi River and Nottingham Rd.

If they manage to negotiate that road safely without breaking into a sweat, then I'll eat my hat! By the way, I have a code eleven licence so I know what it's like to drive a large truck.

Nick McConnell.
The Kendal Group - Hubers cc.
Howick

Editor's Comment: Many thanks for sharing your views. I find it interesting that you too have taken the matter up with the DoT with not even 'the courtesy of a reply'. What really baffles me about this whole issue is that the residents along the R103 have a genuine gripe and have, for over five years, been trying to take it up with the authorities in a 'civilised' manner but no-one in the higher echelons of the KZN DoT seems to want to listen to them. Out of sheer frustration, they therefore embarked on the 'illegal' protest action as reported on in our June edition. But still, no-one has met with them. I know Wrenelle Stander had a meeting with the locals on this issue during her short term as DG of the National DoT but there too, nothing came of it as she left the post soon after. It really boggles the mind that a government department which professes to really care about road safety chooses to ignore an issue which, at its very core, has road safety as its central theme. Lives have been lost - including that of a local policeman who was killed by a truck along that route - but still, there's no meeting. It is perhaps apt to remind the MEC that he is a Public Servant. As such, he has a duty to meet with the electorate when they have a genuine gripe - and this one is 'genuine'. Let me put forward to the MEC a note written by an employee to the CEO of Wal-Mart in the USA. She wrote: "Leadership is an activity not a position. Thank you for your leadership!" The MEC is not showing any activity on this issue and is therefore not exhibiting any leadership. Logic tells, therefore, that he is merely occupying the position - and that's not what South Africa is looking for in its elected 'leaders'.

Your comment

TRAINING, Such as conducted by BP, will make drivers more professional says the writer of the letter below.

It's unbelievable how the lives of so many of our drivers are lost on our roads due to ignorance on the side of truck owners who are buying multi-million Rand trucks only to put them into the hands of untrained drivers.

Drivers are being pushed to rush on the road and yet have not received proper training on how to handle their rigs on, for example, long hilly passes like Van Reenen where brakes are abused under the push of the load because the drivers are not taught on how brakes function. Today's trucks are equipped with modern braking systems yet drivers are not trained on how and where they function on the trucks.

Also, no study of the road itself is done in order to give information to the driver before he undertakes a journey. They are normally caught by surprise by harsh road conditions and the price is usually a heavy loss. Truck owners who are pushing their drivers hard should also study the subject of fatigue in detail to understand what is really happening to the body when a person has not had proper sleep for a number of days.

My plea to truck owners is to let drivers be given the chance to attend courses on defensive driving - maybe once in three years. When drivers know how their trucks function, they will be more professional out on the roads.

Sabbath Mooko
Driver Trainer
BPSA

Editor's Comment: Ah Sabbath, you are a man after my own heart. So often we hear of how drivers cannot be taken off the road for training due to the increased pressures being put on the industry by customers to deliver. Yet, as you say, under such pressure, training becomes even more imperative if the driving task is to be handled in a professional and responsible way. My fear is that it is going to get worse. It is a well known fact that the ranks of our older, more experienced drivers are being thinned due to AIDS. Younger guys are taking over - albeit not near the numbers needed - and given the pressures on trucking today, they are being put behind the wheels of rigs with scant regard to their professional driving skills. My fear is that we are heading towards a situation where we are going to see even more articles such as the one published in the July 21 editions of You and its sister magazine Huisgenoot. It was titled 'Terror Trucks on SA's roads'. What a sorry image for this industry to be branded with in two of South Africa's most widely read consumer magazines. Your points are well taken Sabbath. Let's hope they are acted on.

Your comment

I fully agree with your response to Murray Wood (Editor's Comment, FleetWatch, June 2005). Just some additional comments:

1. In terms of Section 8 of the National Road Traffic Act, the registration of Driving Licence Testing Centres is a Provincial matter, to be dealt with by the MEC for Transport in each Province. Section 8A (manner of application for registration) is not in force yet.
    

2. The following sections dealing with the registration of (driving) instructors are not yet in force:
   - Section 28: Instructor to be registered.
   - Section 28A: Application for registration as instructor
   - Section 28B: Registration and grading of instructor
   - Section 28C: Suspension and cancellation of registration of instructor
    

3. The following Regulations dealing with the registration of (driving) instructors are not yet in force:
   - Reg 114A: Application for registration as instructor
   - Reg 114B: Examination and test to determine competence to act as instructor
    

4. In terms of Reg 250 of the Road Traffic Act of 1989 (this Regulation is still in force), the obtaining of an instructor's certificate is also a Provincial matter.

It is true that driving hours are not specified in the National Road Traffic Act. However, hours of work (in general) are specified in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act which is administered by the Dept of Labour. This Act applies mainly to ordinary hours of work and is not particularly prescriptive when it comes to overtime hours. To my knowledge, nobody has bothered to apply it to truck drivers. Also the Act does not specify how hours of work are to be monitored.

It is correct that Regulation 117(e) specifies that from a date to be determined by the Minister, the applicant for a category "D" professional driving permit has to hold a certificate from an approved training body, as contemplated in Reg 280. The situation, however, is that the Minister has not determined such a date and as far as we can establish, there are no currently approved training bodies.

The correct current terminology is "Dangerous Goods". The word "Hazardous" when applied to the load on a vehicle is no longer in favour. Keep up the good work!

Karl de Villiers
Fleet Control Services

Editor's Comment: Many thanks for taking the time to write and share your views. And wow! When seen in the context of the 'nitty-gritty' detail as you have outlined, the situation becomes ludicrous. Take the driver instructor scenario as an example. As you point out, Reg 114B: 'Examination and test to determine competence to act as instructor' is not yet in force - never mind the others to which you refer. As it stands, therefore - and as I pointed out in my June comment to which you are responding - a person who is grossly incompetent can go out tomorrow and open a driving school. Good Grief! It's no wonder the deaths on our roads are so high. Aaargh! It just makes no sense at all. And thank you for pointing out that the word 'Hazardous' when applied to a load on a vehicle is no longer in favour. You're quite right. It has been officially reassigned as the main heading to the Regulations dealing with 'Driving Instructors'.

Your comment

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