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The roads are getting worse and worse and anyone who says our road network is not deteriorating is living in a fool’s paradise," says Swanepoel. What gives his opinion ‘meat’ is that his views are based on hands-on experience of being out there on the roads. It’s not for him to sit in an office and read his drivers’ reports. He gets out there himself.

"Whenever I have to travel long distance, I don’t fly - I drive. I travel the roads because I want to see where my assets are operating. And I can tell you that from what I have seen over time, things are not looking good," he says.

As evidence of this, he sent the accompanying photographs taken on two different trips he did over a two week period this past July. The two showing the ‘threadbare’ patch of tar on a bend were taken on route to Upington. This particular spot lay between Wolmaranstad and Schweizer Reineke on the R504. The other photographs show a stretch of the N12 just after Bloemhof en route to Kimberley.

"This is a shocking state of affairs. We hear so often people telling us that the roads are good but this applies only to those roads managed by the concessionaires or the National Roads Agency. Once you  pull off the main highways like the N3 or N4, you are then on the provincial roads and these are going to the dogs. What I did notice is that the officials would rather cut and clean up the grass next to the highways than fix the roads," says Swanepoel.

As to the effect this was having on his operation, he said it was impacting adversely not only in terms of longer trip times but also increased maintenance costs.

"It is difficult to pin-point blame for a particular problem on any one particular road but there is just no ways that bad roads cannot have an impact on your maintenance bill. One big bump can put your wheels out of alignment and alignment, in turn, affects tyre wear. Pure logic tells that there will be an overall detrimental effect on wear rates."

Extended trip times
In terms of time wasted, Swanepoel reckons that some trips that would normally take 6-and-ahalf hours, can now take up to eight hours. And when the driver arrives after those eight hours, he is finished. "Driving badly maintained roads is dangerous and needs full concentration from the driver," he says.
 

And it’s this type of magnificent world-class rig operated by Aspen Logistic Services that has to ride over the shoddy roads pictured alongside. "In a climate of high standards, the Government acts as our enemy by not fixing the roads," says MD Wessel Swanepoel.

Apart from the surface deterioration of provincial roads, Swanepoel says he has noticed an overall drop of standards of most functions when it comes to these roads. 

"There is, for example, a warning chevron sign at the T-junction intersection from Hartbeesfontein to Klerksdorp that was knocked over some time ago. It stayed down for weeks with being fixed – and this despite that sign being critical to safety at that intersection," says Swanepoel.

He adds that when he started his business in 2003, he set as one of his objectives the vision to build a company which would become known for its high standards.

"And that’s what we’ve done. We‘ve built up exactly that kind of reputation. However, in a climate of high standards, the Government acts as our enemy by not fixing the roads because those roads are impacting negatively on our operation – and those of many other transporters. It is no longer acceptable." 

We urge other operators to share with us, as Wessel Swanepoel has, their opinions of the road network. Do you agree with him or not? Let us know and we’ll share your views with our readers. Photographs, of course, will be most welcome as they show the true story. What’s that saying about a picture telling more than a thousand words? Let’s hear from you.