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If there's one thing that can cripple a transport operation quicker than you can say truck, it's a truck accident, particularly one involving a hazardous substance that results in environmental damage. The fact that South Africa has one of the worst road safety records in the world merely exacerbates this reality. Survival in the road transport industry means managing risk effectively; protecting your business against unforeseen disasters like collisions, lost loads, spills etc. with adequate insurance coverage and by employing safety strategies to help mitigate on-road risk. But is this enough to sustain not only your operation, but the industry as a whole asks
Paul Collings?
The statistics spell it out, loud and clear - our roads are killing fields. In 2006, 15 353 people died in motor vehicle accidents. That's around 42 fatalities per day! According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) in its 2006 Interim Road Traffic and Fatal Crash Report, the estimated cost of fatal crashes increased from 2005 by 6.2% to a mind boggling R10.96 billion in 2006. And that's just the 'fatal' accidents. What about the costs of non-fatal accidents? Shall we add a few more billion to the total?
The trucker's fight
The RTMC statistics for December 2006 show that there were 114 fatal accidents involving trucks in the space of a month. Upon analysis, these statistics suggest that of these 114 accidents, approximately 34% were directly caused by the truck. This suggests strongly that other road users are either negligent or ignorant when it comes to sharing the road safely with trucks, which is cold comfort for transport operators who have to suffer possible loss of life of drivers, as well as the financial burdens associated with damaged vehicles like loss of revenue through vehicle downtime and repair bills because wayward motorists are ploughing into their trucks.
The crux of the issue is that while many motorists regard the road as their private property, transporters have a far greater vested interest in their smooth, safe functioning than their four-wheel counterparts. Our roads network is an integral part of truck transport's 'means of production', the factory floor upon which the conveyor belts run, so to speak and as such, truck operators need to go to greater lengths to ensure their vehicles have safe passage across our roads. Of course, roads authorities also have their role to play in ensuring our roads are safe and well maintained.
A new battle plan
While there may be a component of the trucking community that does its level best to ensure its trucks and drivers are fit to run as safely as possible, there are those who operate with scant regard for the law (see box story 'Slacker City', which illustrates this point quite clearly). The prevalence of truck accidents and lost loads are testimony to this and are a major source of misery for all road users, not to mention politicians and captains of industry who are attempting to keep foreign investment coming our way.
As much as trucks form the backbone of our economy, if allowed to run unsafely, they can quickly become its Achilles heel. For this reason, the promotion of truck safety is everybody's business, from government to operators, to OEM and aftermarket suppliers, to the media and the public in general. We all have a stake in the efficiency and safety of SA's road freight carriers and therefore any strategy to improve the industry's safety record needs to be formulated and managed by a truly representative Public-Private body.
Anti-accident brains trust
Former state president, Nelson Mandela recently launched an initiative called 'the council of elders' that seeks to bring together some of the great statesmen and leaders of our time with a view to them jointly formulating action plans and interventions to combat global evils like poverty, disease and war. The power of the council will be the synergies produced by a diverse group of highly experienced and well-connected individuals. One can be sure that once these 'elders' get a plan together to drive progress where none seems possible, good will happen.
And this is what has to happen in South Africa to significantly lower the death toll and accident rate on our roads.
Despite the existence of Arrive Alive and other road safety forums, the death toll mounts every year. More needs to be done in a more integrated fashion to lower the number of fatalities and accidents. Following Madiba's lead,
FleetWatch is therefore launching an initiative behind which we hope the trucking community will throw its weight. We are calling it the
FleetWatch Accident Prevention Brains Trust with the intention being to bring together leaders from the DoT (RTMC), SANRAL, regional traffic chiefs, the CSIR, road authorities, fleet operators (truck and car), the RFA, OEMs and aftermarket suppliers, transport educators and consultants, union heads, truck insurance brokers and other relevant parties to link their collective intellect in finding solution to beat the problem.
With a team of this nature gathering regularly to target areas of weakness on our roads, formulate realistic integrated remedial actions and implement them, a major step will have been made in combating road accidents. Watch this space for future action.
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