Protecting your assets

Twice, Kobus Papenfus has narrowly escaped death. He knows that a serious accident or a brutal highway robbery can happen to him again at any time. But after 32 years as a truck driver in Southern Africa, he is "street smart", a necessity for survival on the world's most dangerous roads.

Over the past 20 years, BM Hauliers has evolved into one of Southern Africa's leading experts on risky or sensitive high value haulage. Drivers are carefully selected and trained, and they are always tracked during there assignments. Each driver has his own truck, with his name in elegant lettering on the side. Quality and safety are literally a prerequisite for survival - both of the company and its drivers.

Mr. Papenfus' boss, company owner Swannie Swanepoel, graphically describes the daily work of his 50 drivers: "South Africa today is a dangerous country for the transport industry. We try to follow the same route as other modern, developed countries in the world. But moving on that same road are individuals and orgenised gangs completely lacking in consideration and human compassion. Sharing the road with them is genuinely risky."
 

Kobus Papenfus (right) shows his boss, Swannie Swanepoel how the highjackers push trucks off the road.

Statistics speak their own stark language. Every day an average of some 70 people die in road accidents in South Africa. And every day an equal number are murdered in this country, often in hijackings, robberies and other incidents along the road.

Mr. Papenfun has these figures in mind as he sets off from BM Hauliers' facility in Heidelberg just outside Johannesburg, fully loaded with tobacco, and starts the 1,816 km long trip to Windhoek, Namibia. Packed in his cab is as usual is everything he needs to do the job, and stay alive.

"The road up to the border is the best, but most dangerous. The most dangerous gangs operate on the South African side," he explains 

The art of survival is, above all, a matter of being alert and foresighted, planned and thinking far ahead.

"The gangs usually use the same tactics, so your own experience and other people's can be quite valuable."

And his own experience. He will never forget that dark evening in Delmas when he was attached by three highway robbers. "They shot through both the windscreen and the door, missing me by a hair's breadth. I managed to get away, but it was close," recalls Mr. Papenfus.

He says he is never afraid, only watchful and informed - street smart. He knows that most hijackings occur between 6 and 10 in the evening. Trucks are usually attacked and shot at while driving, but many assaults also occur at stoplights or crossings. Most robbers have guns and sometimes they impersonate traffic police. Other robbers are high on drugs. All important basic fact for a watchful truck driver.

From transport management room in Heidelberg, BM Hauliers' logistics and security staff follow Mr. Papenfus' progress second by second. If something happens, they must act immediately. The truck is equipped with five different communications and alarms systems, all more or less confidential.

But Mr. Papenfus knows that if the worst happens and he runs into an armed attack, only chance determines whether he will survive. "You can't defend yourself with violence against these gangs. When they strike, it's all about getting out of the situation. We have methods and plans for such potentially lethal situations, but they are not something I'm able or willing to talk about openly," he explains.

At the border with Namibia, there is no going further. The border crossing has promptly 1800 hours and he has to spend the night in his cab. There are security guards and colleagues in other trucks, so Mr. Papenfus feels relatively safe as he falls asleep with a book.

Early next morning he crosses the border, with a 12-hour drive to Windhoek ahead. The road is full of potholes and often of wild animals too. Another major traffic problem is the often badly maintained Namibian Vehicle fleet.

Now he switches to a different kind of watchfulness. He sometimes still has nightmares about the one night outside Howick in Natal province. An old truck driving ahead of him had poor rear lights and emitted such black fumes that he neither saw, nor had time, to react before it was too late. "I drove straight into him from behind. The bonnet of my truck went right through my windscreen. If I'd been sitting 30 cm higher I would have been decapitated." 

At Keetmanshoop he waves to the last person before the Namibian desert begins. The next living creature he encounters is in Marienthal, 220 km later.

As Kobus Papenfus rolls into Windhoek, twilight is falling after another day on the road of southern Africa. He is tired but grateful to have made it, once again, to his destination.