INDUSTRY OBSERVATION

Respect and Recrimination

It's no secret that commercial vehicle drivers in general, are under appreciated. Their competence and professionalism certainly needs to be more widely recognised and perhaps the following anecdote will serve as means of achieving this.

I was driving through peak hour traffic in Johannesburg and drew up alongside an express courier vehicle, busy scything its way through the backed-up traffic. Curious to know his destination and the reason for his haste, I exchanged a few kindly words with the driver. His answers to my questions left me with feelings of admiration, but equal doses of trepidation.

As it happened, he was scheduled to be in Windhoek by 9am the next morning.

It was approximately 5.30pm dead centre Johannesburg that Autumn evening.

Execute some rapid maths and a bit of web surfing and the following logistics picture arises: Using the Zeerust, Lobatse (N4, A2, B6) road this route is apparently approx. 1386 kms. The sum total of hours is 6.5 plus 9 the following morning, making it a total of15 and a half hours. By my reckoning that's an average of 89.42kms/ hour.

That is of course including no allowance for rest stops, re- fuelling or changing drivers. I also have no idea of the delays at the border posts but none of these compulsory delays would assist the average anyway.

Assuming my observation is correct, it is a super human effort on the part of the drivers. Even if there are two drivers in a vehicle, I personally think this is a very high average speed and therefore a remarkable achievement. Negotiating open roads, at speed, loaded, and throughout the night is a huge task for two drivers to execute.

As an aside I do recall us once having a vehicle the subject of a claim that had well over an average 22 000kms a month, but that seems to be fairly common place nowadays. The driver of this vehicle was a most cheerful character. And I'm sure he's not alone in his dedication to the business of timely delivery.
"Salute!" I say to him and his colleagues - you and your crew really work extremely hard. 

Deteriorating roads:

I had occasion to drive on both the Richards Bay- Pongola- Ermelo- Johannesburg road and the Vereeniging- Heilbron- Bethlehem- Harrismith roads. In my opinion, these roads are deteriorating badly, perhaps irreparably unless reconstructed. Despite being a layman when it comes to road works, one can't fail to see the obvious structural damage and forecast a grim end state for these roads. 

It would be really interesting to understand how this poor road maintenance is to be reined in. There were, I have to say, classic traces of "transporter overloading" but I could be wrong. Is it not possible for the toll road funds to be utilised to sustain standards on the less important roads such as these?

In the very least it makes all road users, i.e. truckers, tourists, the local population etc. all the more vulnerable to accidents

I therefore request that the powers that be take proper control over sustained and comprehensive road maintenance! It is more than sorely needed.