WHAT THE 
MINISTER
SAID

The following is the extract from the Minister of Transport's speech to the National Council of Provinces where he refers to supporting rail by creating a level playing field for fair price competition between it and road haulage. It is this speech which prompted FleetWatch to trace back the history of the road freight industry in the accompanying article so as to point out the folly of repeating the mistakes of the past. Here is the quoted extract headed in the Minister's speech as: Establishing balance between road and rail.

  The damage caused to our road network by freight overloading is one of the reasons for government's recent strategic decision to encourage a shift in the balance between road and rail in the transport of heavy freight.

   "An efficient and well-managed national rail network is also a potentially cheaper and more environmentally sustainable mode of freight transportation than road haulage - particularly in the areas of containerised and bulk cargo. It is therefore imperative that we support rail by creating a level playing field for fair price competition between it and road haulage.

  "This level playing field does not at present exist, mainly because the road freight industry is currently not obliged to factor the externalities (or hidden costs) associated with its operations into the prices it charges its customers. These take the form of damage to our road infrastructure; the effect of the industry's heavy fuel consumption on our balance of payments; and the additional burdens placed on our traffic management and health systems by its contribution to general air pollution, traffic congestion and road crashes.

  "We therefore need to do two things at the same time: reduce these external costs and ensure that the road freight sector internalises at least some of them more equitably in the context of its competition with rail.

  "Overload control is the first step towards effective external cost reduction. But as a second step, my Department is considering developing a modelling exercise that will for the first time fully quantify road externality costs in terms of infrastructure damage, pollution, congestion and crashes, and will look at fair ways of charging road hauliers for these costs - always taking into account the fact that the road freight industry, unlike rail, receives no direct state subsidy.

  "Thirdly, I think the time has come to review the 56-ton gross vehicle mass limit currently in force in South Africa. This is one of the highest in the world and compares unfavourably with those in force in the countries of the North, which range from 28 tons to 44 tons. Even in the SADC context, Mozambique, with a 38-ton limit, Botswana, with a 51-ton limit and Zimbabwe, with a 55-ton limit, are more restrictive than we are.

  "We are therefore considering amending the Road Traffic Act to introduce a lower maximum payload for road freight. This would have two major effects. It would add impact to overload control measures aimed at reducing road externality costs; and it would increase the unit cost of road freight in such a way as to create a price incentive for certain categories of customers to switch from road to rail.

  "Taking this approach would, of course, require detailed consultation with all interested parties, both from an industry perspective and in terms of harmonisation within SADC."