Copyright © 2001 FleetWatch magazine and FleetWatch On-Line.

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The accident statistics published in a recent edition of FleetWatch and some of the horrific accidents that have taken place since, focuses our attention once again on the lack of effective traffic law enforcement in our beloved country. 

There can be no doubt that our law enforcement agencies, the justice department and the various departments of transport need a severe wake-up call to start taking tougher action against law breakers. With this in mind, I bring to the attention of you and your readers the outcome of a recent case in the UK reported by Commercial Motor (March 2005).

A registered car transporter operating out of Rotherham, UK, after serving eight months in jail, lost his operator's licence indefinitely on being found guilty of falsifying maintenance records on two occasions. His workshop manager was jailed for four months and the driver of the vehicle for 12 months. 

The sentences were imposed by the transport commissioner in Southampton following the death of a woman when the vehicle carrying seven Land Rovers failed to stop at a traffic light. Two days before the accident, the vehicle driven by the same driver, failed to stop at the same traffic light. The driver reported the incident. A second driver, asked by the operator to drive the vehicle, reported there was nothing wrong with the brakes.

The sentences were based on the commissioner finding the operator grossly irresponsible for failing to arrange proper inspections by a qualified, competent person, ignoring pleas for additional resources and the risk to the public his vehicles represent.

Precious little will happen in South Africa until law enforcement is properly and consistently applied.
Max Braun
Transport Consultant

Editor's Comment: Many thanks for taking the trouble to write to us. Interesting is that from your description of the action taken there, it sounds like a UK version (whatever that may be) of Section 49 of our Road Traffic Act where the Duties of an Operator are defined. It has always amazed FleetWatch that drivers are fined, arrested and hit hard for all types of transgressions that fall under the Duties of an Operator as outlined in the RTA. You're right. We need law enforcement to be applied 'properly' and that would mean brining Section 49 into the arena and if continually transgressed, implementing Section 50 with vigour. If any readers want more information on these two Sections, drop us an email and we'll get it to you. They are probably the two most powerful and potentially effective items of regulations in the Act to ensure responsible operations. However, unless enforced, they are mere words on paper.

Your comment

I want to compliment you on the February edition of FleetWatch where you published the actual accident statistics. It hit home so hard that I actually stopped reading the magazine and put it away for a while. The road deaths were no longer just numbers but actual people, drivers, passengers and pedestrians with families.

The descriptions also highlighted the stupidity of most of them which, on analysis, could probably have been avoided if we had a culture of careful driving and respect for life. Fatigue, faulty vehicles, disrespect for traffic rules, speed - these are not "accidents" by any stretch of the imagination. At best they are collisions and at worst, nothing short of murder.
Stephanie Platt 
Service Solutions

Editor's Comment: Thank you so much for taking the trouble to write to us and although I hate to say this, I am thrilled at the reaction the statistics had on you for, judging from your letter, they solicited in you the type of emotion one needs to press for change. You obviously took the trouble to read the detail and when one does this, it become a depressing - but revealing - exercise. I recall some years back receiving a phone call from a woman asking for more details of one of the accidents we highlighted in our statistics. It turned out that the husband of that woman - a truck driver - was killed in that accident leaving behind a shattered wife and two young daughters. FleetWatch has since become friends with this family and we stay in touch. It is when you come into contact with the 'actual people' that the statistics become more meaningful - and horrific. It is also then that you become angry at the senselessness of it all. I am pleased you got angry. Stay that way for it will spur in you a desire to become an agent for real change instead of just another member of the huge army of talk-shop delegates who waffle on as sideline theorists.

Your comment

The following letter has been received by FleetWatch from the Station Commissioner of the Camperdown police station. Drivers who stop along the routes mentioned are at risk. Please warn them.

It has been noted with concern that serious and violent cases of crime have shown an increase in the Camperdown Area with heavy articulated vehicles being the target of the majority of these criminal cases.

This Police Station serves the N3 Freeway between Cato Ridge and Ashburton as well as the R103, the R603 from Umlaas Road to Eston and R56 between Umlaas Road and Thornville. 

The modus operandi of the suspects involved are that drivers who stop their trucks on these main routes either to sleep or because of a breakdown are robbed of tyres, cargo and personal possessions. We encourage truck drivers to rather stop at dedicated truck stops or areas of the N3 highway where they are not exposed to criminal activities.

The Road Traffic Act provides for Drivers/Owners of vehicles that stop on a highway without a just cause to be prosecuted and this office would not like to be forced to enforce these extreme measures.

This serves as a request to FleetWatch magazine to bring to the attention of all truck companies that their drivers refrain from stopping on the main routes patrolled by the Camperdown SAPS. The co-operation of all truck drivers would be appreciated. 
Superintendent G Botha
Station Commissioner
Camperdown

Editor's Comment: Many thanks for bringing this worrying situation to the industry's attention. We appreciate your concern and would urge all trucking companies to take note of the serious content of this letter. Although overnight stops at secure areas can be planned, breakdowns are difficult to predict and we urge all operators to ensure they have the necessary back-up services in place to rapidly attend to any breakdowns in the areas mentioned. It is in the interests of the safety of your drivers, your rig and your customer's goods.

Your comment

Firstly thank you for your magazine. It is great and I only hope people utilize all the advice given. I am a truck driver and met you, Patrick O'Leary, at the 2004 truck driving competition prize giving in Sun City last year. I won the competition as the 2004 arctic driver of the year. 

I do a bit of driving in the Cape but mostly in KZN and would like to raise the issue of truck stops in Kabuli-Natal. Most of the truck stops in South Africa are reasonable during daylight hours. However, when the sun sets, all of them go wrong. In the Cape, the truck stops are a lot cleaner and there are more services provided to the men and women who keep the wheels of South Africa rolling. Once you cross into KZN, however, there is a big change - not only in cleanliness but also in attitude.

Firstly, you have to pay to sleep at any truck stop in KZN. Most drivers have to pay this out of their own pockets as companies won't provide for that so the driver thinks he will go through to the next truck stop to sleep. However, once there he finds the situation is the same - if not worse - so he ends up sleeping on the side of the highway; and then, as we all know, everyone jumps up and down. This not only causes accidents but also gives KZN a bad name in respect to the hospitality of their truck stops.

About a month ago, I was traveling down to the coast of KZN when I decided I would take a shower at Estcourt Ultra City. First of all, I had to explain to the security guards that I only wanted to shower and was not going to sleep the night in the truck stop. I entered the showers and found that the lights didn't work and the place looked like a dump. I worked my way past all of that and went into the shower only to find feces on the floor. As you can imagine, I did not shower there.

I then went to find the manager. He was not around so I spoke to the floor manager who said that he was standing in for the manager. I told him what I thought of the situation and said he must pass it onto his superiors. I was disgusted and will never stop at that truck stop again. The problem is that it is not only that individual truck stop. The majority of them are like this.

There is no respect for drivers in this country. I drove in the United States for two years and you cannot compare the conditions. Yes, I know we are living in a Third World country and that there are problems associated with that. However, I just wish people would be more respectful and supportive of truck drivers. If that happens, maybe the conditions we work in will improve. 

Once again thank you for your magazine. I am sure all who read it appreciate it thoroughly.
Bert Koning
Truck Driver

The writer of this letter, Bert Koning, was treated like a king at last year's Driver of the Year awards held at Sun City receiving one of these magnificent trophies as the 2004 Artic Driver of the Year. The respect afforded him and his colleagues on the night by the organizers - and especially the sponsor debis Fleet Management - is not, he feels, mirrored by others in the day-to-day life of truck drivers out on the roads.

Editor's Comment: Thank you so much for writing to us and yes Bert, I remember you well from that competition. You have made so many points in your letter but the one that stands out for me as being central to the message you are getting across is that there is no respect for drivers in this country. I agree with you on this. However, while I do so, I must take issue with you with regard to your experience of the showers at the Estcourt Ultra City. You know, as I know, that it is not the management who are defecating in the showers. It is the users of the showers and those are the drivers. I agree that drivers are not treated with the respect they deserve but there are some drivers out there who don't give two hoots about caring for the facilities provided. I recall a guy from Shell telling me that they spent R25 000 on revamping the ablution facilities at one of their truck stops to top standards. Within a week - just one week - it was back to where it was before - an absolute mess. The taps were broken from the basins, the toilet seat covers had been ripped off and stolen and the showers were in a mess. Drivers have a lot to answer for in terms of the vandalism so often experienced at truck stops. One could argue that if you are continuously treated with disrespect, you reciprocate by showing no respect. However, dumping logs in the shower while there is a perfectly good loo alongside - albeit with the seat ripped off - is not a sign of disrespect. It is a sign of 'up yours'. Maybe that's what some drivers are saying. If so, why are they saying this? Why is there vandalism? Is it the natural way of the truck driver? I think not? So why? That's what we have to ask. There is a huge gap that exists between drivers and managers in this country and that gap needs to be bridged. Your letter proves this. (See also the article on the strike in this edition).

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