THE DEFINITIVE TRUCKING SITE

There is a saying which, being a journalist, doesn’t really sit well with me but here goes: “A picture tells more than a thousand words.” Look at the photographs below. When you get a cow looking for grazing in a pothole, you know you’ve got problems on the road. And boy, have we got problems on some of our roads. What you see here is the condition of sections of the road running between Kosi Bay and Josini in KwaZulu Natal. I came across this sorry excuse for a ‘road’ while travelling with my family back from Ponta Do Ouro in Mozambique in January. The thing that really irked me was that the last time we travelled this road a few years back, it was in great condition. This is a prime example of the wide-spread neglect of our road network by provincial road authorities that is causing untold damage to vehicles travelling these roads. As if things were not hard enough for truckers in this climate, they also have to contend with such roads busting up their trucks. And that is not just hearsay. According to Johan Van Vreeden, Motor Industry Ombudsman of South Africa, the number of cases he had to adjudicate last year relating to damage caused by deteriorating infrastructure – potholes being the most visible sign of this deterioration - increased dramatically compared to previous years. “Things go wrong with vehicles all the time but most of the problems we have been dealing with are not product related but rather infrastructure related,” he tells FleetWatch. “Unfortunately, people think if you put up a board warning of potholes, that then deals with the problem. Not so. Fixing the potholes and conducting regular maintenance of the roads to prevent potholes developing is what will fix the problem. Vehicles are suffering at the moment because of the overall deterioration of the infrastructure.” 

So will the bright spark in the KwaZulu Natal Roads Department – or whatever it is called – who decided to go fishing instead of doing his job and preventing what you see on this page, please send me your address so I can pass it on to all transporters to claim damages from you. That’s what should be done you know. My blood boils when I see how millions of Rands of taxpayer’s money is being spent on absolutely useless ventures – submarines and fighter jets for example – when those Rands could be spent on building and maintaining our vitally important roads infrastructure. I’d venture a guess that maintaining our roads is far more important to this country’s economic growth and sustainability than seeing how far a tub of steel can dive underwater – or paying the legal and other fees of countless politicians and ‘officials’ trying to get off a host of alleged misconduct and criminal charges. Where is the accountability to the taxpayer? Looking at these pictures, there is none. Will all transporters who have accrued vehicle damage due to potholes please send me the details. Let’s get some accountability into this sorry state of affairs. The trucking industry deserves better than this. 

Patrick O'Leary
Managing Editor