THE DEFINITIVE TRUCKING SITE

September 2007

INDUSTRY OBSERVATION

Claims & Self Analysis

I recently spotted a bakkie in Cape Town one Friday evening which, in addition to all the equipment on the back, must have had at least eight passengers in the load body. My interest was spurred even further when the guy hanging on the right of the load-body at the back would, every time there was a traffic stoppage, literally get off the tailgate and stand on the road. 

Whether the driver was aware of this caper or not, I cannot say. The driver certainly wouldn’t have felt a difference in the overloading! 

I assume that he, our tailgate passenger, either anticipated the robots and traffic movements up front to ensure he re-alighted the vehicle otherwise he might just have missed his lift! 

So an over-laden bakkie and a passenger who doesn’t value his life in the rush hour (substantial traffic) is nothing new to us. The vehicle and its occupants travelled all the way through the city and towards the peninsula, who knows how far! As safe as…?

This episode reminded me recently of a client we visited. The client in question had had two major incidents. Both
accidents occurred on a downward gradient, or what I refer to as a hill or pass of ‘increasing gradient’ i.e. the gradient increases the lower down the pass.

Excuse my crude drawing. I have here an exaggerated cross section of a mountain pass. As you can see, if I descend from left to right, the gradient at first is ‘easy’. This is until you reach the ‘green’ point. Thereafter, the gradient increases dramatically. I emphasise that drivers who have not pre-selected the correct gear for the steeper part will frequently arrive at the incorrect speed with little chance to rectify it. Drivers often get caught out by this when inexperienced. It is more unlikely in places like KZN because of the different terrain and thereby experience of drivers in general.
 

My rough sketch of a mountain pass shows how the gradient starts off easy but then increases dramatically. If the correct gear is not preselected, the driver could well lose it on the pass.

This client was blaming cows, sheep, road administration, road works, and pedestrians, avoiding any self reflection or introspection! Not to say that the cause of these accidents was not the aforementioned obstacles!

As a curious and opening topic for debate, we attempted to divert the subject onto the hazards of such passes i.e. increasing gradients. I have to admit I do not know or cannot quantify whether the client has digested this particular problem. All I can say is I hope so. Training just might make all the difference and save us all a pot of money in claims to boot!