October 2009

A final farewell: BPW SA's operations manager, Jacques Krog, oversees the destruction of the counterfeit drums. Fiery demise: (bottom left) The pirated brake drums return to their point of origin. A cut-away of an inferior-quality brake drum clearly showing defective alloy integrity. (bottom right)

FleetWatch lifts its hat to leading South African trailer axle manufacturer, BPW Axles, for striking a significant blow against automotive parts pirates by seizing and destroying counterfeit trailer axle brake drums carrying the BPW brand markings.

All locally manufactured BPW brake drums must adhere to a strict quality control process as stipulated by BPW Germany. Those that don’t are re-melted and the resultant alloy is processed to manufacture new brake drums. The stock of counterfeit brake drums was subjected to this fate and dropped into a fiery furnace to be reduced to molten ‘grey iron’.

“Trailer brake drums are safety-critical items and as such, BPW goes to great lengths to ensure every brake drum that reaches the market has been rigorously tested using the very latest technology,” says Terence Kruger, national sales director, BPW Axles SA.

“During 2006, we had an unusually high number of failures on BPW brake drums. Many of these were replaced at great cost to BPW SA as a goodwill gesture to our customers but our suspicions were alerted.”

In late 2006, a bakkie belonging to a trailer parts dealer entered the organisation’s loading yard laden with BPW brake drums not purchased from BPW.

“A few questions revealed that these drums were obtained from an ‘alternative parts’ distributor. It was established beyond any  doubt that these drums were counterfeit and we offered to replace them with original BPW drums, keeping the fake parts for further investigation,” adds Kruger.

“After consultation with our lawyers, it was decided that legal action was necessary. In February 2007, the premises of a trailer spare parts distributor was raided by the DTI and the SCCU (Serious Commercial Crime Unit). More than 200 brake drums were seized and placed in a warehouse for safe keeping pending court proceedings.

“The wheels of justice are well-braked and turn very slowly. However, after a long, drawn out legal action, the drums were released by court order to BPW for destruction in September this year,” says Kruger.

BPW brake drums have unique metallurgical and mechanical properties and are released for local manufacture at selected foundries in South Africa. BPW brake drums are ‘heatcoded’, whereby every batch of drums is imprinted with a unique serial number. The numbers on the counterfeit drums were easily identified as either ‘reject’ or bogus.

Perfect hit: A magnetised crane head lifts the pirate drums into a skip alongside the furnace.

South Africa has one of the world’s highest truck accident rates and trailer brake failure is often cited as the cause of these accidents.

“While brake drums do fail, this is often because of overloading, poor brake maintenance and driver abuse,” Kruger says. “However, the fact that unscrupulous operators sell poorly made, untested brake drums into the market only heightens the risk of serious road accidents and fatalities.”

“Despite the legal costs, BPW SA had to make a stand against this injurious action. From a commercial perspective, no manufacturer can afford to have its products pirated and sold at less than their legitimate market price. As far as corporate responsibility is concerned, the seizure and destruction of these illegal brake drums is a clear statement to the industry and the motoring public that BPW always puts safety first,” concludes Kruger. FleetWatch lifts its hat to BPW for taking this course of action. Way to go guys!