Truck Accident Rate - SARF Believes the Answer Is At Hand
Tuesday, 05 July 2011 |   |  0 comment

Image by Rupert Ganzer

The South African Road Federation (SARF) has appealed to the Minister of Transport to implement its road freight quality system (RFQS) as a means of addressing the unacceptably high accident rate in the road freight haulage industry.

SARF president, Mutshutshu Nxumalo, says the time for theorising is over.

“Overturned trucks are virtually a daily occurrence, resulting in considerable inconvenience to other road users, not to mention injury, loss of life and huge expense. Speeding, overloading and poorly secured loads, are contributing factors, as are unroadworthy vehicles and driver fatigue.

“Truckers are often forced to drive for up to 16 hours at a stretch and to take drugs to keep awake. In fact 83% of road fatalities are caused by human error,” observes Nxumalo.

A report published by The Road Traffic Management Corporation showed that in 2009 there were 117 403 LDVs and 54 296 heavy vehicles that were not roadworthy or were unlicensed, or both. During that year the heavy vehicle population stood at 321 604 which meant that 17% of them should have been taken off the road.

Nxumalo says the first road freight quality system (RFQS) was first proposed in 1986 when a white paper on transport policy stated Government’s intention of implementing such a system as a precondition for the elimination of the road freight permit system. Despite the subsequent burgeoning growth of SA’s road freight industry the RQFS was never implemented, mainly due to opposition and political lobbying by the road freight industry.

Ten years later a second Government white paper held that “traffic control (law enforcement) was a priority of traffic management, due to a severe breakdown of discipline on roads, which in turn led to unsafe conditions.” It also stated that “a simplified Road Transport Quality System will be fully enunciated and implemented as a matter of urgency”.

“Government has not come anywhere near to implementing the system, giving free reign to unscrupulous operators and badly trained drivers who continue to wreak havoc on our roads,” says Nxumalo.

As far back as 2006, John Schnell, one of South Africa’s most competent traffic officials, said that the failure to implement RTQS and the lack of proper enforceable driving hours, as set out in the Road Traffic Act, were major contributors to unsafe conditions on our roads and are directly responsible for late night/early morning accidents. Since then the situation has worsened considerably.

During the same year SARF recommended that the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) be given law-enforcement powers. In its current guise it is a relatively toothless instrument compared to what the original document proposed some 15 years ago.

“Road freight haulage is a significant facet of South Africa’s economy, and the efficient movement of freight can considerably reduce total production costs. Why then is there inadequate enforcement of the required safety measures?

“Government needs to intervene forcefully, initiating a national RTQS-based safety campaign. It should also provide funds for the recruitment and training of additional traffic personnel and for the proper maintenance of the country’s highway grid”, concludes Nxumalo.