Cr ime continues to pose a serious threat to the road freight transport sector, driving up the cost of logistics significantly.According to Gavin Kelly, CEO of the Road Freight Association, hijackings are still happening far too often on the key freight arterial routes. In addition, smash-and-grabs are frequent occurrences in areas where trucks and their drivers are regarded as nothing more than sitting ducks – areas such as ports and land borders where long queues occur, as well as at toll gates and even in rest areas.“Over the past year, we have seen crime syndicates organise themselves. It has resulted in a systematic and coordinated attack on the supply chain,” said Kelly during a recent online presentation. “The areas where trucks are most vulnerable to these criminal elements are at the harbours, land borders, and origin and distribution centres. The fragile electricity supply and unrest situations also pose a great risk to transporters.”He said that at the country’s ports in particular, the lack of staging facilities meant that queues of trucks stretching up to 3km could be found on any given day. “The constant changes to the truck booking systems are one of the reasons for the truck queues, but the inefficiencies caused by port architecture and infrastructure also result in queues. “The movement of containers in the port is also problematic, and we have to find a solution to the queuing system so that one is not having the container at the front belonging to a truck at the back of the queue.”Kelly said criminal elements targeted standing trucks – a phenomenon also seen at the various land borders. “At several of our land borders, there is a real mismatch between the operating times of various countries, little data sharing and too many manual systems still in operation. All of this results in delays, which in turn means the trucks are standing and become targets for criminals,” he explained. “Another major concern is that many of these crime syndicates are very aware of what is in the containers, and the targets are intentionally chosen.”He said at the centres of origin and at distribution centres they were seeing increased incidents of theft and hijacking. “In particular, strikes, labour disputes and general unrest at these sites impact on operators. Many protesters have realised that they can gain far more attention if they burn a truck, and our industry is often the target of these criminal elements. Looting in these situations becomes problematic.”He said at present, vehicles transporting food and fuel were often the main targets of syndicates. “There is a huge black market for food and fuel, and these vehicles are increasingly at risk.”Kelly said with hijackings and smash-and-grabs on the increase, security on key routes needed to be upped to protect the road freight sector in particular.
