Truckers to court over cross border tariff hikes

The last-minute attempt
by the Road Freight
Association (RFA) to find
an out-of-court solution
to the cross-border permit
problem, in an urgent
meeting with the deputy
minister of transport and
the CEO of the Cross-
Border Road Transport
Agency (CBRTA), has
failed, according to RFA
technical and operations
manager, Gavin Kelly.
“And the only answer
left to us now is to take
the matter to court,” he
told FTW.
This followed the
recent massive cost hike
for cross-border permits
– condemned by road
transporters as being
“fatal”. Applicable from
April 1, the cost, for
example, of a 12-month
new/renewal permit
for Freight Class 2 (the
classification into which
the standard cross-border
truck fits) was R5 720, a
239.88% increase over the
previous cost of R1 690.
And there was a dual
problem. Not only did the
CBRTA hike up the cost
of these permits, but it
demanded one permit for
each country.
Adding fuel to the
truckers’ fire was that the
massive permit hikes were
supposedly justified by
the fact that the CBRTA
was running out of cash
– the result, the agency
had said, of not receiving
government financial
support.
“We will close our
doors in three months
if we don’t implement
permit tariff increases,”
said Maryna Aucamp, the
agency’s chief financial
officer, as the onerous new
charges were imposed.
She added that the
organisation required
R182-million instead R52-m it had in the kitty
just to carry out the basic
terms of its mandate.
CE Sipho Khumalo said
unlike other regulatory
bodies, the agency was
not given government
start-up funds when it
began and therefore it had
to rely solely on issuing
of permits and imposing
penalties for those without
permits for its survival.
But transporters
complained to FTW that
this level of price increase
was very likely to put a
number of companies out
of business.
The RFA tried hard to
avoid the “enormous cost”
of taking the matter to
court, said Kelly at the
time of the announcement
of the new permit charges.
But, he told FTW last
week: “Our members are
extremely frustrated at the
lack of a positive response
from the agency and the
minister of transport,
S’bu Ndebele – despite
promises that the matter
would be dealt with.
“Our only alternative
now is to implement the
legal option.”
The RFA has, therefore,
lodged an urgent
application to the court for
the permit tariffs to be set
aside.
“We have stated that the
minister of transport was
ill-advised on the process
to be followed,” Kelly told
FTW. “This after we told
the CBRTA that the tariff
hike was unjustified and
unacceptable.”
The RFA hopes for
some legal satisfaction
on the issue in about a
month’s time.