While fuel, wages,
tolls and the like are
the most obvious
reasons for South
Africa’s high logistics costs, the
bureaucracy governing harbour
operations, abnormal permits,
the ever-hungry traffic officials
and the conditions of the national
road network are the less obvious
contributing factors, says Carl
Webb, MD of Project Logistics
Management (PLM).
Webb noted that heavy
vehicles took a pounding
when travelling on this poorly
maintained road network. “Of
course the industry gets blamed
for damaging the roads,” he
said, “whereas in fact these
roads were never designed for
the volumes of vehicles that
are required to replace the rail
service.”
And while the industry agrees
that there are too many heavy
vehicles on the roads, Webb
is adamant that the country
again has no other alternative
but to use road transport, as
the rail network cannot provide
scheduled delivery as required.
Also, because most companies
can no longer afford stock
on shelves, they have to rely
on stock being delivered as
required. Webb pointed out
that this put pressure on all
concerned in the logistics chain,
as companies had to close if
they did not have the materials
or stock when needed.
“Also,” he
added, “the
ports are
battling to
keep up with
the volumes,
even during the
lull in which
the country
finds itself.
I shudder to
think how they
will cope when
the economy
turns around.
This inefficient
state of port operations means
unnecessary delays for transport
operators, resulting in vehicles
having to travel after normal
working hours – and once again
pushing up the costs.”
He also pointed out that the
abnormal permit regulations
in SA were “archaic to say the
least”, resulting in higher than
necessary costs. “This of course
all leads to the traffic officers
being hungrier than usual. The
harder the
authorities
make it to
comply, the
easier it is to
take chances
and pay your
way through.
“But,
conversely,
the easier it
is to comply,
the more
compliance you
will have.”
Webb
suggested that an example was
what he termed the abnormal
permit fiasco. “It costs about
R 3 500 for a legal permit,” he
told FTW, “whereas it makes
economic sense to hand the
driver R 1 000 ‘danger pay’
instead.
“Unfortunately, there is
an increasing number of
transporters operating in
this manner – heedless of the
insurance implications if there
is an incident whilst running
illegally.”
And now, to top it all, he
added, we have our minister
of transport introducing
legislation restricting heavy
vehicles for six hours a day, or
25% of the most productive
time.
“This will, of course, result
in vehicles having to travel
during the night and at higher
speeds to achieve the same
productivity,” Webb said, “which
will quite obviously result
in more heavy vehicles being
involved in accidents.
“Surely the opposite of what is
intended?”
Webb insisted that the RFA
was quite right in its motto,
‘without trucks South Africa
stops’. “Hopefully, those in
authority will see this in time.”
INSERT & CAPTION
There is an increasing
number of transporters
who are heedless of the
insurance implications if
there is an incident whilst
running illegally.
– Carl Webb
