{"id":757799,"date":"2024-03-06T12:22:21","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T10:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=757799"},"modified":"2024-03-06T12:23:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T10:23:35","slug":"trucking-industry-in-south-africa-hits-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/757799\/trucking-industry-in-south-africa-hits-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Trucking industry in South Africa hits back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Why put more pressure [on freight companies] and not use the current… fees that we have given you as a government for you to maintain the roads that we have?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the response by the President of the Truckers Association of South Africa, Mary Phadi, to assertions made by Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga that trucking companies have failed to assist in fixing the roads in the country, citing that they are one of the biggest contributors to damaging them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking on the sidelines of a site visit to the notorious Moloto Road on Tuesday (5 March), the minister said that a “robust feasible plan” to fix the state of the country’s roads had been put in place – but would only be able to work if companies, including those in the trucking industry, adopt it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in an interview with eNCA<\/a>, Phadi said that despite being in weekly meetings with government freight committees, they had not heard about the plan that the minister revealed, let alone seen or discussed it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only thing that Phadi said the groups had heard about was a previous proposal by the minister to introduce another toll fee for trucks. However, details were never presented, and the industry strongly opposed this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said that the plans would increase the operating costs of trucking companies and would have a ripple effect on the economy – leading to increased costs of goods for consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phadi said that truck owners could not financially afford to reach even further into their pockets given that they are already paying government levies, toll and license fees, the ever-increasing price of fuel, and in many cases, “private security, due to its risks”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So all that money, where does it go to?” said Phadi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If you cannot maintain the roads with the money that truck owners are already paying, you cannot bring in a[n additional] plan that was not even discussed with the current operators that are bleeding in the freight industry,” she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The utilisation of road freight transport has surged in South Africa as a consequence of the fall in the country’s rail system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gavin Kelly, CEO of the Road Freight Association, said that trucks from the road freight sector currently transport 80% of the goods that are transported within and around South Africa, in addition to the goods for countries that use South African ports for trade with various international markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the country’s current road network is struggling to accommodate how many vehicles make use of it. This has seen a deterioration of roads, with potholes alone costing the country more than\u00a0<\/strong>R500 million\u00a0every month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department has said that its focus is on the repair of roads through a project called Operation Vala Zonke – disclosing that tens of thousands of potholes have been repaired thus far.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phadi contested the notion that the trucking industry has not played a role in addressing the issue of the country’s deteriorating roads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said that the industry has been actively involved in several initiatives aimed at repairing the damaged roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read: How far above the speed limit you can drive before getting fined in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s trucking industry has baulked at suggestions from the transport department that it needs to do more to help fix the country’s roads – despite paying taxes, tariffs, tolls and other fees. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":651309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2552,19344,19523,19525],"class_list":["post-757799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-department-of-transport","tag-roads","tag-sindisiwe-chikunga","tag-truckers-association-of-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757799"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":757929,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757799\/revisions\/757929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}