A computer failure at the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport has left abnormal load operators fuming, with trucks standing under load for more than a week and costs running into hundreds of thousands of rands.
Operators say permits for abnormal vehicles – required by law before moving heavy and oversize cargo – are not being issued on time due to the system breakdown. In one case, four lowbed trucks carrying 60-ton loads stood idle from mid-September until permits were issued eight days later, at a cost of about R15 000 per truck per day - nearly half a million rand in total.
“A similar issue occurred in Mpumalanga a couple of months ago when the system went down, but letters were issued and operators were allowed to move on the strength of those. In KZN, no such provision has been made. Trucks cannot move until the actual permit is printed, and that’s now taking more than a week,” said one operator, who asked not to be named.
Under normal circumstances, permits are applied for in the morning and issued the same day. Since the system went down, however, the average turnaround time has stretched to seven or eight days.
According to Gavin Kelly, CEO of the Road Freight Association (RFA), the system has been down for more than two weeks, with the DoT unable to resolve the problem.
“It is extremely frustrating and operators’ businesses are bleeding,” he said.
“We are pushing hard for the department to grant some kind of reprieve to allow abnormal cargo to move in KZN despite the system failure, but so far to no avail. The situation is extremely serious and the authorities do not seem to grasp the gravity of it. We continue to lobby for interim relief.”
Kelly said some vehicles had been stuck at the port for up to seven days while waiting for permits.
“The knock-on effect is huge. With abnormal cargo, the vehicles are often loaded directly from vessels, so you now have trucks sitting idle with loads simply waiting for a permit to be issued.”
The department has blamed the collapse on a damaged server drive and corrupted databases. In correspondence with the RFA, officials said they were in the process of procuring tools to repair the system and had asked their developer at the CSIR to assist.
For now, only one computer in the KZN permit office is able to process abnormal load applications, as no shared drive is available. The office has introduced strict cut-off times, accepts only card payments, and allows just one applicant inside at a time.
Operators warn that the impact is severe. With permits issued per province, they say the situation has created bottlenecks at KZN’s ports.
“We know of exports that have missed sailings, some of which have even been cancelled by overseas buyers,” one operator told Freight News.
Another company confirmed it had at least five abnormal vehicles standing idle while waiting for permits to leave the city since last week.
Transporters are also questioning how permit fees are being used.
“We spend R100 000 a month on permits, but none of it comes back into abnormal routes, staff or IT systems,” one operator said.
“If those funds were ring-fenced, problems like the current computer breakdown could be fixed quickly.”
Requests for comment from the Department of Transport had not been answered at the time of going to print.
