The proposal to reduce the permissible maximum rear axle mass for heavy freight vehicles from 9 000-kilograms to 8 000-kgs has now “been put on ice”, according to Gavin Kelly, technical and operations manager of the Road Freight Association (RFA). He told FTW that, from a frustrating procession of discussions with the Department of Transport (DoT), the RFA had eventually engaged with Taemane Blue – the consultants conducting the freight strategy investigation for the department. “We built up a good relationship with them and feel that they actually listened to what we had to tell them,” he added. The truckers’ main complaint was that this axle mass shift would lead to an average payload reduction of 15.72% – varying between 2.45-tonnes and 5.62-t depending on the size of the road rig. At the same time it would do nothing to cure the continued disintegration of the secondary road network – which was the DoT’s reasoning behind the mass reduction. This deterioration, said the RFA, was due to no periodic maintenance, repair or development having been done over the past few years, and budget allocations for road works and road-user revenue streams having been appropriated for other programmes. A third reason cited was a lack of foresight and forward planning at departmental level – with the RFA pointing out that many roads were not originally built for either the weight or the traffic volumes now experienced. It also contradicted a regional agreement signed last year. South Africa’s Minister of Transport signed an agreement with neighbouring countries in May 2009 that 10-t would be the regional norm, even though at the time the country noted that it would not be adopting the 10-t at the time. “SA definitely accepted the recommendation for the region that was 10-t on a single axle,” says Barney Curtis, executive director of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta). “And not even six months later the Department of Transport announced its intention to reduce axle mass from 9-t to 8-t.” But the DoT has now received the report from the consultancy, which Kelly said he believed advised against the drop in axle mass. “It would now appear to have been put on ice indefinitely,” he added. “In other words, no legislation is being planned, and certainly not intended to be imposed.”
