Checking driver credentials is crucial to avoid theft

Transporters should always
conduct background checks
on their drivers and obtain as
much information about them as
possible before employing them.
This is the advice from Cas
Weeks of Africargo and Transit
Surveys, a company that attends
to cargo and risk assessment
assignments on behalf of both
local and overseas insurers,
brokers and clearing agents.
“Over the past 12 months we
have investigated no fewer than
85 hijacking incidents where
drivers have been implicated
in the thefts. Of interest is that
80% of those drivers are foreign
nationals,”
says Weeks.
With special expertise in the
investigation of claims arising out
of hijacking, theft, fraud, goods
in transit, warehouse risk and
warehouse inspection surveys as
well as pre- and post-discharge
surveys and general condition
surveys, Africargo says it is
important that transporters make
sure they know the people they
are employing.
“The large number of foreign
nationals entering South Africa
has resulted in a flood of foreign
drivers being available for local
employment.
In most instances no
background checks are conducted
on these drivers and very
limited information is obtained
from the person before they
are employed by a transporter.
It is concerning that in most
instances the transporters do not
know or check who the driver’s
previous employer was, confirm
his cross-border address, obtain
details of his wife, children, next
of kin or even take a photograph
of him before offering him
employment.
It seems that in most
instances drivers simply provide
a local address, their licence, a
copy of their Asylum Seekers’
Permit and Road Traffic
Register Certificate and are
handed the keys to expensive
rigs transporting, in some
instances, even more expensive
cargo,” says Weeks.
“The syndicates operating in
South Africa and cross border
are well organised. They identify
transporters that are carrying
certain types of cargo, befriend
and recruit their drivers and in
most instances the cargo is sold
and the driver paid before it
disappears. Cargo valued at R1m
is sold in some instances for as
little as R40 000 by drivers to
these syndicates.
The drivers then simply
disappear back across
the border. Due to the
organised nature of these
‘reported’ hijackings the driver
and cargo are almost never
located and this is thanks largely
to relevant driver information not
being available timeously.”