Coal loads transported to the Port of Richards Bay are on a steady increase after no road freight of coal was accepted at the port from December 24 to January 2.
The measure, implemented to alleviate truck congestion on the N17 and N2 highways, meant the flow of holiday traffic was substantially eased during the festive season.
This was confirmed during a road trip Freight News undertook to the region in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal over the New Year period.
The comparative ease of traffic flow was in stark contrast to last year’s congestion when coal tippers on the N2 slowed vehicle traffic travelling time down to about three hours on the 207-kilometre stretch between Ermelo and Pongola.
Although not all coal transporters complied with last year’s festive season embargo on road loads of coal, instituted by Transnet in the run-up to December, the measure succeeded in decreasing tipper traffic on the N17-N2.
A spokesperson at Transnet also said that the state-owned logistics utility remained committed to removing about 400 trucks off roads leading towards the port.
He said this was through several alleviation strategies Transnet had instituted at the port.
However, after the road loads embargo ended on January 2, tip traffic to the regularly congested port is already on the increase.
In the space of about two hours spent at the bridge across the underutilised coal line for rail freight into the port, the number of trucks heading into the Richards Bay Coal Terminal had doubled.
This is a developing story and Transnet has committed to an exclusive interview between Thulasizwe Dlamini, the managing executive for RCB Terminals, and Freight News on Monday, January 8.
