Concerns over abnormal transport permits continue despite RFA reassurances

While the Road Freight Association (RFA) thinks that a discussion break has been agreed on the issue of who should grant abnormal permits, the heavy truckers in KZN are anything but satisfied that a bargain has been reached with the Department of Transport (DoT). This follows a brief note to the abnormal transporters some three weeks ago advising that in future all abnormal permits for KwaZulu Natal (KZN) – where the Port of Durban is SA’s main gateway for incoming heavy loads – were to be approved by an Advocate Chamane, and not the engineers presently in charge of the DoT’s KZN permit office in Pietermaritzburg. The RFA’s technical and operations manager, Gavin Kelly, told FTW that he understood that an agreement had been reached with the DoT that the format for issuing abnormal load permits would not be changed immediately, as the DoT had implied in its original notification to truckers. “It seems that they have amended their thinking on how quickly this change can be made,” he said, “accepting that permit issues sometimes take weeks to be processed, and that truckers can’t be expected to have newcomers taking over their applications part-way through the process.” Kelly also suggested that he had been given the impression that the industry had questioned why there was a need to change the personnel at the permit issuing authority office in Pietermaritzburg when it still worked”. However, Carl Webb, MD of Project Logistics Management, member of the KZN super-load (125-tonne plus) committee and former member of the RFA abnormal load subcommittee, implied that the reasoning for the change was irrelevant. The heavy truckers’ complaint was that the DoT seemed determined that the permit personnel were going to be changed to parties with absolutely no engineering or similar technical qualifications. This concern was because applications for abnormal road permits were supposed to guarantee that the vehicle and load specifications would suitably spread the load evenly over all the vehicle’s axles, and minimise road damage, and that the load/ vehicle would comply with all the current regulations. As Webb has already told FTW, that is the engineers’ primary concern with applications. But unqualified personnel approving permits would lead to the danger of transport “cowboys being given free rein to run illegal or unsuitable trucks and loads, and further destroy what is already a badly deteriorated road infrastructure”, he added. At the same time, he noted that attempts to get explanatory information from the authorities in writing had failed up to the FTW deadline at the end of last week, and that telephone conversations suggested that changes had already been made. An email invitation already sent to the DoT in Pietermaritzburg on November 4 for a meeting with the abnormal road transporters and to discuss their concerns had also been unanswered at the end of last week. Meantime, an FTW call to the KZN MEC for Transport met with the response that he was “not in the office”. At the same time, a call to the DoT head of transport in Pietermaritzburg also met with the negative response that he had “already gone home”.