Cost of Aarto implementation worries RFA

Increased cost to companies remains the major concern of the Road Freight Association (RFA) when it comes to the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act, according to Gavin Kelly, RFA technical and operations manager. “There is no disagreement that we have a horrendous road safety situation in the country and that it must be addressed. In principle the RFA is not opposed to Aarto, but we have some major concerns, especially around increased costs.” Speaking at the Transport Forum in Johannesburg recently, Kelly said the jury was still out on whether Aarto in its current form would be able to address the road safety situation in the country and was not just another revenue-driven policing initiative. “For Aarto to be successful the country needs a very efficient driver licensing process along with effective and well-trained law enforcement officials and reliable and easy-to-use technology.” Kelly said access to ENaTis was however not easy or cheap, while Aarto could lead to the targeting of operators not just by their own employees but also officials. He said there were also too many offences carrying demerit points that could easily just be penalised via fines, making the entire process complex and difficult to manage. “How is an operator going to manage a fleet of drivers in their personal time and how will he know every Monday morning if each of his drivers still has a licence and points. It is going to be costly for companies as it has a huge administrative side that has to be managed,” said Kelly. He said Aarto also allowed for a huge corruptive centre that was worrying. “From a freight perspective we are not against Aarto, but we are saying that it needs minimal human interface, a well-trained and effective police force to manage it and reliable technology. Until all of that is in place we don’t see it being successful.” He said the cost impact on business would also have to be addressed. “There is an in-house administrative requirement cost as well as the access cost to ENaTIS and other information, along with the pool of vehicles and drivers a company will now have to have on standby should a driver lose his licence or a vehicle be pulled off the road.” Kelly said a major concern of the RFA was the plethora of foreign drivers being employed in South Africa who did not fall under Aarto, as they did not have local drivers’ licences. “We support an initiative to make the roads safer, an initiative to remove high-risk road users and move the bad operators off the road, but to do that one needs to eradicate corruption first and introduce fair and transparent prosecution while dealing with the causes and not just the symptoms,” said Kelly.