Limited visibility of foreign-registered trucks after they enter South Africa poses a safety and enforcement risk, particularly when vehicles are transporting dangerous goods, a transport specialist has warned.
University of Johannesburg lecturer Lunga Jacobs raised this concern during the Transport Forum’s Integrated Public Transport Network Operational Focus event on September 17.
Jacobs said authorities record the intended destination of a vehicle when it enters the country but cannot necessarily monitor its movements thereafter.
“When trucks come in and they are on our roads from neighbouring states, there’s no way to tell where they are.”
A truck could enter South Africa with a declared destination such as the Port of Durban but deviate from the expected route to avoid enforcement authorities, Jacobs added.
This presents a particular risk when the vehicle is carrying dangerous goods and travels through communities that are not prepared to respond to an incident.
Jacobs said inadequate information about the contents of a vehicle could further complicate an emergency response.
“You carry something that looks like water or smells like paraffin. We assume it is paraffin but it is not. It can cause a whole lot of other dangers.”
He called for greater use of tracking technology and transport data to improve oversight and enable authorities to allocate enforcement and emergency response resources more effectively.
Jacobs said the transport sector collects substantial information but does not use it as effectively as it could.
“When we know what happens, where and when, we know how to allocate resources,” Jacobs said.
Better cooperation between government, transport operators and technology providers is required to close gaps in the monitoring of road freight movements, said Jacobs.
This is part of a broader road safety and compliance challenge facing the transport industry as government introduces regulatory reforms and considers stricter controls for drivers and operators.
Jacobs said safer roads and more effective enforcement are important not only for protecting lives but also for reducing South Africa’s logistics costs.
