Dedicated freight highways could shave 20% off transport costs

The creation of a dedicated
freight road on the N3 trade
corridor between Gauteng
and Durban could reduce land
transport costs by 20%. And it
could easily be funded through
the introduction of “not
unreasonable” toll fees.
This is
the opinion
of transport
economist
Andrew
Marsay, who
pointed out
that while the
current N3TC
tolls at R1.50
per kilometre
generated
R2.5 billion per
annum for the
upgrade and
maintenance
of the road,
it would be possible to fund
a dedicated freight roadway
simply by doubling that toll to
R3.00 per kilometre per truck.
He said development of a
dedicated freight highway
became viable when
commercial vehicles began to
exceed traffic numbers by 30%
– which is certainly the case on
the N3.
“Furthermore, the life of
a passenger road could be
extended by
200-300%
without the
damage caused
by heavy duty
trucks – which
means less
money spent on
maintenance
and upgrade
of those
highways,” said
Marsay.
He suggested
implementing
the dedicated
freight corridor
in stages, starting with the
development of a 20-kilometre
shorter De Beers pass between
Warden and Ladysmith –
bypassing Van Reenen’s pass
and offering easier grades for
trucks.
Then, said Marsay, this
could be extended northwards
to Heidelberg by either
upgrading the old N3 to a
dual-2 standard or by adding
freight lanes parallel to the
main N3 route. He also
proposed the creation of a new,
mandatory freight route from
Cato Ridge, directly into the
port of Durban.
But how does a dedicated
freight highway lead to a
reduction in logistics costs? It’s
simple, commented Marsay.
“The present regulatory and
safety concerns around roads
shared by passenger and
freight vehicles do not allow
for optimisation of logistics
operating costs through greater
payloads per trip.”
According to him, that’s
why there is so much
overloading
because
the current regulations
restrict the length and
height of trucks and do not
allow for double interlinks.
“By creating separate freight
roads we could see larger
rigs and higher payloads
that could reduce
operating costs and
allow for funding via
tolling,” said Marsay.
He added that if
Transnet focused its
road-to-rail migration
strategy on dry and
liquid bulk transport,
instead of bringing
containerised freight
into the loop, it
could increase its rail
volumes more rapidly
and at a much lower
total spend.
“This
would
then leave higher value
container freight to
an optimised road
infrastructure,” Marsay
commented.
INSERT & CAPTION
The present regulatory
and safety concerns
do not allow for
optimisation of logistics
operating costs through
greater payloads.
– Andrew Marsay