‘Disruptors’ force transport department to re-evaluate strategies

Rapid changes
in technology
affecting
provincial freight
logistics – such as driverless
trucks and cargo drones
– have forced government
policy makers to revisit
their transport policies,
according to Gauteng MEC
for Roads and Transport,
Ismail Vadi.
He told FTW that these
developments had the
potential to revolutionise
the transport sector. “It
has forced us as policy
makers to rethink our
well-established norms and
look at new frontiers,” Vadi
commented.
He added that it was
important for government
to re-evaluate its strategies
and look at what kind of
policies and regulations
were needed to better
facilitate the deployment of
new transport technologies
in the freight industry.
Vadi said the Gauteng
roads and transport
department was currently
implementing strategies
to ensure “greener, faster,
more cost-effective,
safer and more equitable
freight logistics” in the
province to help address
the transformation,
modernisation and
re-industrialisation
objectives of the Gauteng
provincial government.
“We are aiming to bring
the immediate goals of
freight logistics – namely,
cost-effectiveness, speed
and competitiveness
– in line with broader
development goals
such as environmental
protection, socio-economic
development and a safe and
secure urban environment,”
he said.
Part of this overall strategy,
Vadi said, was to deploy
more roadblocks in the
province to help crack down
on unroadworthy, and thus
unsafe, trucks. “You wouldn’t
believe some of the problems
we’ve picked up during current
roadblocks,” he said, noting that
it was mostly vehicles operating
outside the roadfreight
associations so that standards
were not enforced.
“Unroadworthy trucks are
major hazards not only to
road safety but potentially
to the environment as well,
particularly when they are
carrying hazardous cargo,” Vadi
said.
He pointed to the province’s
recent signing of a Joint
Declaration of Intent with
Germany to “expand the
frontiers of green logistics”
after the German federal
government chose South
Africa, and Gauteng in
particular, as the first country
and region on the African
continent to develop and
implement the GLI:X Project.
Vadi explained that
the project would engage
scientific expertise for the
joint development of a Green
Logistics Indicator (GLI-X)
system in Gauteng, which
would also expand the
sustainability of the transport
and logistics sector in the
province.