Embargo would slash producivity

It is estimated at least 33% of operational time will be cut by the government’s proposed embargo of trucks on the road. According to economist Mike Schussler, the impact on the economy of the country will be significant while freight, logistics and transport costs will see substantial increases. “Initial estimates that the peak time ban of trucks would see a 25% cut in operational time have been revised. The impact will be more – and closer to 33%,” he said. “This is because the daily operational time will be reduced by several hours. Also the drive time from port to final destination will be slower so delivery will be slower. Delivery time will be further slowed down as there will be more operations taking place at night.” He said the effect of all this would be a cost increase of at least 55% – and that was if one remained conservative in the calculations. “Taking the abnormal industry into consideration – where they are already only allowed to operate between sunrise and sunset – one is effectively taking out half of their operational time as they will only have from 9 to 5 to move at all.” Schussler said in light of the coming carbon tax and the host of other permits and fees the industry was already paying, this ban was going to have a major economic impact and it was not positive in any way. “It is going to be extremely disruptive,” he said. “We must also be very wary of comparing South Africa to international destinations. It’s very easy to go to Europe and see how similar legislation works there, but we have to remember that locally we just don’t have the same infrastructure in place. INSERT 33% The amount of operational time that the ban would cut.