Harmonisation tops the menu at tripartite road transport pow-wow

The attempts to harmonise road haulage at the first meeting of the tripartite road transport (TPT) working group in Uganda recently were not as harmonious as was hoped for, according to Barney Curtis, executive officer of the Federation of the Southern and East African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta). And the federation expressed certain concerns about issues discussed at the meeting – designed to supervise the transport harmonisation for the proposed grouping of the three free- trade regions – the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), and the East African Community (EAC). On the agenda were the following draft regulations: • Harmonisation of vehicle regulations and standards of fitness of vehicles; • Transportation of hazardous/ dangerous goods; and • Transport of abnormal/awkward goods. “One of our concerns was that some of the regional recommendations (particularly dangerous goods and abnormal loads) were described as ‘desirable’ and not necessarily ‘essential’,” Curtis told FTW. “With all these recommendations given equal status in the documents, there was the possibility that there would be an overload of information and some member states would not know what to legislate and what not to.” For this reason, Fesarta recommended that, as with UN regulations, “levels” could be adopted. The minimum level regulations would be those that all the member states were obliged to implement. “We also noted a problem where a host country did not accept the equipment on a vehicle from another country,” Curtis added. “These included reflective tape, mud flaps, etc. “It was fine to have regional recommendations, but a particular member state may not fully implement the recommendations. That member state could then fine foreign transporters accordingly.” And Barbara Mommen, CEO of the Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative (MCLI), who also attended this first tripartite gathering, stressed that achieving this uniformity in road transport regulations was critical if the three free-trade regions were to amicably interact with each other. Contracted capacity ex India All major cities at preferential rates Tel: 0861 CFR 111 www.cfrfreight.co.za