Top-level transporters and freight industry representatives are heading for a showdown with the Department of Transport (DoT) over the longstanding impasse related to the imminent height restriction of 4.3m for ISO containers carried on the back of a trailer.
A crisis meeting was held by the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) last Wednesday, while the DoT, long accused by industry of not listening to the potential chaos the restriction could cause, initiated a meeting at the Durban Country Club on Tuesday (October 2).
Speaking to FTW ahead of the meeting, Freightliner Transport CEO Kevin Martin, an industry stalwart who has played an integral role in opposing the height restriction, explained that the meeting had been initiated by an insider who had warned his colleagues against potential litigation around the matter. According to Martin it’s not the first time that internal differences over the matter have exposed fissures within the DoT. Reluctant to identify who it was that broke ranks, Martin was only willing to say that the official warned his colleagues that should industry ever galvanise around seeking an urgent interdict against the regulation, “the DoT would lose”.
An interdict seemed increasingly possible as frustrated freight industry professionals at last Wednesday's JCCI meeting expressed their determination to prevent the regulation from taking effect on January 1, 2019. Although agreeing that the meeting could be a make or break situation for the impasse, Martin said he was not holding his breath that national representatives from the DoT would indeed attend. Asked whom he would like to see at the meeting, Martin said “John Motsatsing, chief director of road regulation at the DoT, or his boss.”
As for other organisations and their respective representatives, Martin said port officials, shipping lines, official and independent harbour carriers, various consultants, the South African Association of Ship Operators and Agents (Saasoa), as well as the South African Association of Freight Forwarders, were all expected to attend. Whatever transpires at the meeting, possibly behind closed doors, Martin maintains that Regulation 224(b) will never take effect.
“We will not comply with it,” he said. “It’s too expensive to change our fleets and we have been saying it for years. In the meantime international cargo, Martin claims, is dominated by high cubes. Saasoa CEO Peter Besnard said at the JCCI meeting that high cubes by far exceeded the volume of standard containers worldwide. “If government succeeds with the restriction it will bring about massivemarket damage resulting in widespread job losses.”
Echoing his concerns was International Chamber of Commerce director Pat Corbin who warned that Regulation 224(b) would fundamentally disrupt the fluidity of freight in South Africa. JCCI CEO Joan WarburtonMcBride commented that she had confidentially learned that Mozambican harbour officials were waiting in the wings to absorb redirected cargo from shipping lines eager to avoid a potential back-up in Durban should the restriction go ahead.
Speaking at a recent Transport Forum, logistics consultant Luigi Serafino said it had been noted for some time that the ports of Maputo and Beira were successfully sorting out capacity issues to suck up possible spill-over freight from South Africa. Port consultant for the South Africa Maritime Safety Authority, Selma SchwartzClausen, urged attendees at the JCCI meeting to bear with the DoT, saying that government was well aware of the gravity of the matter and was doing what it could to accommodate industry.
In the meantime it has transpired that government is willing to extend the current moratorium allowing high cubes on South Africa roads.
“We can’t have another moratorium,” Martin said. “It will be like putting a band aid on a brain tumour.” More importantly, news of government’s conciliatory approach coincided with news from the Cape Chamber of Commerce that they were willing to accept the restriction (See story on pg 8). Their provisions were carefully set out in a statement that industry peers, the likes of Martin, have slammed.
“Ultimately it comes down to one thing – government must change the law, finish and klaar,” said Martin.
We can’t have another moratorium. It will be like putting a band aid on a brain tumour. – Kevin Martin Kevin Martin addresses delegates at last week's crisis meeting in Johannesburg.
