An old road freight industry issue in South Africa has resurfaced at the country’s Beitbridge Border Post with Zimbabwe after five trucks were impounded for allegedly contravening height restrictions set down by the Department of Transport (DoT) (*).
The northbound convoy of Zambian-registered flatbeds was stopped by municipal traffic officials in Musina on Thursday night and found to be in ‘violation’ of a high cube height restriction limiting containers carried on the back of a truck to 4.3 metres.
Officials apparently pulled the trucks over, saying they were carrying “oversized cargo” without the necessary abnormal permits.
Consequently, the trucks were impounded at the old Musina weighbridge, where they remain.
But the restriction against 40-foot high cubes has an indefinite moratorium blocking its application by road traffic authorities, said Mike Fitzmaurice, regional vice president in Sub-Sahara for the African Union’s division on transport and logistics (UAOTL).
“It’s a unique situation and once more illustrates how traffic authorities in South Africa often misapply restrictions that are not enforced and are misunderstood – at escalating cost for cross-border road transporters.”
To release the cargo, the transporter in question has been fined R5 000 per truck.
Fitzmaurice, who also runs the Transit Assistance Bureau, said the cargo consisted of an all-in-one machine that could not be loaded into a standard high-cube container due to its size and length.
He said the cargo was packed within modular steel frame shipping containers that had the same dimensions as high-cube containers, and was therefore exempted from the DoT restriction.
“Unfortunately, the traffic officials wouldn’t hear any of it. They kept claiming it was oversize and that it didn’t classify as a high-cube container, but as one piece of cargo that is over-size.”
Fitzmaurice said he had approached the relevant traffic department executives in Musina, asking that the cargo, bound for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, be released.
“Not one of them have bothered to come back to me. Now the matter has to appear before the local magistrate.”
He said the cross-border operator, one of the largest in the region, had already sent a representative to argue its case in the Musina Magistrate Court.
The high-cube container issue has been a bugbear of South Africa’s road freight industry for several years, and the current moratorium has been in place since at least March 2023, according to Fitzmaurice.
Previously, the DoT was consistently lobbied by industry to reconsider the restriction against high-cube containers – an ISO industry standard across the world.
Should it be enforced, it would mean flatbed carriers would have to be lowered to accommodate high-cube containers at a maximum height of 4.3 metres.
But it is doubtful whether original equipment manufacturers would comply.
Since it first emerged that the DoT failed to properly consult with transporters about high cubes – somewhere back in 2017 – hauliers have resisted the restriction.
For the most part, industry’s contention is that it would be impossible to comply with as hauliers would either have to repack cargo into containers tailored for the restriction, or that flatbeds be lowered.
In both instances, strong arguments have been made against the cost this would place on the road freight industry.
* This post was updated on Monday shortly after it was loaded. Fitzmaurice said the magistrate had withdrawn the fines on the afternoon of November 24 and ordered that the trucks be released.
