High hopes for resolution of high-cube crisis

It was a great Christmas
present for the SA container
road transport industry,
as the KwaZulu Natal
traffic authorities called
off their extensive blitz on
vehicles carrying high-cube
containers (with a travel
height of 4.5-4.6-metres) from
December 23.
Prior to this, the KZN
traffic cops were busy pulling
high-cube carrying trucks off
the road, impounding them,
and slapping fines on the
operators.
This threatened to put
offending operators out of
business, and the only answer
at the time, truckers told FTW,
was for them to refuse to haul
the offending loads.
But that doesn’t mean that
the overall problem has been
nationally cured.
Not that this would be too
big a problem, according to
Peter Newton, director of
Seaboard, and a well-known
Cape-based commentator on
transport matters.
“The height limitation is
embedded in the regulations,”
he told FTW, “not the Road
Traffic Act itself.
“So, we are told, the
minister of transport has the
power to change/amend the
regulations without having
to debate the matter in
parliament.”
But, he added, attempts
via the DoT to have him do
so have not been successful
to date.
And it would require no
major sort of word juggling in
the regulations.
“As we’ve repeatedly
pointed out,” said Newton, “all
we need is for the regulation
to be amended by the insertion
of two commas, and three
words, viz: “double-decker
buses, and iso containers, not
exceeding 4.65-m”.
“Then all our problems in
this context would be over.
But the 64-dollar question is:
When?”
In a sense the crisis, which
has arisen in the past couple of
weeks (and is so far restricted
to KZN) is a good thing, he
added. “It has brought to a
head (with all the attendant
publicity) a matter which has
been festering for years.”
And Gavin Kelly, technical
and operations manager of
the Road Freight Association
(RFA), has distinct hopes that
this issue could soon be up for
high level discussion between
road transport and freight
industry bodies and the DoT.
“First,” he told FTW, “we
are trying to put together
a meeting with the other
business associations in the
industry – in an attempt
to put our thoughts on the
matter together as a unified
argument.
“The department has been
talking about a meeting with
the interested parties in the
private sector early this year.
And we are seriously trusting
that this promise will be
fulfilled, and a meeting will
be held, we hope at ministerial
level.”