The Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Amendment Bill 2015, and its controversial demerit system passed by parliament earlier this month, should go some way to clear the roads of dangerous fly-by-night operators but there will also be challenges for law abiding fleet owners.
Road traffic and transport consultant Alta Swanepoel said the Road Traffic Infringement Authority (RTIA) was aiming to roll out the legislation before 31 March 2018 – which in her view was feasible – and a new set of draft regulations dealing with the details of the law was expected to be published soon.
The amendments contained in the bill pave the way for the implementation of a points-demerit system and remove the courts from the Aarto process, replacing them with the right to make written representations to the RTIA and to appeal its adverse decisions to a new tribunal. However, critics such as Justice Project South Africa have noted that the SOE is almost entirely funded by traffic fine revenues, which comprised 95.47% of its 2015/16 revenue.
Demerit-points will be recorded onto the vehicle licences of juristic entities such as companies, which are the registered owners of vehicles, for infringements committed by people who drive their vehicles and where the infringement notices are not redirected to the drivers. Once a driver has accumulated 12 points, any additional points added to the the licence will result in the disqualification of the driver for three months, and if a driver’s licence is suspended three times he/ she will then have to reapply by re-sitting the learner’s and driver’s licence tests.
“Most driving infringements carry demerit points. The existing Schedule 3 classifies the infringements and the demerit points range from zero to six. Drivers and operators will both be charged for certain infringements (such as overweight or unroadworthy vehicles and non-compliance to dangerous goods regulations). The driver will receive a fine and the operator will be charged for (an infringement of) section 49 of the National Road Traffic Act, 1996,” Swanepoel explained.
She said existing lists allocate four demerit points to operators and driver’s points vary depending on the infringements.
“As far as I know, the new schedule that will be published with the new amendments to the legislation will allocate the same points for drivers and operators but this has not been published for comment yet,” Swanepoel said.
Swanepoel said owners were compelled under the Act to know who was driving their vehicles at all times.
“The company must have the driver’s address details to enable the company to redirect the traffic infringement to the driver,” she said.
Swanepoel pointed out that the removal of the courts would prevent companies from managing their fines by electing to go to court for every alleged traffic offence. The new legislation also allows for electronic service by means of text or email messages.
Local transporter and member of the Harbour Carriers' Association, Kevin Martin, said the spirit of the legislation was well intended and it was a positive move but he was concerned about the practicalities of rolling it out.
“The theory behind it is good but the practicality is not. How can you charge a driver for an overload infringement when he is carrying an international container? If he is driving a vehicle with a container that has been packed to international standards – we have the Safety of Life at Sea (Solas) regulations – and you go to the weigh bridge and it is over and want to knock points off the driver and the operator, they will say it is the clearing agent who gave the information,” he said.
However, Martin said the move would help to clear the roads of fly-by-night operators who currently get away with running unroadworthy trucks because of low barriers to entering the transport sector.
Justice Project South Africa (JPSA) raised concern saying that the bill has“ominous” provisions with serious implications for drivers and vehicle owners because it weights the law in favour of traffic fine revenue authorities, leaving motorists and owners almost powerless to raise a defence.
“Delinquent drivers must be taken to task for their transgressions and suspending the driving licences of habitual offenders may assist in that regard,” JPSA chairman Howard Dembovsky said.
“However, the more the Aarto Act is tampered with, the more it focuses on the disposal of what are seen to be ‘bothersome provisions’ of law which stand in the way of the revenue generation process and the less it focuses on road safety. This travesty simply cannot go unchallenged,” he said.
INSERT & CAPTION - The theory behind it is good, but the practicality is not. – Kevin Martin
