New legislation will affect driver standards

Law enforcement becomes more proactive Joy orlek THERE ARE two pieces of legislation that transporters of dangerous goods should look out for in 2007. Both are designed to improve standards of safety, but have wider implications in terms of implementation. From July 1, drivers of dangerous goods vehicles with a GVM above 3500kg will need a valid Dangerous Goods Training Certificate issued by an accredited Institution. “Until now a certificate from any training authority was sufficient,” says Eddie Crane of dangerous goods consultancy EC Logistics. “The legislation however stipulates that drivers must pass a theoretical examination, and since a number of them in SA are illiterate, strict adherence would mean that we would lose a lot of drivers in an industry which is already experiencing a severe skills crisis.” Further moves by government on a separate issue – that of the transport emergency card – will also have major impact on the industry. At the end of last year the Department of Transport withdrew two recently published SA Bureau of Standards (SABS) SANS standards – 1518 and 10231 – which rendered the locally-conceived version of the transport emergency card, in SA entitled Trec, an illegal document. The Cefic (European chemical industry council) tremcard is therefore currently the only legal emergency card and without it the owner of any vehicle could be prosecuted for carrying dangerous goods illegally and have his insurance voided. “This is what will determine the way forward for the dangerous goods industry,” says Crane. “The tremcard is a key document and that’s why the DoT withdrew the standard. “We’re pleased to see that law enforcement seems to be taking a more proactive stand than ever before. Port authorities are also becoming stricter about tremcards for the transport of hazardous substances, which means that transporters are also becoming more aware.”