RFA takes legal action over ‘ludicrous’ cross-border tariffs

The Road Freight Association (RFA) has been mandated by its members to take legal action against the Cross- Border Road Transport Agency (CBRTA) following the increase in cross-border tariffs. According to Gavin Kelly, operations manager and spokesman for the RFA, the decision was taken at a meeting held in Johannesburg last Thursday attended by more than 50 RFA members. “Our members are very upset about the new cross-border fees that have been implemented with effect from April 1,” said Kelly. “The reason for calling this meeting was twofold – to discuss the way forward with regard to the tariff issue and to reconstitute and convene our cross-border forum.” Kelly said the excessively high fees could best be described as ludicrous. “In some cases fees have increased by 630%, while in other cases it is slightly lower and we are seeing increases in the range of 240%. Either way these are huge raises in the tariffs,” Kelly told FTW. “The CBRTA has said the reason for the high increase is because the fees have not been raised for several years.” According to Kelly, the RFA has taken legal advice and served the CBRTA with legal documents. “They have acknowledged receipt of the documents,” said Kelly. The organisation will have 14 days to respond to the RFA. Kelly said it was not just the increase that had led to the decision to take legal action, but the fact that comment, even though called for following the publication of the intended tariff increases in November last year, was totally disregarded. “The CBRTA has not made any detail available around what transpired from the initial consultation process where the freight and passenger industry rejected the proposed tariff increases to the implementation of the fees this month.” Kelly said the RFA had extensively commented on the proposed fee increase in January but all indications were that these comments were completely disregarded.