The Road Freight Association (RFA) has called for urgent action to enforce labour laws and traffic rules in the road freight industry following several serious crashes over the past few days.
RFA CEO, Gavin Kelly, blamed the state of road safety in the sector on several factors, including illegal operators who pay drivers per load in contravention of the Labour Relations Act (LRA) and a lack of enforcement of road rules by traffic police.
Kelly said the government had called for urgent action and Deputy President, David Mabuso had called for an imbizo, but the reality was that there was no need for a meeting as existing legislation simply needed to be implemented and enforced.
He called on Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula to start implementing the NRTA and to use independent registered freight associations to assist him with the task.
“The reality is this, had all the conditions of the National Road Traffic Act, Act 93 of 1996 (as amended) and proclaimed in 1996, been implemented, monitored and enforced, then there would not be these scenes playing out on a regular basis,” said Kelly.
He said, added to this was the problem that not all firms complied with the LRA, which included registration with the National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight and Logistics Industry (NBCRFLI) and they pay drivers “per load” rather than per day as required by labour law.
He said the RFA had been closely involved with the Department of Transport in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when it crafted legislation to effectively and efficiently regulate freight and passenger operators. This included mechanisms to deal with the causes of road accidents.
“Unfortunately, through very poor and highly contentious traffic policing and management services, very weak implementation of regulatory requirements by both transport authorities and labour authorities, and the ability for any individual to operate a fleet with very little chance of quality control or actions to remove non-compliant fleet operators, we have arrived at the point on our roads where we are today,” Kelly said.
“The RFA has continuously called for action to be taken against non-compliant operators – since the announcement of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) legislation, as well as during all the scenes of violence and destruction through the actions of groupings opposed to the employment of foreigners in the industry – and as various horror crashes have filled our screens. Sadly, the authorities have not heeded our call,” Kelly said.
He said illegal operators were at “the foundation of most, if not all, the ills plaguing the industry”.
“Those operators who refuse to register with and abide by the NBCRFLI Main Agreement, negotiated and agreed to by the employers and employees as represented by their duly registered, recognised and compliant representative organisations, must be held accountable,” Kelly said.
“As the RFA has noted to various Ministers of Transport on various occasions: non-compliant operators must be removed from public roads.”
He said globally, where road safety appeared to be at far higher levels, there were a couple of common denominators including:
* Professional, well-trained and uncompromising road traffic policing services.
* Strict registration requirements for all public fleet operators.
* Compulsory registration requirements with independent trade associations that check standards compliance before registration, and
* Swift and targeted action against those who choose to be non-compliant.
“There is no need for imbizos and other gatherings. There is a need to remove non-compliant operators from the road. There is the need to listen to the registered and recognised representative organisations that operate daily and that would have expertise and experience in the operation of fleets,” he said.
He added that RFA members were governed by a strict code – the Core Code – and were required to implement the association’s Road Transport Quality System principles.
“Where they fail to comply, and investigation is done, members are held accountable and, where required, membership is terminated. One of the reasons why some road freight operators are not members of the RFA is because they do not wish to comply with the Core Code of the RFA,” Kelly said.
