Roadfreight industry self regulation takes another step forward

The Road Transport Management System (RTMS) – a highly successful, industry-led, voluntary selfregulation scheme – has now finally been registered as a Section 10, not-for-profit, company. According to Barney Curtis, who holds the brief for extending RTMS beyond the boundaries of SA, the first annual general meeting (AGM) will be held on April 21. And this registration, he told FTW, will allow a number of issues that have been sitting on the agenda waiting for the company status until they could legally be put into practice to do just that. In describing the cachet of the RTMS, Curtis confirmed that there were currently 140 company depots certified, and these represented over 6 400 trucks on the roads. “Also,” he said, “around 70% of those certified are already submitting operating information, in accordance with the RTMS rules.” However, he noted that these figures excluded Golden Arrow bus service which was presently “ just waiting for a dotting of i’s and stroking of t’s” for its membership to be finalised – and would add around 1 200 buses to the RTMS vehicle fleet. This bus company involvement has also been extended to the entire bus industry. “Through the SA Bus Operators’ Association (Saboa),” Curtis said, “the industry is keen to participate in RTMS.” A distinct advantage of RTMS membership, he added, was that the insurance industry was quite ready to accept selfregulation as an opportunity to reduce risk. “And this, in turn,” he said, “gives benefits to the road transporters certified to RTMS.” There are several RTMS workshops proposed for 2015. “The workshops,” said Curtis, “will be of considerable value in disseminating information on RTMS and attracting companies to be part of the system.”