Sanity prevails over proposed peak-hour truck ban

The Department of Transport has canned a proposal to restrict heavy vehicles on public roads during peak hour. Mihlali Gqada, deputy director of logistics infrastructure at the DoT, told FTW this decision had come after extensive research into the controversial proposal. She said the proposal had originally been made on the back of a spate of serious truck accidents. “It was part of a solution to reduce road deaths,” said Gqada. Other proposals by the DoT include a reduction in the speed limit and the more frequent renewal of driving licences. “We have looked extensively at the proposal to ban trucks off the roads during peak hours and much research has been done as to what the impact of such a decision will be on the economy,” she told FTW. “The outcome has been that in the South African context this decision will kill South African business and it is simply not feasible.” At the end of 2015 the DoT proposed that vehicles of more than 9 000kg should not be allowed to operate on urban roads from 6am to 9am and from 5pm to 8pm from Monday to Friday. Industry reacted vehemently at the time saying it would be near impossible to implement as operations would come to a near standstill across the country, not to mention the massive cost factor involved or the increased risk of hijacking and theft due to vehicles standing alongside roads. More recently the Road Freight Association said that along with several other organisations it had submitted reasons for its objection to the proposal but had yet to receive any feedback. “It has taken longer than expected to do the research,” said Gqada. “What we as a department have done is to look at other research and see what the impact of all of this would be on South Africa. The research has shown that in the South African context it will kill businesses and we would have to have a strategic plan to implement it.” She said the logistics of moving goods onto smaller vehicles for distribution to counter operations coming to a standstill highlighted the lack of feasibility of the proposal. “We realised that this proposal would be destructive to business and it was taken off the table.”