Improved rail solutions would see South Africa becoming far more competitive in the export of minerals and manufactured goods, says Professor Jan Havenga, a specialist in logistics management at the University of Stellenbosch.“The logistics input costs into value chains would be lower and make transport more sustainable in terms of overall costs, emissions, accidents and congestion.”
There are also opportunities for rail transportation of agricultural products and consumer goods within South Africa and the Southern African region.“South Africa’s logistics performance continues to deteriorate,” explains Havenga. He says developing an efficient and sustainable railway solution that operates in collaboration with the road transport sector is crucial.“Systemically we know that not everything can be transported on rail. But our detailed analysis shows that at least another 30 billion ton kilometres or 50 million tons should be on rail.
I believe that our logistics “overcharge” in South Africa is about R50 billion or 10% of total logistics costs,” he says. “That is a figure that can easily be saved through modal shift – the modal shift gap is about R10 billion lost.”Havenga maintains that a lot can be done to narrow the gap – including more effective road operations, more efficient equipment, digital technologies, greater collaboration and implementing new business models.
