Self regulation to be piloted on North-South corridor

The concept of selfregulation for road transport operators is to be piloted on the North-South Corridor (NSC) – a key trading route in sub-Saharan Africa extending from the Copperbelt in the Katanga Province in the DRC and northern Zambia to the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to the north-east, and to the SA ports in the south. Previously exclusively confined to SA under the Road Transport Management System (RTMS), the selfregulation concept was planned to be piloted on the Trans Kalahari Corridor, but it has not got off the ground. This is partly due to the lack of progress in integrating self-regulation with customs accreditation, according to Barney Curtis, executive officer of the Federation of East and Southern African Transport Associations (Fesarta), which is to play a major role in the NSC pilot. “This also fitted with Fesarta’s brief from the SA National Steering Committee, which is to direct the pilot project, to extend the RTMS along the corridors into Africa,” he added. The RTMS will be piloted on a section of the NSC, between Gauteng (or Durban) and Lusaka, rather than trying to introduce it to the whole region at once. In this initial pilot scheme, three transport operators will be approached to participate in the demonstration project – one each from SA, Zambia and Zimbabwe. “If there is sufficient interest,” said Curtis, “the pilot can be expanded to two operators in one or more of these countries – that is a maximum of six transport operators. “It will be necessary to visit each transport operator to explain the system in detail and to get the company’s commitment at a senior management level. “Fesarta will assist in identifying prospective companies through the National Road Transport Associations (NRTAs).” Once the participating transport operators have been identified, they will have to prepare for a “preaccreditation audit” – the purpose of which is to identify the gaps between where the company is at present and where they will have to be in order to achieve certification in terms of the standard. “This visit will also obtain company performance and process data that will be used to establish a baseline reference point,” Curtis added. “Depending on the level of management systems within each company, these audits can be conducted within a month to two months of the companies agreeing to participate in the demonstration project. “Depending on the gaps identified during the pre-accreditation audit, a period of between two and six months will typically be required for the participating companies to prepare for the full audit, which, if passed, will qualify them to become accredited.” “In the longer term,” said Curtis, “should the pilot project be successful, it will be necessary to develop regional standards on which the self-regulation system would be based.”