Toll road uncertainty troubles roadfreight sector

The indefinite position of the proposed tolling of Gauteng freeways is a great concern for the road transport industry, according to Gavin Kelly, technical and operations manager of the Road Freight Association (RFA). The latest state of paly is that cabinet has approved reduced toll tariffs for the Gauteng freeway improvement project phase A1 – with motorcycles to pay 24 cents a kilometre, light motor vehicles 40 cents, medium vehicles R1, and “longer” vehicles R2 a kilometre, said spokesman Jimmy Manyi. Qualifying commuter taxis and buses will be exempted entirely, and certain discounts will be available for other road users. But it’s all in a bit of a limbo, Kelly told FTW, with the whole issue still being considered by a task team appointed by transport minister, Sibusiso Ndebele, to review the entire financial model on which some R20 billion was borrowed to upgrade the freeways in Gauteng. “Meanwhile, the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) says it wants to start running out toll road trials in February next year,” he added, “but no date has yet been firmly fixed. It’s all worryingly uncertain.” The RFA has put forward a strong case against the need for tolled roads. Tolling is not necessarily the only means available to keep roads upgraded and maintained, it argued. Kelly maintains the tolls will have a huge impact on the economy, both of Gauteng province and of the country as a whole. He suggested that, in some cases, it was estimated goods would increase by up to 25%, as some freight would be tolled several times as it traverses the province. “We pay a fuel levy for every litre of fuel, and this is estimated to be in the region of R32 billion a year,” Kelly pointed out. “Why not ring-fence it to pay for the maintenance of roads like it should be? Even a small increase of a few cents on the petrol price could be used for road maintenance and would cause less economic damage than the toll fees are expected to do.” Possibly the only good news of the moment is that deputy minister of transport, Jeremy Cronin, has hinted that the toll system will not be rolled out any further.