THE FIRST three quarters of 1999 were a feeble time for domestic freight transport volumes, both for the private sector road carriers and the Transnet rail and road subsidiaries.
The latest figures from Statistics SA have just been released to FTW by Mike Alistoun of the Road Freight Association (RFA). They show that private road carriers faced a 3,8% decline in traffic volumes in the nine months up to September last year, compared with the same period in 1998. Their total tonnage carried was 321,3m tons and 334,1m tons respectively.
Transnet road and rail, meanwhile, suffered an even more grievous slump, with the figure for the 1999 period being 133m tons, which was 14,5% down on the 155,6m tons of 1998.
However, said Alistoun, with all the economic indicators indicating a late-1999 upturn, the gut-feeling in the industry is that things began to improve in the last quarter of the year. Expectations for 2000 are a further improvement in volumes.
For the six years up to 1999 there was an overall upturn in volumes although figures within the 1993-98 period showed year-on-year fluctuation.
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