Truckers to court over cross border tariff hikes

The last-minute attempt by the Road Freight Association (RFA) to find an out-of-court solution to the cross-border permit problem, in an urgent meeting with the deputy minister of transport and the CEO of the Cross- Border Road Transport Agency (CBRTA), has failed, according to RFA technical and operations manager, Gavin Kelly. “And the only answer left to us now is to take the matter to court,” he told FTW. This followed the recent massive cost hike for cross-border permits – condemned by road transporters as being “fatal”. Applicable from April 1, the cost, for example, of a 12-month new/renewal permit for Freight Class 2 (the classification into which the standard cross-border truck fits) was R5 720, a 239.88% increase over the previous cost of R1 690. And there was a dual problem. Not only did the CBRTA hike up the cost of these permits, but it demanded one permit for each country. Adding fuel to the truckers’ fire was that the massive permit hikes were supposedly justified by the fact that the CBRTA was running out of cash – the result, the agency had said, of not receiving government financial support. “We will close our doors in three months if we don’t implement permit tariff increases,” said Maryna Aucamp, the agency’s chief financial officer, as the onerous new charges were imposed. She added that the organisation required R182-million instead R52-m it had in the kitty just to carry out the basic terms of its mandate. CE Sipho Khumalo said unlike other regulatory bodies, the agency was not given government start-up funds when it began and therefore it had to rely solely on issuing of permits and imposing penalties for those without permits for its survival. But transporters complained to FTW that this level of price increase was very likely to put a number of companies out of business. The RFA tried hard to avoid the “enormous cost” of taking the matter to court, said Kelly at the time of the announcement of the new permit charges. But, he told FTW last week: “Our members are extremely frustrated at the lack of a positive response from the agency and the minister of transport, S’bu Ndebele – despite promises that the matter would be dealt with. “Our only alternative now is to implement the legal option.” The RFA has, therefore, lodged an urgent application to the court for the permit tariffs to be set aside. “We have stated that the minister of transport was ill-advised on the process to be followed,” Kelly told FTW. “This after we told the CBRTA that the tariff hike was unjustified and unacceptable.” The RFA hopes for some legal satisfaction on the issue in about a month’s time.