Trucking industry called on to address road safety issues

The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has called on the trucking industry to join the fight in making South Africa’s roads safer. Speaking at the monthly Transport Forum in Johannesburg last week, acting chief executive officer of the RTMC, Collins Letsoalo, said South Africa was not taking road safety seriously enough. “We need to become responsible. Road safety is everyone’s business and any company running a fleet should be actively engaging in efforts to make our roads safer and see a drastic reduction in road deaths.” Citing the taxi industry as an example following the launch of its Hlokomela campaign in November last year – an initiative aimed at reducing road accidents and establishing a culture of compliance with road safety and traffic laws – Letsoalo said he was calling on the trucking industry to come on board with similar strategies. “We have been engaging with the trucking industry on specific issues such as overloading and looking at ways we can address that. We have also done extensive work with the N3TC on driver fatigue, which contributes to trucking accidents, but we don’t have a specific programme on road safety with the trucking industry.” He said the data collecting methodology was being changed to ensure the RTMC could accurately capture the road death toll. “The one thing we do know in this country is this: whatever we have been doing, we have been doing it wrong. It is time for change.”