Zambian truckers want a slice of the action

Zambian trucking companies
are lobbying government to
impose a quota on mines to use
local transporters.
According to Robert Mtonga,
chief executive officer of the
Truckers’ Association of Zambia
(TAZ), this support is needed in
order to level the playing
fields.
“Transport
contributes
around
27% to the
Zambian
gross
domestic
product,
but local
truckers do not have a fair share
due to a number of barriers to
entry outside of their control,”
he says.
Chief among the barriers is the
local cost of finance – up to 50%
interest is charged on loans for
commercial vehicles.
Zambia also has among the
highest fuel prices in the region,
and Zambian-registered
vehicles effectively pay higher
toll fees than foreignregistered
trucks.
Local hauliers face
stiff competition from
Namibian, South
African, Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC),
Mozambican and
Tanzanian
trucking
companies
and one man
operations.
Most can
offer more
competitive
rates than
Zambian
truckers
because
they
have
already brought cargo into the
country and are able to cut charges
to the bone on the return leg.
Zambian truckers, on the other
hand, find it difficult to secure
back haul loads in neighbouring
countries.
“South African exporters do
not want to use
Zambian trucks,”
he says.
If the loads
out of Zambia
were shared
more fairly then,
the association
argues, Zambian
hauliers would be
competitive.
“If government
designates that,
say, 50% of
copper exports
had to be transported by Zambian
hauliers then we would have
the critical mass required to be
competitive,” says Mtonga.
TAZ argues there is provision
for such support in the 1996
Southern African Development
Community (SADC) Protocol
on Transport, Communications
and Meteorology, which requires
member states to develop “a
harmonised road transport policy
providing for equal treatment,
non-discrimination, reciprocity
and fair competition, harmonised
operating conditions and
promoting the establishment of an
integrated transport system”.
The association is also lobbying
for the allocation
of 20% of
Zambian fuel
movements to be
allocated to local
truckers. There
are no refineries
in the country,
and all fuel is
imported.
Allied to this
is pressure that
the association
believes the
Zambian
government should be placing on
Tanzanian authorities to allow
Zambian trucks to work on the
Dar es Salaam route.
“Around 94% of Zambian cargo
travelling on the route is carried by
Tanzanian truckers, he says.
This is despite Zambia and
Tanzania signing a revised
agreement on the regulation of
cross-border traffic in June 2015.
INSERT & CAPTION
If 50% of copper exports
were transported by
Zambian hauliers we would
have the critical mass
required to be competitive
– Robert Mtonga