BUSINESS FLEET AFRICA | November 2022
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BUSINESS
The South African economy and the
transport industry are continuously
being subjected to a variety of external
challenges, all of which contribute to a
very difficult industry to do business in.
Monthly costs are always increasing
with the fuel price continuing to rise and
the Reserve Bank forced to hike interest
rates once more, in order to try curb
inflation somewhat.
The recent Transnet strike added
further pressure to an already stressed
transport infrastructure, with bottle-
necks creating major headaches for fleet
managers in the supply chain and logis-
tics industry, while the cost implications
were massive.
According to the South African
Association of Freight Forwarders
(SAAFF), the 11 day strike robbed South
Africa of the opportunity to move
R65.3 billion worth of goods.
It has been reported that one day’s
worth of stoppage requires up to
10 days of recovery. The result is that a
complete restoration of normal func-
tionality will only happen in early 2023.
During September 2022, South Africa
was subjected to the worst month of
load shedding since the implementation
of this power rationing strategy, with a
staggering 572 of the month’s 720 hours
directly affected.
The rail sector continues to go back-
wards and while this is to the advantage
of road transport, our roads can only
handle so much. Already major routes
are nearing capacity and the increased
high traffic volumes have resulted in
increased accident rates and slower
journey times on many of the major
commercial vehicle routes.
Government has realised that this
is a major problem and has passed
the Economic Regulation of Transport
Bill while requests for proposals have
been issued for third party-access to
the freight rail network. Whether there
On going challenges
necessitate additional investment