The Road Freight Association’s (RFA’s) annual Convention provided an unforgettable three-day experience of great speakers, insightful industry updates, excellent entertainment and unsurpassed networking opportunities at the world-class Fancourt Resort in George.
A long-standing event, the annual RFA Convention attracts the top executives in the trucking, logistics and warehousing sector and is an important way for RFA members to discuss the strategic direction of the industry. It provided excellent networking opportunities with colleagues, hear advocacy updates and influence the direction of the trucking industry. Here’s what some of the speakers had to say.
Conference Highlights: Chairperson’s Message–Penwell Lunga, Chairperson: RFA
The Bismarck of our time has entered our shores: It manifests itself in high fuel prices, difficult operating conditions, attacks on our trucks and load-shedding – impacting on our customers’ ability to operate. The RFA membership comprises small, medium and large organisations. We have put a number of structures in place – including our interest groups – to confront and address the challenges we face. I call on you to participate in shaping our battle: and not only in shaping it, but in staying actively engaged, because we need to stand our ground. Because without trucks, South Africa stops. Trucks move about 80% of goods in South Africa. As Barack Obama (44th US President) said: “Change will not happen if we wait for some other person or another time. We are the change we have been waiting for. We are the change that we seek!”
This has resulted in the development and formulation of the Freight Road to Rail Migration Plan
Minister of Transport, Sindisiwe Chikunga
It is predicted that the economic development within emerging markets could change the world trade dynamic substantially by 2030. In support of this growing trend, the World Bank Logistics Index suggests that low- and middle-income economies could boost global trade by 15% just by improving logistics performance.In order to take full advantage of this ‘Trade Revolution’, the South African government through its National Development Plan has placed much emphasis on infrastructure development through strategic investments and private sector participation. While road freight delivery has significant advantages, the great number of freight vehicles on the road contributes to overloading and the subsequent significant deterioration of the road network and traffic congestion. This has resulted in the development and formulation of the Freight Road to Rail Migration Plan, the primary aim of which is to rebalance the road freight–rail freight split, in an attempt to create a more appropriate market share and to reduce the number of heavy trucks on the roads and decrease overloading. The President announced that soon freight rail will be returned to the Department of Transport. To us as a sector, this means we cannot delay the implementation of the National Rail Policy. Hence we have already commenced with the drafting of the National Rail Master Plan 2050. This will further assist in the identification of network constraints, opportunities, including infrastructure improvements and rail network expansions required to assist in creating a conducive environment for private and public sector participation. For integrated intermodal freight movement, it is important that we hold freight inter-modal trade-off discussions, on the best way on how to collectively and collaboratively accelerate this shift, without the detriment to another sector within the freight trade value-chain. We have committed over R40 billion to the construction, upgrading and maintenance of our national and provincial road networks. A significant amount of investment will go towards refurbishment, rehabilitation and eradication of potholes on provincial and municipal roads. Road Infrastructure damaged by floods is also being prioritised. SANRAL will play a leading role in assisting the Department, working with provinces and municipalities, to successfully implement these programmes. Given the carnage on our roads, road safety will be a major focus of our Transport family, underpinned by a strong 24-hour law enforcement presence on our roads. Additional law enforcement officers have recently been appointed to add impetus to our drive for safer roads. These are among proposed interventions to be implemented in this financial year. In the financial year 2021/22, South Africa moved about R390-billion worth of exports to the SADC region and received about R40-billion of imports. Government will work with all the relevant stakeholders to ensure that the ideals of our Green Transport Strategy are realised. We will also monitor developments around the world to ensure that our responses take into account these developments. It is important to add that implementation of our strategy needs to be continuously evaluated and assessed against all our realities. We have to work together in finding the right solutions. The realisation of the ideals of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is hugely dependent on our efforts as member states and our stakeholders. There are certain fundamentals that must be in place for the success of the AfCFTA. Among others, there has to be a harmonised environment, meaning that our policies, regulations, legal instruments and customs regimes need to be aligned. This will make transitions through various border posts quicker and seamless. The Linking Africa Plan, developed under the auspices of our Cross-Border Road Transport Agency, highlights two important streams for consideration, soft infrastructure and hard infrastructure. Under the soft infrastructure, the plan alludes to the need for the development of aligned regulatory systems, polices and laws, whereas on the hard infrastructure side, the plan identifies all the hard infrastructure that must be in place for the success of trade on the Continent.
- Gavin Kelly – CEO of the Road Freight Association
- Combined forces, used at the right time, can make huge change.
- 88% of RFA members are SMMEs. Our Board is structured as such.
- One of our biggest challenges is financing for SMMEs.
- As an industry, we need to remain sustainable, so that we can continue to move goods around the country.
- Road has a role to play in our country. But rail also has a critical role to play. It is going to become part of our role to get rail to carry the load. We cannot continue to do what we are doing.
- The RFA is part of the Presidential Crisis Committee on the State of Logistics.
Economic update by Itumeleng Merafe – Head of Lending: Investec for Business
There are decades where nothing happens and then there are weeks when decades happen! Vladimir Lenin (Former Member of the Constituent Assembly of Russia). This is what South Africa has lived through over recent times: a multitude of global events that have been unsparing. When you are a small, open economy like South Africa, we are at the whims of these events.
- Political Outlook by Dr Ongama Mtima PhD
- 55.5 percent (30.3 million people) of the population is living in poverty at the national upper poverty line (~ZAR 992).
- The number of high-earning taxpayers in the black middle class has grown from 1.02 million in 2017 to 1.28 million in 2019.
- About 26% of the black middle class are located in rural areas.
- Corporatism enables the state to be influenced/captured by dominant interests in society.
- How machine vision technology improves better driver behaviour–Steven Ford – CEO: Optix Africa
- For Artificial Intelligence to be useful, it must be :
- Accurate – poor machine learning makes it very noisy
- Fast – the machine needs to give feedback to the in real-time
- Able to work offline
- Able to work at day and night
- Able to communicate with the driver effectively
- Able to “multi-task” and prioritise
- We need to widening the source of data for AI: The more machines, the richer the feedback
The only way we are going to transform this sector is if you reach out to me to adopt an SMME.
The future is green – Liesl de Wet: Chairperson RFA Green Transport Working Group
South Africa is the largest CO2 emitter in Africa, accounting for half the continent’s collective emissions. Human rights groups have argued that South Africa’s fair share of responsibility towards the climate crisis should be much higher than other emerging markets, which are less responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. Business is trying to unpack what this means exactly. The National Business Initiative (NBI) has launched, together with other government partners, a transport just transition working group. South Africa’s transition risks are relatively big compared to other developing countries, as a result of its over-reliance on fossil fuel energy, like coal. According to economists, the risks include stranded fossil assets, job losses in fossil fuel sectors as well as a drop in global demand for coal. The future is green and there are massive opportunities in this new reality.
Ethical, conforming businesses are smart businesses – Nicci Scott: Founder of the Commercial Transport Academy
Equality is giving everyone the same, equal opportunity to achieve in an industry. What we actually need is equity: where there are certain genders, or sizes of company, that need a bit more to achieve the same outcome. The only way we are going to transform these sectors is if you reach out to an SMME. Let them come into your organisation and learn from you. It takes five to 10 years to get a driver to a point where he is a professional driver. If we don’t start bringing new people into the industry, we will end up with a deficit of around 50 000 drivers in our country.
Create your best future, by Mitch Ilbury – Director of Mindofafox
The art of futures thinking is anticipating what the future may hold and trying to manage it. South Africa operates in a global space. If you are building in the ability to be agile, flexible and resilient in the face of all our challenges, it means that you are one step ahead of all your global competitors.
Catherine Larkin
