Road freight operators will be seriously hard hit and the proposed fee per kilometer in the current business model will force freight companies to operate well beyond what is economically viable.

“The lowering of the proposed toll fees is a welcome step in the right direction for commuters but it still falls far short of what is realistic for businesses to economically operate in Gauteng,” said RMI CEO, Jeff Osborne, in a statement on the adjusted toll fees proposed by the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) Steering Committee.
Osborne points out that the revised toll fees will still impose significant costs on businesses that will be felt right across the spectrum, from tourism to manufacturers. The cost impact on fast-moving consumer goods, particularly basic foodstuffs, will still be felt most significantly by working and unemployed poor people.
Road freight operators will also be seriously hard hit and the proposed fee per kilometer in the current business model will force freight companies to operate well beyond what is economically viable. Large freight enterprises will more than likely be able to absorb these additional expenses, but SMMEs will struggle and additional costs will have to be passed onto clients. In all likelihood, however, they will have to either close completely or downscale in order to operate competitively. Many of these SMMEs and large courier companies outsource their business to owner drivers, a major avenue for BEE empowerment.
“The GFIP Steering Committees is naive to assume that the cost of the toll fees can be offset by lower truck maintenance costs due to improved roads,” stated Osborne. “There might be some reduction on maintenance costs but trucks will still have to travel bad roads outside of toll routes. Increased congestion on alternative roads as motorists try to avoid paying toll fees will likely mean freight and transport companies operate less efficiently, adding to further cost burdens.”
The Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project is designed to upgrade approximately 560 km of provincial roads. Phase A1 of the project has upgraded 185 km of the existing road network, largely through bonds issued by the South African National Roads Agency Limited.
“The massive cost of the GFIP has been ineptly incurred by government,” says Osborne. “The lengths that it has gone to and the extent to which it has undertaken very expensive toll-collection gantries and road upgrades cannot be justified when the roads could have been more cost effectively improved by a holistic road maintenance strategy and restructured national fuel levy as part of the funding mix to maintain our roads.
“The process continues to be prescriptive and without proper consultation with the stakeholders,” Osborne adds. “The steering committee has bowed to threats of violence and disruption by the taxi drivers and owners and declared that taxis will be exempt of the toll fees. The exclusion is notably thin on rationale and effectively implies that road users will now be subsidising public transport.
“If the intention is to roll out tolling elsewhere in the country, we need to stick to our principles and demand transparent and fair processes, with proper consultation with the stakeholders. Without this, the fiasco in Gauteng will simply be repeated from province to province.”