A recent meeting by the national steering committee meeting of the Road Transport Management System was held in Pretoria.

Barney Curtis, CEO of FESARTA (Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations) was in attendance reporting on some of the issues discussed at the meeting.

“One of the challenges affecting the North-South Corridor pilot self-regulation is how to facilitate the movement of certified trucks through Beitbridge and Chirundu.This is due to the number of different government authorities at the borders and the fact that each one has to be informed and be part of the facilitation process.

“One suggestion is barcodes on the both the cargo manifest and the truck. Once the barcode on the trucks is scanned, the information would be made available to the different authorities.  The authorities would then know they were dealing with certified trucks and so make their passage through the borders more efficient and quick.

“Whilst this idea has its merits, a major problem would be the reading of the information and the loading of it on to a database, which would have to be automatic and failsafe, else there could be tampering of the information at the gates.

“Another issue affecting our members surrounds the issue of the seals on break bulk loads. And with 80% of all loads on this corridor affected by the sealing issue it is imperative to ensure the easy movement of certified trucks through the Beitbridge and Chirundu border posts without longer delays.”

FESARTA is to attend the next stakeholder meeting at both Beitbridge and Chirundu to try and ascertain what could work at the border posts then give feedback to the committee.

“The process of converting the recommended practice that controls RTMS to a national standard is nearly complete and this standard is closely aligned to the international standard ISO39001. A shelf section 21 company has also been purchased and a memorandum of incorporation is currently being drawn up.

“It was also recommended that SABS attend the 2013 Africa Road Transport Forum, to be held at the Kopanong Hotel and Conference Centres, Johannesburg, on the 17th-18th April 2013.Whilst the Standard may not be launched at the Forum, it would nevertheless be an important item to table.”

For further information regarding FESARTA visit the website – www.fesarta.org