Update on RTMS, from the National Steering Committee meeting, held on 18^th November 2014 and 20^th January 2015.

South Africa introduced new regulations, including the 80kph sign required on the rear of commercial vehicles, and the responsibility for compliance to be shared with consignors and consignees.

The bus industry, through SABOA, was keen to participate in RTMS.

Several new Smart Trucks, including three-piece over length buses, were to be certified to operate under special exemptions. All the companies operating Smart Trucks, had to be certified to RTMS.

It was noted that Smart Trucks did considerably less damage to the roads (up to 60%). This was in addition to their improved dynamic stability.

The insurance industry was quite ready to accept self-regulation as an opportunity to reduce risk and, in turn, give benefits to the road transporters certified to RTMS.

Currently, there were 140 company depots certified to RTMS and these represented over 6400 trucks on the roads. These figures excluded Golden Arrow bus service, which was to be certified with around 1200 buses.

Around 70% of those certified to RTMS were submitting operating information, in accordance with the RTMS rules.

RTMS had been registered in South Africa as a Section 10, not-for-profit, company.

The three Recommended Practices (ARPs), for consignors, consignees and operators and which controlled RTMS, had been converted to Standard SANS 1395. This was to be launched in February.

There were draft Scheme Rules, which were to manage the linkages between the Standard, the National Steering Committee, the RTMS registered company, the auditors and the accreditation process. These were to be finalized when the Standard was launched and implemented.

Those certified to RTMS would pay a fee for an annual disc to be affixed to the vehicle’s windscreen. The disc would be in addition to affixing the RTMS logo to the front of the vehicle and would go some way to preventing the fraudulent use of the RTMS logo.

The meeting agreed that RTMS could not get involved in any traffic incident involving a certified member. It could merely confirm that the member was certified to the system and give the details of the system.

MOUs could be set up between the RTMS company and partner stakeholders such as the insurance, banking, agriculture industries and the Department of Transport.

Several RTMS workshops were proposed for 2015, viz:

• Zimbabwe, with Swift transport – February
• Agriculture Business Chamber – 11^th February
• Botswana, with TransKalahari – 2^nd half March
• Durban – 14^th May
• Cape Town – 14^th July
• Johannesburg – 14^th

The workshops had shown to be of considerable value in disseminating information on RTMS and attracting companies to be part of the system.

The first AGM of RTMS was to be held on 21^st April.

Barney Curtis, FESARTA