Trucks on the roads

[TNT1]

Some slack jawed, drooling, cross eyed, weak kneed, mentally weak, morally bankrupt, soft bellied left wing liberal will probally take exception to this comment.

 

Dunno what wing he uses, but you mean airbendy, don't you?

[nickc]

Dunno what wing he uses, but you mean airbendy, don't you?

 

I was thinking more of any Government of the day supporters.

 

Actually Myself and Airbender have two things in common - we both ride Cannondales and we both support Team Liquigas.

 

I don`t know about him but I hate trucks with a passion!!

[GrumpyOldGuy]

They are responsible for destroying the rail infrastructure - thousands of jobs lost, abject poverty and misery exists in the former railway towns such as De Aar, Billions of rands worth of damage done to road infrastructure which was never designed for the traffic load, countless lives lost in horror truck accidents. The whole corrupt cesspool should be damned. They have no problem as they all use the blue light brigade to clear the roads for their incompetent selves. Some slack jawed, drooling, cross eyed, weak kneed, mentally weak, morally bankrupt, soft bellied left wing liberal will probally take exception to this comment.

 

This is very true. The cost of the rail infrastructure which has just been left to fall into absolute disrepair and then junked is mind blowing. There are hundreds of kilometres of rail lines which cannot take rail traffic anymore simply because the stations are now closed or the rail tracks are in such a state of disrepair that they cant be used.

 

The waste is just incredible.

[nickc]

This is very true. The cost of the rail infrastructure which has just been left to fall into absolute disrepair and then junked is mind blowing. There are hundreds of kilometres of rail lines which cannot take rail traffic anymore simply because the stations are now closed or the rail tracks are in such a state of disrepair that they cant be used.

 

The waste is just incredible.

 

In a recent aricle it was stated that SA is becoming globally uncompetitive due to the lack of a rail freight system. It looks like we have come in a full circle - freight of rail onto road(thanks to the corrupt ones) - road infrastructure destroyed - taxpayer to fund billions to repair. Freight back onto rail - no infrastructure left, taxpayer to fund billions for repairs. (figure given as over 20bn in the article).

 

Corrupt ones = 1, Taxpayer = 0.

[Big H*]

This is very true. The cost of the rail infrastructure which has just been left to fall into absolute disrepair and then junked is mind blowing. There are hundreds of kilometres of rail lines which cannot take rail traffic anymore simply because the stations are now closed or the rail tracks are in such a state of disrepair that they cant be used.

 

The waste is just incredible.

 

The new toll roads that are now going to be implemented all over the country, including Cape Town, is a direct result of the Railways stopping to function. This increased the E80 (one80kN axle load)count, the basis on which road formation design is done, is causing roads to fail earlier. Overloading also has a disastrous effect.

[TNT1]

The new toll roads that are now going to be implemented all over the country, including Cape Town, is a direct result of the Railways stopping to function. This increased the E80 (one80kN axle load)count, the basis on which road formation design is done, is causing roads to fail earlier. Overloading also has a disastrous effect.

 

Oom, you'll know that old road that parallels the R21 from Olifantsfontein to Waterkloof.

 

It's decidedly stuffed at the moment, and what I am wondering, is how much of a beating it will take when the Tolls go live, and all the truckers start using this as the alternative?

[Big H*]

Oom, you'll know that old road that parallels the R21 from Olifantsfontein to Waterkloof.

 

It's decidedly stuffed at the moment, and what I am wondering, is how much of a beating it will take when the Tolls go live, and all the truckers start using this as the alternative?

 

I was once involved in a study done on why people use the alternative routes. It ranged from "the Boss does not want to give munny" to young people saying "my dad gave munny but we are going to use it to PARTY!"

 

Unfortunately this will happen. I do expect though that Metro's will place axle limits on these roads.

[TNT1]

I was once involved in a study done on why people use the alternative routes. It ranged from "the Boss does not want to give munny" to young people saying "my dad gave munny but we are going to use it to PARTY!"

 

Unfortunately this will happen. I do expect though that Metro's will place axle limits on these roads.

 

Yeah, I figure it will be a short term knee-jerk reaction to the tolls that make people use the "b" routes, but I like the sound of the axle limit, hope it gets enforced...

[bikekid]

small vent!

 

on my way to a meeting today, i was forced to sit in a traffic jam that was once again the result of a truck broken down - in this instance 4 trucks broken down within 500m of each other on an uphill. I am now finding it is becoming a daily occurrence that we just laugh off as part of routine. The other day a gautrain spokesperson spoke of the theft of cables as economic sabotage - is this not the same. For one it slows everyone day - so all meetings are affected and not to forget the goods on the road also being affected. It also aggrevates people and therefore incites road rage. I am a relatively chilled person and I took me about 15 min to cool down.

 

The big question is what do you do about it? what are the options?

The one option is to introduce an on the spot fine of R50k or R100k given to trucking companies that break down with no apparent reasoning. This would make them wake up and not overload and service their fleet regularly - but that is easily solved with a little bit of backhanding

 

Me, i am an strong advocate for rail. I would personally like to see a road tax being implemented over a number of years (i.e. 5) that would increase every year and then an incentivised rail option as an alternative. A lot of goods do not need to be there the next day and can simply be handled with pre-planning. You would need to offer road tax reductions to goods that need next day delivery and this could easily be stipulated.

 

ok obviously this is reliant on the rail network operating reliably so it would likely require the privitisation of the cargo component.........(ha ha ha)

 

so what are options are there - i am getting fed up!

 

Fields Hill - blargh

[Breezer]

The problem is , even when you don't overload the truck can breakdown. A truck that hit a pothole carrying 30 tons(the legal weight limit) will probably break something. Trucks also have to do a roadworthy test once a year.

 

The biggest problem is drivers. They don't report problems that lead to breakdowns. I think that long distance and heavy vehicle drivers should do a course in basic mechanics so that they can identify possible problems.

[TNT1]

so what are options are there - i am getting fed up!

 

I phone the trucking company, start with the MD, work my way down to the Ops manager, and vent at them.

[Stretch]

had a chat with my b in law who is at unitrans and he reckons breakdowns are part and parcel of the business no matter who you are - although the one man bands break down way more often. so the real answer is yes - rail - and if we want to talk about white tax - i would sooner pay a tax for improving the rail than for retribution or nhi or anything else - but - as part of that i would like to see some form of privitisation.

 

i dont see monitoring overloading being a real solution as they cant even monitor roadworthiness and speed.

 

and whoever said fields hill? fields hill is a pleasure as there are three lanes so if there is a breakdown you still have 2 more lines - what got my goat this morning was at ashburton - 2 lanes and utter carnage

 

@tnt i will certainly not contacting transport companies

[Big H*]

 

Snip snip

 

i dont see monitoring overloading being a real solution as they cant even monitor roadworthiness and speed.

 

 

 

Do you mean we should just let them overload? I really hope not because then you do not understand the problem. Very acurate WIM (Weigh in Motion) readings can be taken. Trucks that are shown to be over the allowable mass can be pulled over and fined or even confiscated.

 

The damage cause by overloading is exponential. That means the more a vehicle is overloaded the more the dmage is, simplisticly speaking.

 

Simplified overloading can be explained as following:-

 

* A normal car does very little damage

* A legally heavy loaded vehicle between (80% to 85% on the road) causes 40% of damage

+ A overloaded heavy vehicle between (15% to 20% on the road) cause 60% of damage.

 

Go and read the CSIR document at the link belwo. It may be boring but you will understand the effect of overloading on road damage better.

 

http://overload.csir.co.za/pad27/docs/Pad27_A4.pdf

[rob!]

Do trucks in ZA have to undergo a regular road worthy? Probably not, hey? Get trucks to do a road worthy every two years. The worst trucks will be sorted out this way.

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Yeah, I figure it will be a short term knee-jerk reaction to the tolls that make people use the "b" routes, but I like the sound of the axle limit, hope it gets enforced...

 

The smaller freighters will have no choice but to use the "B" Routes, large multinationals can up their price to account for tolls and retain profitability as their base is so big. Smaller truckers work much closer to the tipping point when it comes to pricing, so tolls become much more contentious and impact heavily on their margins.

 

In my opinion the b roads will become heavily used, not because its the preferred route, but due to cost.

[nickc]

Its just past eight and the traffic on the radio is already reporting 2 x truck accidents affecting morning rush hour traffic.