This is according to the
Association’s Chief Executive Officer, Gavin Kelly.
When the
latest set of proposed regulations were published for public comment in
October 2019, the RFA once again highlighted the pitfalls, weaknesses,
severe risk to sustained business and nonsensical proposals that were
being made, all in the name of ‘road safety’. Says Kelly: “The proposed
regulations had vehicles being held ‘accountable’ for the behaviour of
drivers (in some cases) or operator/owners in other cases. How do you
change the behaviour of a vehicle?”
In its efforts to ensure that
AARTO achieve its main objective ie. road safety, the RFA has been
working closely with a number of organisations including the Department
of Transport (DoT), the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA), the
Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), the National Economic
Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC), Business Unity South Africa
(BUSA), Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) and Justice Project South
Africa (JPSA).
The AARTO Act was promulgated in 1998 with the
sole aim of addressing bad (unsafe) behaviour on our roads, by
implementing a demerit point system for drivers, vehicles and operators
resulting in licences, permits and operator cards being suspended or
cancelled.
“Fast forward to 2020 and, notwithstanding much
interaction between the various government authorities tasked with
implementing AARTO (DoT, the RTIA and the RTMC) and we are no closer to a
reasonable and effective implementation of any kind,” says Kelly.
Kelly
says that the RFA continues to advocate for a properly focused,
resourced and pro-active road traffic policing strategy by all
authorities concerned – not the currently proposed cumbersome and
questionable point demerit system and all the costs linked to operating
it. Proof of achieving better behaviour on the roads was loudly
proclaimed by the Minister of Transport regarding the recent successes
achieved in the December 2019 festive season traffic safety strategy.
“The
RFA does not see how issuing points to vehicles will change the
behaviour of people, but it will definitely go a long way to destroying
both the resale value of vehicles, as well as the capex value within
various businesses,” he continues. “The authorities need to focus on
changing driver behaviour, rather than on a system aimed at collecting
revenue to support an administrative system. The RFA supports
interventions which serve to improve the safety of the country’s roads
and reduce incidents, injuries and fatalities. One of the key priorities
of the RFA is the safety of all drivers on our roads and we have no
objection in principle to a demerit system applied to South African
drivers.”
Many countries have successful driver systems with
demerit points; However, these are all easy to use, fair, effective and
not based on generating revenue at every point in the process. “The
system must assist in improving driving standards, and thereby
contribute to reducing accidents, injuries and fatalities,” adds Kelly.
He
concludes: “The RFA believes that AARTO could be very effective if the
proposed regulations were amended to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and
costs. Demerit access systems have been successfully implemented in
other countries. These systems have a fair fine re-direction process and
no vehicle demerit points.”
The RFA will be offering a series of workshops on AARTO over the coming months.
