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Cape Town - The crisis involving the transportation of high-cube containers in South Africa has been solved for the time being.
The Mitsui OSK Lines shipping line has told clients that the Department of Transport will no longer fine trailer trucks or demand special permits if they transport these containers until the end of the year. Final confirmation about whether the high-cube containers will be officially permitted on South African roads will be given next year.
Cape Town exporter Peter Newton meanwhile points out that state-controlled Transnet is itself guilty of violating the outdated transport regulations that its shareholder - the state - drew up.
Newton says Transnet Port Terminals loads the high-cube containers from ships onto trucks for transportation on public roads, despite knowing that the existing transport regulations prohibit the carrying of these containers.
The problem with high-cube containers has existed in South Africa for years, and Newton believes it is a good thing that the issue has recently received media attention.
When containers were first taken into use in South Africa in the mid-1970s, the standard height was 8ft (2.44m) and the total height restriction for trucks was 4.1m, measured from the ground to the highest point of the vehicle. When the containers were increased in height from 8ft to 8ft 6in (2.59m), the 4.1m restriction became inadequate, and the transport regulation was adjusted to 4.3m to allow for the increased height.
High-cube containers of 9ft 6in (2.90m) have since been in use, but no corresponding height allowance has been brought into the regulation.
Meanwhile, the height restriction for a double-decker bus is 4.65m. According to Newton, 4.65m would be an entirely adequate allowance for the high-cube containers .
Every day, Newton points out, there are a couple of thousand high-cube containers on South African roads and these containers have been used domestically for some 15 years.
Newton believes that the simple solution is merely to amend the regulation applying to double-decker buses to also provide for the high-cube containers. The Minister of Transport can amend the regulations without a debate in parliament as would be the case for an amendment to an act.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.