TRANSPORT: African Truckers Seek New Ways to Combat Highway Crime

By James Hall Reprint | | Print |

James Hall

MBABANE, Swaziland, May 30 2002 (IPS) - In a highly competitive and sometimes dangerous business, road freight companies and drivers are strategizing new ways to combat crooks set on stealing their vehicles, contents and all, and operate safely on Africa’s pot-hole pocked and sometimes non-existent roads.

“When we succeed, we bring prosperity not only to our companies and employees, but also to our national economies. If we should fail, thousands of people can starve or be denied medical supplies,” says Shadreck Mnisi, director of exports for Sharp Freight Swaziland.

The South African Chamber of Commerce calculates that eight out of every ten kilograms of goods, be they consumer products, food, spare parts or manufactured items, are transported by road in the formal sector.

Rail hauls the rest, while a privileged small fraction of goods, mostly cut flowers and perishable items that must be rushed to their destinations, travel by air.

In the informal sector, virtually all goods from products sold by market vendors to crops grown by small landholder farmers are moved by road.

For landlocked countries like Zimbabwe and Lesotho, the latter, which has no railroad, trucks provide an economic lifeline. While an economic crisis in Zimbabwe has reduced industrial orders and exports, a drought has kept trucks rolling with emergency wheat and maize supplies.

“Any nation that wishes to attract foreign direct investment has to have a good road infrastructure. Money is lost from delayed deliveries and trucks damaged because of bad roads. The first thing Mozambique did after two decades of civil war was build its first toll way, connecting Maputo with Johannesburg. 200 South African companies have opened businesses in Mozambique along that corridor, which opened last year,” says Jose Ferrao of the Investment and Promotion Centre in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique.

Without trucks literally keeping commerce and industry on the move, national economies would collapse. But industry sources say the business is perilous and nerve-wracking, and success requires a commitment close to passion.

“We have to deal on a daily basis with corrupt customs officials, bad roads, border posts that close early or open late, delaying shipments, and always the threat of hijackings,” says Dale McBride, a South African trucker.

Savvy truck owners no longer mark their vehicles with identifying company logos. A prominent Swaziland road freight manager says all his drivers are trained and armed security guards who have learned to drive and acquired heavy vehicle operation licenses. Still, he has interesting stories to tell about hijackings.

“I lost one truck last year to hijackers. In South Africa hijacking is a way of life, and the area around Carolina is very bad,” he says. “Crooks break up the road with pickaxes, and when vehicles are forced to slow down, they pounce with their guns drawn.”

He says, “I had a two-vehicle convoy of a large 60 tonne truck followed by a smaller truck, which couldn’t keep up with the big one. The large truck stopped at a prearranged rendezvous, and waited for the smaller truck. It never came. The guard/drivers in the big truck subcontracted some local people, I guess they were vigilantes, and they found the truck. Everything was still inside.

“I got a call from these guys, and they said, ‘We have the two men who hijacked your truck. Do you want us to kill them? They will never bother you again.’

“They wanted 200 U.S. dollars apiece to kill the hijackers. I said, ‘No, let them go.’ It just shows how desperate things get out on the roads.”

The same freight transport manager had a visit from representatives of a South African firm that guaranteed “hijack proof” trucks he could hire from them, along with drivers. “It made me believe the hijackings are organised. It is organised crime doing it. It so happens I do hire them on occasion, because I need extra trucks.”

High tech solutions to crime come in the form of satellite and cellular telephonic communication. Gone are the days when a truck driver disappeared for days on end into the African wilderness.

“Each driver has a cell phone, and the customers whose shipments are being moved is given his number. The customer can call up at one in the morning and ask, ‘Where are you now’?” says Willie Stewart of Speedy Overboarder Service.

Cross border trucking firms like Interfreight, Sharp Transport and Unitrans also use satellite-positioning technology to pinpoint the location of their vehicles, and assist recovery in case of hijackings.

“In the past, express courier services like Federal Express and DHL used real time communication to keep track of shipments, and now the large freight hauliers are doing the same,” says Gavin Bird, division manager of Unitrans, which ships large commodities like bulk sugar and agricultural products.

The trucking industry in Africa is competitive, and is seen as so lucrative that new firms are constantly entering the business.

“Unfortunately, most are small operations, workers or managers who retire and invest their pensions in a second-hand truck that barely operates,” says a manager of a long-established freight transport outfit. “They think moving goods is easy. But then they get hit with the customs agents, the border closures, the hijackings, and the cost maintaining their vehicles, and they go out of business, losing their pensions.”

All trucking companies also face a common enemy in the AIDS epidemic. Health organisations have found truck drivers to be a high-risk group for contracting HIV, and have targeted an education campaign to teach them safe sexual practices.

“Half of my office staff and drivers have AIDS,” says the owner of a South African trucking firm who wishes anonymity because AIDS is a sensitive issue. He cautions that if a healthy group of truckers cannot be secured, African nations can expect economic damage.

Despite crime and inefficient or corrupt border agents, problematic roads and now disease, the trucks keep rolling, thousands on the continent’s roads at any given time, so ubiquitous people take them for granted.