Companies can rely only on the honesty of drivers if they are to avoid stiff fines resulting from the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act.
Employers are held accountable by law for sending out unlicensed drivers on the road and face heavy fines if this is breached. Companies that contravene the law face fines of up to almost R3 000 for every unlicensed driver.
However, firms have no access to a driver's information without their consent. There is also no legal or formal procedure for companies to determine the status of a driver's licence once consent is granted.
Impossible situation
Fleet and transport companies wishing to check on the status of the drivers' licences, before each shift, face an administrative nightmare, as the only way to do this is to fill in a form and fax or post it to the official Aarto agency.
Aarto executive manager Basil Nkhwashu says the form is required to get the driver's consent for the company to access their information. However, once the consent is given, there is no formal next step to be taken.
“Once the company gets consent, they can call and liaise with the RTMC [Road Traffic Management Corporation] to get the information,” says Nkhwashu.
After questions from ITWeb about the possibility of a database that companies can use to determine the status of drivers' licences, Nkhwashu explained that eNatis will be the only database, and the RTMC could possibly organise for companies to have access to it, but they currently will not be able to.
The impossibility of determining if a driver has a valid licence may force many transporters to take a gamble to stay operational.
No way out
“There is a huge question around how a company will fairly meet the requirements of legislation if they have no means of getting access to information,” says Gavin Kelly, technical and operations manager at the Road Freight Association (RFA).
Implementing the Act will place a huge administrative burden on companies to monitor the status of drivers' licences, he adds.
Kelly says according to the Act, firms will be fined R1 500 per driver, and an additional R1 250 if the driver needs to have a professional driving permit, and also loses that.
Database delay
The Act was meant to be implemented nationwide on 1 April, but has been indefinitely postponed so that the RTMC can consult with industry and stakeholders, according to acting CEO Collins Letsoalo.
However, industry representatives argue that the reason Aarto has been held up is because there isn't a national database that can be used for the purpose of making sure unlicensed drivers are not sent out on the roads.
“Not having data is a critical reason why Aarto is not running,” says Kelly.
Under Aarto, drivers lose points when they commit traffic offences. Drivers have 12 points to start with, and lose points depending on the severity of the traffic offence. Once all the points have been lost, licences are suspended.
Lost points are logged on the National Contravention Register on eNatis.
Costly checks
Kelly says information on drivers' licences can be received after faxing or posting a form to the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA), but it could take months to get any information back, in which time more points could have been lost.
He adds that currently, companies would only be notified if drivers have lost points if an infringement notice arrives in the post - and this could happen up to 40 days after the offence. He says notices must either be handed out in person, or through registered mail.
Kelly says live access would be preferable, but it's likely that a database will only be updated once every 12 hours. He points out that if companies aren't aware of the infringement, they can't take action to stop drivers hitting the roads.
However, if companies send out unlicensed drivers, they would have to prove they weren't aware of the infringement, which will be difficult to do, says Kelly. He expects many test cases to arise as companies grapple with how to make sure unlicensed drivers aren't sent out.
He adds that a portal should be available on a frequent basis, and should be free. Currently, checking points will cost companies R60 per driver every time they make a request.
The association represents companies that employ around 40 000 drivers, but this doesn't include other sectors, such as bus drivers. Kelly estimates there could be as many as 200 000 South Africans employed as drivers.
Vital system
Protea Coin COO Waal de Waal also argues that Aarto cannot come into effect until companies are given access to a database where they can verify if their drivers still have valid licences.
De Waal says companies need access to a live, national database. “Every company with drivers must have access to a database.”
He says a call centre system won't work, as there are simply too many licences to check every shift. Protea Coin has about 1 600 drivers.
De Waal says the onus is on companies to make sure they don't send out unlicensed drivers. He says this must be done before every shift, as drivers could have lost points overnight, over weekends or during their shift, and companies may not be aware of the infringement.
Fix the mess
Democratic Alliance transport shadow minister Stuart Farrow says the only way for companies to keep track of whether their drivers are still licensed would be through eNatis, but this isn't practical.
Farrow adds that eNatis is key to the entire Aarto project, but is in a shambles. “The whole eNatis system has not been devolved down to provinces and regions. Citizens should just be able to click and do the check.”
Another checking option would be when costly PDP licences are renewed, but this only happens every six months, says Farrow.
The whole Aarto system is in the process of being re-evaluated due to problems like these, adds the shadow minister. “Both the RTMC and RTIA have been asked to come back to Parliament, because the portfolio committee believes there are many anomalies that came out of the pilot projects and we cannot implement a system unless it's administratively sound.”
Farrow adds: “I think that Aarto will not be a reality, even though we want it to happen, until all of these issues have been addressed.”
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