South African drivers will be able to check the validity of fines and infringement points allocated to them once the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act is implemented.
This is if organisations like software company R2x is granted access to eNatis by Tasima.
R2x wants to be able to integrate its Aarto management solution, R2MS, with eNatis to overcome legislative gaps within the Act and its systems.
R2MS is a Web-based solution and enables management of inspections, drivers, infringements, fines, demerits, deadlines and deliverables.
CEO Hewitt Roberts says the software tool allows for transparent management of the infringement lifecycle, provides real-time scorecards, and allows users to track driver, operator and fleet licences, permits, demerit points, suspension thresholds and renewal deadlines.
Check validity
Director of product management Rob Harrison says integration of R2MS with vehicle telemetry systems will allow a user to check the speed of their vehicle just before and after an infringement was allocated to them so they can determine if they were in fact above the speed limit, if that was the offence.
With this feature, drivers will know if fines and demerit points allocated to them are actually justified.
There have been several cases in the past where Aarto pilot systems sent out inaccurate fines due to IT glitches.
The Justice Project SA (JPSA) says fines with undecipherable information were previously sent to motorists and many of these bore tripled fine values when issued to juristic persons.
For this reason, JPSA national chairman Howard Dembovsky says such a feature for Aarto management is important.
“We've had a number of cases recently where people get fines, but when they go back and check their GPS tracking systems, they were actually not speeding and sometimes weren't even in the area at all.”
He adds that the JPSA deals with an extremely high number of incorrectly captured traffic fines.
“This is not an infrequent problem, but a regular one. The people capturing these infringements are dyslexic and I'm not even sure that some of them are literate. They mix up 'V' and 'W' and invert numbers so instead of noting 131, they write 313.”
Dembovsky says tracking is then extremely important and all motorists should have tracking systems in their cars when the Act is implemented.
“Tracking companies are going to make a killing. The R2x feature is very useful, but a vehicle must have a tracking system.”
Police fraud
The JPSA chairman says the organisation has laid charges against officials at the Johannesburg Metro Police Department after GPS systems showed fraud in handing out fines.
He explains that traffic officers were setting out an exercise on the N1, at the Diepkloof interchange, where the speed limit is 80km. However, they then photographed cars on the N12 East where the speed limit is 120km.
So even though cars were within the speed limit at the latter point, they were given fines for exceeding the speed limit at the Diepkloof interchange.
GPS devices within the cameras eventually showed the pictures were not taken at the spot for which the fines were being given.
“They committed fraud and so we laid charges against them. It's quite frightening and this is not something that happens infrequently. If you're not stopped and given a fine, it's very difficult to remember where you were driving a month ago and at what speed.”
Access denied
Roberts says R2x, like many other private companies, is seeking access to eNatis through Tasima.
However, Tasima CEO Tebogo Mphuti says access to eNatis has only been granted to government departments, like the police, and banks.
“Request for access to eNatis is assessed on the merits of every request made and we have received a number of requests from private companies and all of them were declined. Only government departments were granted access after an application was made.”
Dembovsky says there is no reason why eNatis access should not be granted to private companies.
“Companies with drivers must be aware of their drivers' licence statuses.” He adds that apart from getting heavy fines for sending out drivers with suspended licences, should those drivers crash a company car, insurance will not pay out.
“If a company can check eNatis and is aware of the driver's suspended licence, they can take remedial action and won't send them on the road.
“It's going to be an essential part of the Aarto process that organisations like fleet companies and insurance companies have access to eNatis.”
Dembovsky adds that, as long as drivers grant permission for employers to access their information, the integration with eNatis should be allowed. “In fact, individuals should be able to check the status of their licences online. What's the big secret?”
Delayed Act
Aarto was meant to be implemented nationwide on 1 April, but has been indefinitely postponed so the Department of Transport can consult with the industry and stakeholders.
A summit on Aarto for stakeholders will be held this month. However, the department has not yet announced a final date for it.
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.
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