Road Freight Association welcomes decision to slam brakes on AARTO legislation

Presenter Amy MacIver chats to Gavin Kelly, the CEO of the Road Freight Association.

• Industry bodies have welcomed the court ruling declaring the AARTO Amendment Act unconstitutional

• The AARTO legislation would have introduced a demerit system for traffic offences

• Road Freight Association CEO Gavin Kelly maintains that the system was more about generating revenue and not about road safety

---

The CEO of the Road Freight Association (RFA), Gavin Kelly, says the controversial Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (AARTO) would have created a major financial burden on the industry.

Kelly has welcomed the High Court ruling which found that AARTO to be unconstitutional.

RELATED: AARTO is invalid and unconstitutional - High Court

Kelly argues that the legislation, which would have introduced a demerit system for traffic offences, was going to create a costly administrative nightmare for the freight sector.

He believes that the current AARTO laws aren't aimed at combating road safety but instead have been created for government to generate revenue from fines.

RELATED: We need to rethink how SA's fuel price is calculated - Automobile Association

He says government will have to go back to the drawing board in terms of overhauling the current traffic system.

Kelly says the RFA has long proposed changes to the system, including improved traffic policing and the implementation of an electronic driving licence system.

RELATED: Push driver's licence renewal to 10 years and overhaul the system - Outa CEO

Prices are going up continuously everywhere where the government can slap a levy on, they are doing it and AARTO was going to be another one of those things.

Gavin Kelly, Chief Executive Officer - Road Freight Association

It would have become a requirement to know exactly where those vehicles were in terms of the points they earn... Our members who run hundreds or thousands of vehicles in their fleet would now suddenly have to create a system to monitor each and every one of them and obviously pay people to do it because there isn't a system right now that does it.

Gavin Kelly, Chief Executive Officer - Road Freight Association

It would have cost us hundreds of thousands of rands just to administer that. That would have gone into the cost of transport, so you and I as a consumer would have ended up paying a little bit more... On top of all of that, there were all of these levies that were going to come into play.

Gavin Kelly, Chief Executive Officer - Road Freight Association

More from Business