Concerns over ban on high cube containers
Fears of chaos on the roads and damage to vital fruit-exporting sector Vaping ‘could generate 10 000 jobs’ claim
SOUTH African transport businesses need to find solutions to present to the government ahead of the Department of Transport’s deadline to ban high cube containers, say experts. The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted a Transport and Transport Infrastructure Portfolio Committee meeting yesterday on the impact of the ban on high cube containers, which is set to come into effect on January 1.
Terry Gale, the chairperson of the Exporters Club Western Cape, said it was vital for the industry to reach an agreement.
Gale said South African transport companies would be affected by the African Continental Free Trade Area and would soon be transporting more containers across the country’s borders.
“There is an incredible potential. We can’t say, ‘We’re sorry, you can’t use your trailers, because trailers in Zimbabwe are different to South Africa.’ Every bit of trade that we have we’ve got to fight for,” he said.
The Cape Chamber has raised a number of concerns about the ban on high cube containers and has warned of potential chaos on the roads and damage to vital fruit exports if the Department of Transport bans the transport of containers on standard trailers next year.
Janine Myburgh, the president of the chamber, said that when the shipping containers, which conform to international standards, were loaded on to normal trailers, they exceeded the maximum height permitted on South Africa’s roads by 30cm, and the department wanted all standard trailers to be replaced with special low-bed trailers.
In a letter to the department recently, Myburgh said the original concern with the new containers was that, because they were higher than the old ones, there could be a problem with unstable loads, particularly in cross winds.
“However, these containers have been in use for more than seven years, and we are unaware of any incidents or accidents involving unstable loads in the new containers. It would therefore seem that there is no justification for the original fears.”
She added that another problem was the high cost of converting to low-bed trailers.
“The cost per trailer is estimated at about R300 000. Many of the companies which transport the containers of export fruit are small businesses run by the previously disadvantaged and operate just two or three trucks. They simply cannot afford the conversion costs, and recovering them from an agricultural industry that has just experienced the worst drought in more than 100 years will not be possible.” THE VAPING market, which has created more than 4 000 jobs in the wholesale and retail sectors, is expected to generate an additional 10000 jobs in South Africa over the next 10 years.
This was according to Vaping Products Association of SA (VPASA) spokesperson Fidel Hadebe, who said with a growth rate in value terms that was double that of formal tobacco-based products, the industry had contributed positively to the economy.
Hadebe said this during the Vaping Conference 2018 held in Sandton, Johannesburg last week.
However, he said the Draft Tobacco Bill, if kept as it was, would serve as a hindrance to the industry’s growth.
“We believe that the bill is over-reaching, short of outlawing vaping products.
“Just to cite one example, it makes it illegal for traders in vaping products to brand their trading spaces – which they pay rent for, by the way.”
Hadebe said bottle stores and car dealerships were recognisable from a distance through signage, but traders in vaping products were not allowed to use this identification practice to enable users of vaping products to know where to buy these products.
“Secondly, the bill seeks to make it unlawful to use e-commerce to process purchases, and e-commerce is the way in which business is done these days. We will be robustly engaging the department on these issues,” he said.
An economic impact study by Canback Consulting released at the conference, revealed that the South African market had followed the global trend, although at an earlier stage of development.
The study, “The SA Vaping Market Report”, found that this growth was accelerated by the continuous decline of the formal combustible cigarette volume in the analysis.
The forecast assumed that tax growth on tobacco products remained consistent with the past five years’ growth rates.
Hadebe said the report was focused on providing an economic impact study to highlight the growth of vaping in South Africa as compared to other electronic vaping product markets and formal tobacco-based products, evaluate the affordability of vaping and the demand drivers that influence consumption, and evaluate the socioeconomic impact of vaping with a focus on job creation.
VPASA chief executive and chairperson Zodwa Velleman said lumping e-cigarettes and cigarettes in the same regulatory basket was “unscientific and potentially devastating”.
“Vaping products must be regulated separately. International evidence shows that they are at least 95% less harmful based on current evidence and countries that have embraced them, like the UK and the US, have seen their smoking rates plummet in recent years,” she said.
Velleman said the reality was that millions of smokers, who might switch to safer alternatives, would keep smoking tobacco products and die instead, as a result of this new law. – BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE