ROADS TO RUIN
High petrol price takes toll
● Johannesburg chartered accountant Sianca Naidoo has gone as far as moving house in a desperate bid to trim her exorbitant monthly fuel bill.
With South Africans paying much more at the pumps than they did a year ago, many like Naidoo are employing innovative methods to tackle their burgeoning fuel costs.
Some are moving closer to their workplaces, others are carpooling or ditching their cars for ride-hailing services such as Uber and Taxify.
According to Stats SA’s latest figures, South Africans paid 25.3% more for fuel in July, compared with the same period last year. It is the highest annual increase since December 2011.
Naidoo — who travelled 65km daily between Centurion and Sandton — decided it was time to move house last month, after calculating her petrol costs.
Travelling in her Toyota Etios cost her between R2,000 and R2,500 a month. Now that she lives a mere 6km from her Bryanston office, her fuel bill has been reduced to about R800 a month.
“I will be moving to my permanent home at the end September, which is about 3.9km from work, so I am expecting more of a saving on my fuel bill.
“Fuel costs, travel time, traffic and the mileage on my car prompted my move. I have three bars on my fuel gauge the entire week, it hasn’t moved. When I bought my car three years ago I could fill up my tank for about R350, but with the recent fuel hikes, I need about R650 to fill up a car which is supposed to be relatively light on petrol,” Naidoo said.
Banks and property experts say higher fuel prices and rising inflation are intensifying the demand for homes close to work, shops and schools.
Rudi Botha, CEO of Betterbond, said: “Young professionals opt for inner-city areas and integrated suburbs where they can walk to work as well as to shops, restaurants, entertainment venues and gym — and often dispense with owning a car altogether. The rise of ride-hailing services such as Uber is furthering this trend.”
Move towards live, work, play hubs
Andrew Golding, CEO of Pam Golding Property Group, said fuel hikes had resulted in a growing demand for “live, work, play hubs” in SA, “where people can walk to work and have all amenities and leisure activities right on their doorsteps”.
The fuel hikes are also prompting more South Africans to go the ride-hailing or carpool route.
Based on 2016 statistics from MyTreasury.co.za — an independent price comparison website — average South Africans, driving 40km a day (14,575km a year), would save as much as R14,000 a year by selling their cars and switching to ride-hailing services such as Uber and Taxify.
“The real winners are those who live close to work. In context, someone who lives in Fourways and commutes to Sandton would drive about 30km to work and back. For these commuters, [hailing services] would translate into even bigger savings,” said a MyTreasury report.
Carpooling app CarTrip has seen its numbers double from 2,000 in October to more than 4,000 this year, and app UGoMyWay has seen a 50% increase in the number of downloads since last year.
Durban mom Ncumisa Ndelu started using hailing services “just to take a break from driving”.
She said: “I am hooked. It saves money on fuel and wear and tear as well as time looking for parking.”
Ndelu has not quantified her saving yet, but she is fresher on Mondays because she parks her car on weekends.