BITTEN AT LEAST TWICE

(SUB-HEAD BE WARY OF KNEE-JERK LEGISLATION)

Road freight is useful, flexible, quicker than railways and a pain in the posterior; especially when juggernauts engage in side-by-side “elephant races” and block every lane of our freeways. We have only ourselves to blame for that because, being fallible humans, we never learn.

Take the “fuel crisis” of the 1970s when Middle-Eastern oil barons jacked up their hitherto-stable prices. The official reason was that it was to punish the West for siding with Israel in various wars that happened around that time. Cynical urban legend suggested, however, that the now-late Henry Kissinger had murmured to a prince, who wanted US warplanes but was strapped for cash, that he might hike the price of his product in order to pay for them. You won’t find that written down anywhere but those who were alive at the time may just happen to remember…

Western governments’ kneejerk reaction to the shortage was to introduce lower freeway speed limits; 80, and later 100 km/h in South Africa, the infamous 55-mph “Double-Nickel” in the USA and similar speeds elsewhere. The stated goal was to conserve fuel but studies undertaken afterward showed that actual savings came to between 0.2 and 1.0 percent – hardly worth the effort or the costs of enforcement.

What those limits did achieve was to create endless streams of traffic travelling in 80- or 100km/h clusters. Irritation flared, chances were taken, and accidents occurred as drivers’ attention lapsed owing to a kind of hypnosis brought on by driving long, boring roads too slowly. Those who were alive at the time may just happen to remember…

Time was wasted too, as people took longer to reach destinations, so productivity suffered. That magic “P” word finally saw to it that sanity prevailed and limits were returned to previous levels.

Back to trucks. They’re always crashing. Hey! I know! Let’s fit governors so they can’t go any faster than 80 km/h! (Despite being on this Earth for some 300 000 years, humans still need to be bitten at least twice before they learn.)

So, on 11 November 2016, goods vehicles with GVM or GCM above 9 000 kg were restricted to a maximum speed of 80 km/h, with dealers facing hefty fines if they sold any vehicles without compliant governors. (There’s a thriving underground market for rewritten governor chips, for those who want it done, but that’s another essay entirely.)

Were the problems solved? No. We now have trucks, barely able to overtake each other, travelling in close convoy at painfully low speeds, blocking every lane of so-called freeways. Reason: When a truck moving at, shall we say, 80 km/h approaches a slower vehicle, the driver has a choice. He either slows down, potentially extending his travel time and missing a loading slot, or tries to pass the slower truck.

Given the choice, most truckers choose the latter and block both lanes as they slowly ease by. This compounds the problem because he is now slowing traffic behind him, yet still needs to gain enough room to pull ahead of the other truck and merge back into the travel lane. These fractional speed-differentials result in overtaking times amounting to anywhere between 30 seconds and four or five minutes. In the meantime, other road users become angry, frustrated and take unnecessary risks.

Then there’s the fact that transporters are in business to make money. Apart from stretching legal working hours to the limit, drivers must cram in as many loads as possible yet still conserve fuel. Tricks include slip-streaming and making use of free momentum by going a bit faster downhill in order to get part-way up the next incline before accelerating again. (Don’t criticise: Economy Run drivers have been doing those things for years)

Head Office control measures include remote monitoring of driving behaviour, with cash incentives where appropriate. Checks include braking, acceleration, cornering forces and speed. Your medium- to highly priced car probably has similar kit fitted. The difference is that “What happens in your Lexus stays in your Lexus.” Truck drivers have to answer to the accountant.

But trucks still crash. Although seventy percent of collisions between load haulers and private vehicles are caused by “civilian” drivers’ lack of knowledge and consideration, fatigue, poor maintenance and lack of training are contributory factors too.

Then there’s a kind of hypnosis caused by driving long, boring roads at constant, too-slow, speeds…

Note: Elements of this article were first expressed in “Enforced speed limits will bathe our roads in blood” by Jim Ward in the February 3, 2023 edition of Focus on Transport and Logistics.