The Transport Sector Retirement Fund (TSRF) today announced its support of the 2019 Hollard Highway Heroes competition to search for South Africa’s best truck driver. The TSRF was represented by Mandla Nkosi, a member of the Fund’s board of trustees, at the official launch of the Highway Heroes competition in Johannesburg.  

“The TSRF is proud to be associated with this initiative to recognise South Africa’s best truck driver and we encourage our employers and members to enter the competition and show the country the grit, determination, professionalism and commitment with which our truckers tackle their jobs,” said Nkosi at the launch.

“This initiative will help elevate the good standing of the trucking industry, whilst building capacity, promoting road safety and recognising individual excellence.”

TSRF is committed to responsible investment for the benefit of our members

The TSRF is acutely aware of the occupational demands placed on its members in the transport industry.The Fund provides retirement savings for 70 000 members from 3000 employers earning their bread and butter in this industry.

“The majority of our members, at least 70%, are truck drivers, transporting goods on our country’s road networks,” said Joe Letswalo, the Transport Sector Retirement Fund’s principal officer.“We are keenly aware of the numerous challenges our members face on a daily basis to earn their living. In this regard, the TSRF is committed to responsible investment to not only help grow our members’ retirement benefits (and death- and disability cover), but to also help ensure their well-being and safety while they are still gainfully employed.”

Truck crashes cost the transport industry up to R 18-billion annually and have a devastating effect on individuals, their families, transport operators, aligned industries and indeed the whole country.

“Four years ago, we determined that good-quality truck stops are sorely lacking along SA’s major transport nodes, and given that a major cause of road accidents is driver fatigue, we launched a strategy to ensure that our members, and indeed the broader transport community, would have transport facilities to park and sleep safely,” explained Letswalo.

The TSRF entered into a 50/50 joint venture with the Deysel Family’s Highway Group to expand the Harrismith Highway Junction Truck Stop into a multi-brand, high-end park and sleep facility providing auxiliary services to truckers which include restaurants, primary healthcare and recreational facilities, warehouse space and a vehicle service station (workshop). The Highway Junction Truck Stop is now the biggest and busiest facility of its kind in Africa.

Following its success, the TSRF is in the process of developing similar hubs along major routes throughout the country. Sites have already been earmarked near Cape Town, East London, Colesberg and Musina for project completion during 2020-21.

“Our investment in truck stops brought us closer to our members and provided a keen understanding of the challenges they face. In this regard, their safety is always top of mind. In an attempt to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and enhancing overall road safety, the TSRF entered into a partnership with Arrive Alive to support the transport sector through pro-active measures to mitigate the risks our members face daily whilst performing their duties,” continued Letswalo.

This partnership brought the TSRF to Hollard Highway Heroes Competition.

Hollard Highway Heroes Competition – searching for South Africa’s best truck driver 

For the first time since the inception of the competition in 2015, the Hollard Specialist Insurance Company, Hollard Trucking (this year) opened its Highway Heroes competition to all truck drivers in South Africa, affording the Transport Sector Retirement Fund and other partners the opportunity to come on board to recognise trucking excellence.

For the duration of the competition, the driving behaviour of entrants in the competition will be closely monitored by the Hollard Trucking Bureau through the utilisation of fleet tracking technology. Through careful monitoring, a pro-active driver-centric approach is followed to manage risk from speeding to fatigue, harsh braking patterns and other high-risk alarms to ultimately improve driver decision-making and actions. 

“The TSRF is committed to help the transport sector to move towards better futures. In this endeavour, we are convinced that initiatives such as the Hollard Highway Heroes competition will go a long way to encourage skills development and excellence in the industry, which in turn will bring about systemic change and improved safety standards, lowering individual risks and help to make our country’s roads safer for all,” said Letswalo.

“Every day, on the roads, our members carry the responsibility of not only keeping themselves safe, but to also safely transport the goods entrusted in their care, ensuring their employers’ assets are protected, and their fellow road users are considered. Our truckers keep the country’s economy moving forward and this competition helps to recognise the key strategic role they fulfil.”

Entries to the competition are now open and will close on 31 May 2019. Thereafter drivers will be monitored until 31 July when the top 50 drivers will be chosen and monitored again for a further 45 days. The winner will be announced on 14 November 2019 and will walk away with R 100 000.00 in prize money. 

The Transport Sector Retirement Fund (TSRF) with its 70 000 members from 3000 employers is keenly aware that the majority of its members (70%) earn their bread and butter whilst transporting goods and people on our country’s roads.

“As much as our aim is to preserve the livelihoods of our members and their families (through their retirement funds and death- and disability cover), we are also committed to help ensure their comfort and safety while they are still actively employed,” says the Fund’s principal officer, Joe Letswalo.Truck crashes cost the transport industry up to R 18-billion annually and have a devastating effect on individuals, their families, transport operators, aligned industries and indeed the whole country.

“As a retirement fund, we continually look for ways to improve members’ lives. In this endeavour, the TSRF has developed a responsible investment strategy to build more truck stops to enhance the safety and standard of overnight parking facilities for truck drivers; and to create transport hubs along major routes where transporters can easily access quality restaurants-, primary healthcare-, refuelling and auxiliary services,” explains Letswalo.There are an insufficient number of truck stops, and no established truck stop brand in South Africa; and often the existing truck stops do not provide adequate rest and security facilities.

TSRF’s truck stop investment strategy aligns with the CSIR’s research findings and recommendations, including more and better rest areas; facilities for regular safety checks; improved integration of road safety and fleet management systems; and improved regulation.

“We, at TSRF, consider truck stops to be this missing link in the country’s road transport and safety strategy.”The Transport Sector Retirement Fund aims to develop a national truck stop brand which will create a strong, recognisable identity as an endorsement of standards and regulations that support the transport and logistics industry. The first truck stop upgraded and further developed by the TSRF is the Harrismith Highway Junction Truck Stop on the N3 corridor. This expansion was done in a joint venture with the Highway Group.  The Highway Junction is now the first multi-brand facility of its kind in South Africa and undoubtedly one of the biggest and busiest truck stops on the continent, with more than a 1000 trucks parking at this facility every night. 

“We have the advantage of being the first mover and believe truck stops will support the creation of efficient transport hubs,” explains Letswalo. The TSRF, through its Truck Stop Fund, has already earmarked sites in Cape Town, East London, Colesberg and Musina for development. The new truck stop sites are expected to be completed during 2020/2021.

“Further to this, our partnership with the Arrive Alive Online Initiative will assist us to cross share knowledge and information in the transport sector, and to create a greater awareness of the challenges faced by transporters, and the steps taken to address these challenges to ultimately limit the risks and exposure our members face on a daily basis,” says Letswalo.

Advocate Johan Jonck, owner of the Arrive Alive Online Initiative, shares this vision. “We look forward to close cooperation with the TSRF and our joint efforts to enhance safety for all the valued members of the Fund. We believe that an informed road user is a safer road user and information portals can contribute to the safer sharing of roads by all road users, irrespective of their modes of transport,” ends Jonck.

Relevant news updates and more information will be made available on www.arrivealive.co.za; as well as on the following blogs: roadsafety.co.za; accidents.co.za; truckandfreight.co.za; insurancechat.co.za; and on Facebook: @ArriveAlive.co.za and Twitter: @_ArriveAlive.

As South Africa recently struggled with a sluggish economy, the Transport Sector Retirement Fund (TSRF) experienced the effect thereof on some of their small medium enterprise (SME) employers.

The transport sector was one of the industries affected by the constricting economy which resulted in some employers in this sector experiencing a slow-down of their business operations leaving them cash strapped. On-going fuel hikes compounded the problem.

Of the Fund’s 3000 employer-members, 3% of businesses became non-compliant in terms of the stipulations of the Pension Fund Act.

At the time (2017/2018), the Office of the Pension Fund Adjudicator (OPFA) experienced the same trend, reporting that as much as 70% of all complaints received (by the adjudicator) concerned the non-payment of withdrawal benefits or dissatisfaction with benefit amounts paid out. In terms of the Fund rules, benefits can only be paid out to a member/s once a participating employer is fully complaint.  

Joe Letswalo, principal officer, of the TSRF said the Fund and its administrators, also noticed that employer-members (mostly SMEs) were buckling under financial strains and that these pressures were filtering through to the Fund. “Although 97% of members still managed to navigate the economic downturn, we realised that a small percentage of our members were finding it difficult to honour their legal obligations to pay their monthly contributions to the Fund and we, therefore, determined that pro-active steps had to be taken to address the situation,” explained Letswalo.

The Fund’s Board of Trustee are committed to serve the best interests of all their members.

“It was clear that more damage would be caused if we simply brought High Court applications to have these smaller non-compliant employers liquidated (as the Act and the Fund rules allow). Liquidating non-compliant companies would result in individual members losing their retirement benefits, and it would also affect their conditions of employment. With the unemployment rate already at 27.5%, we considered this option to be an ineffective solution,” stressed Letswalo.

The Financial Sector Regulations Act makes provision for an Ombud Council (the Office of the Pension Fund Adjudicator) which is a statutory body and which is tasked to ensure effective, independent, fair and timely dispute resolution on behalf of its customers.  In this regard, the OFPA provides a vehicle to enforce overall compliance and effectiveness.

“The TSRF is unique in that the Fund was initially established under the Bargaining Council, and thus (at the time) membership to the Fund was compulsory. This places the TSRF in a different position to other big umbrella funds. Normally, umbrella funds will just liquidate non-compliant employers because it is a voluntary association. The TSRF, on the other hand, is committed to first and foremost making every attempt to rescue non-compliant businesses before taking any further actions,” explained Letswalo.

Considering all these factors, the TSRF launched an initiative to address non-compliance on a number of levels. This included education and awareness campaigns to inform members of their rights; the responsibilities of their employers; provisions made in the various Acts; and how and where to lodge complaints.  The TSRF also started to immediately notify individual members (via sms) when any of their employers became non-compliant. By doing so, members were now in a position to take quick action; and at the same time the TSRF (together with its administrator, Salt EB) could also actively lodge applications to the OFPA to enforce compliance.”

The Transport Sector Retirement Fund’s initiative is without a doubt proving to be successful. Since embarking on this approach, 99% of the TSRF’s referrals have been approved by the OFPA and are now successfully enforced.

According to Leslie Primo, head of Salt EB’s legal, risk and compliance unit, complaints have significantly reduced from 66 complaints in 2017/2018 to the administrator dealing with an average of only eight complaints per month at the end of 2018.  

“We are confident that we have turned a corner. Employers who have found themselves in dire straits have now entered into long term agreements to settle their outstanding debts to protect their business interests and their employees’ benefits. Our collection rate is currently well more than 97% as our employer-members’ businesses are becoming viable again and their chances to full recovery continue to improve.

My outlook for the transport sector in general, and in particular for the members of our retirement fund, is optimistic. We are making good progress. Our investment strategy is proving successful and we have just received an overall Gold Standard Award from the Institute of Retirement Funds Africa (IRFA) for meeting all the criteria in the following areas of excellence: governance; transformation; stakeholder engagement and education; investment practice, trustee development; and financial management and reporting,” ended Lestwalo.

Matchbox is a free and innovative new app that is revolutionizing the freight industry, connecting shippers and transporters directly in real time. This Durban-based tech is cleverly named after its ability to literally match “boxes” or containers with transporters. 

The idea for Matchbox was conceived in April 2016 by a team with over 40 years’ combined experience in logistics in Africa. 

“We’re industry insiders and could clearly see the gap in the market. We started Matchbox to simplify the current process to find, book, track and pay for road transport in Africa,” said Anton Potgieter, Founder of Matchbox. “There is similar tech successfully operating in the US and Asia that can clearly work here in South Africa that will bring transparency and efficiency to road transport and reduce the cost of logistics in Africa.” 

Both transporters and shippers stand to benefit tremendously from this new mobile app as it aims to assist owner-operators, local, and regional fleets to increase their loads and expand business. Transporters can look forward to “no more wasted space” by signing up for alerts to nearby jobs being auctioned to the best bidder while in turn typically offering shippers a lower rate than current industry standards.  

Thus far the response to Matchbox has been incredibly positive. Tommy van Deventer, owner of Euroblitz, shares, “I found a load on Matchbox for one of my trucks that needed a return load from Durban. I quoted on the load and my quote was accepted by the cargo owner, all of this was done within 30 minutes, online and without one phone call.” 

The app has the added benefit of its Transport Management System (TMS) which helps transporters manage their fleet and assign drivers to respond to jobs. Local driver, David Moghatla, confirms: “I downloaded the Matchbox app on my phone and my manager could send me all the load details straight on the phone, it was easy.” 

Development was finalized in January 2017 and post a robust and thorough beta testing period Matchbox launches publicly in August 2017.  

Key innovations to move the industry forward

The innovative advantages of MATCHBOX include:

• Allows shippers to choose their transporters from a verified database that lists their ratings from customers as well as their ongoing performance.
  
  
• Live tracking is available on each load with free Transport Management Service for each transporterTransporters bid on each load, which ensures shippers get the best rates and transporters increase productivity.
  
  
• Fast pay is enabled via electronic pod’s and options for payment on pod
  
  
• MATCHBOX vet and verify all transporters on the platform with goods in transit insurance in place. 

“Matchbox is set to be a success in South Africa, and our immediate future plan is to target deployment in East Africa next year,” says Potgieter.   

Whether you are a shipper or a transporter, logistics are made easier and more efficient via the online support and live chat. Matchbox gives you end-to-end control of all your shipments through one compact portal.

Matchbox is available for Android and currently operates in the South African market.

Visit the website, Matchbox.bid, for more information.