By Eamonn Ryan, based on an opinion article by Gavin Kelly, CEO of the Road Freight Association (RFA), edited for Cold Link Africa.
Supplied by RFA
For South Africa’s cold chain, delays don’t simply inconvenience transport operators – they can jeopardise food quality, pharmaceutical integrity and export commitments.
That is why concerns raised by Road Freight Association CEO Gavin Kelly about the practical implementation of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) deserve attention beyond the broader transport industry.
In an opinion article, Kelly argues that while the objective of improving road safety is commendable, the administrative framework underpinning AARTO is too complex and may struggle under the volume of cases expected once the system is fully implemented.
For cold chain operators, any disruption affecting vehicle licensing, operator administration or fleet availability can have direct operational consequences. Refrigerated fleets typically operate on tightly scheduled delivery windows, where delays can disrupt supermarket replenishment, pharmaceutical distribution and export supply chains.
One of Kelly’s primary concerns is the capacity of the AARTO Appeals Tribunal.
The legislation provides for a single Tribunal, rather than provincial or metropolitan bodies. Using reported figures from Johannesburg and Tshwane, where more than 1.8 million infringements were issued during 2024, Kelly estimates that if just 10% of those infringements were appealed, approximately 180 000 cases would require hearings.
A nine-member Tribunal would therefore need to process around 850 appeals every working day before considering infringements from the rest of the country.
Kelly questions whether such a workload is achievable.
He also highlights the administrative burden likely to fall on licensing authorities and municipal offices already responsible for driver licensing and vehicle testing. Additional responsibilities under AARTO – including processing appeal documentation and meeting statutory deadlines – could increase waiting times and place further pressure on already stretched resources.
While these issues would affect all road users, the implications are amplified for temperature-controlled logistics. Refrigerated transport businesses rely on predictable fleet availability to maintain cold chain integrity, particularly when servicing retailers, healthcare providers and export markets where timing is critical.
The RFA says it supports initiatives that improve road safety and reduce dangerous driving behaviour. However, Kelly argues that enforcement should focus on the relatively small number of behaviours most closely associated with serious crashes, rather than creating an administratively complex system covering thousands of different infringements.
For an industry where operational certainty is essential, the effectiveness of AARTO may ultimately depend not only on the legislation itself, but on whether the systems supporting it can function efficiently at national scale.