Operating costs: PBS vs conventional heavy vehicles in South Africa

Abstract

Road transport is a highly competitive industry and is renowned for low profit margins. Road transport however accounts for almost 6 % of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is the backbone of the economy. The Performance-Based Standards (PBS) or Smart Truck Pilot project has existed in South Africa since 2007 and monitoring data has shown substantial savings including a 34 % reduction in crash rates, 18.3 million litres of fuel and 534 840 trips being saved since the start of the project. The Australian PBS programme is projected to save more than AUS$17 billion by 2034. The potential financial impact of PBS in South Africa has not yet been fully quantified using actual operational costs from operators participating in the trial. In this study a questionnaire was used to collect operational costs from PBS operators and has compared the costs of PBS and baseline vehicles. The most significant finding is that on a per tonne-km basis, the weighted average overall cost savings was 18.8 % for the all PBS versus baseline vehicles. Not all PBS operators showed a reduction in operating costs but this could be attributed to having only one PBS vehicle and operating in a specialized industry with short lead distances. PBS however, appears as a viable solution to reduce transport costs, reduce crashes and emissions and also save the road infrastructure and should be considered for regulated implementation in South Africa.