National Freight Logistics Strategy

On this page:

Background
Documents
Problem Statement
Objectives
Implementation

 

Background

In September 2005, the Minister of Transport, Mr. Jeff Radebe, launched the Department of Transport's National Freight Logistics Strategy (NFLS). The Strategy aims to build upon the successes of South Africa's world class transport system whilst at the same time addressing its failures.

A key aspect of the NFLS is to move the country's freight and logistics transport infrastructure from a supply driven system to a demand driven system. This involves inter alia, greater participation by the private sector to make a valuable contribution in addressing the challenges that the country's freight system faces.

One of the focus areas of the NFLS is Corridor Development and the Maputo Corridor along with some others are singled out as areas where immediate work had to be done to improve operational effeciency.

The launch of the National Freight Logistics Strategy created the platform on which the Mpumalanga Freight Logistics Forum (MFLF) was established.

 

NFLS Launch Documents

The full NFLS introductory document can be downloaded here in Adobe Acrobat Portbale Document Format. It provides an interesting and comprehensive discussion and we strongly recommend stakeholders to read it.

 

NFLS Problem Statement

The National Freight Logistics Strategy spells out the following problem statement defining the key challenges within South Africa’s freight system:

The freight system in South Africa is fraught with inefficiencies at system and firm levels. There are infrastructure shortfalls and mismatches; the institutional structure of the freight sector is inappropriate, and there is a lack of integrated planning. Information gaps and asymmetries abound; the skills base is deficient, and the regulatory frameworks are incapable of resolving problems in the industry.

The NFLS seeks to address this in a vision of the freight logistics system which will:

respond to problems in institutional and regulatory frameworks, infrastructure, ownership, management; operations; skills; financing structures, and methodologies for the freight system.

The White Paper on National Transport Policy outlines policy objectives which are underpinned by the following key principles:

• Freight driving the economy
• Freight as the engine for economic growth and
• The need for freight to be accessible to international markets

The White Paper lists the National Transport Policy objectives as follows:

• Re-evaluation of the role of freight transport in economic development
• Lower transport costs
• Efficient transport systems
• Infrastructure development
• Promotion of BEE
• Safety of goods in transit
• Development of strategic transportation corridors
• Promotion of intermodalism
• Reduction of overloading
• Promotion of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME’s)
• Removal of infrastructural bottlenecks; and
• Trade facilitation and co-ordination

 

NFLS Objectives

The NFLS aims to achieve the following objectives:

Institutional

• To promote public-private partnership
• To create and maintain a platform for addressing operational inefficiencies and current bottlenecks
• To develop integrated planning across all spheres of government, incorporating the views of all stakeholders
• To develop integrated freight logistics planning for operations and infrastructure across the various corridors, integrating South Africa, the region and the continent

Strategic

• To ensure that the sustainability of the sector is secured and is adaptable to shifts in industry and government policy
• To respond to current challenges facing the freight sector
• To develop, plan, implement, monitor and update strategies and programmes to address the improvement of infrastructure, systems and operations along the freight corridors and sub corridors encompassing airports, border posts, intermodal facilities, pipelines, port facilities, rail network and roads
• To increase system capacity
• Development of provincial freight scenarios for 2014

Operational

• To reduce the transport and logistics related cost of doing business
• To reduce transit time

 

NFLS Implementation

The NFLS implementation strategy is very clearly characterised by a wholistic approach:

A major component of implementation is the development of integrated planning and the creation of a freight transport master plan that integrates the planning of Government into all spheres: public agencies and the private sector, from both an infrastructure and operations perspective. This will be supported by an information collection and management approach, which includes a platform development for systems and information integration across the sub-sector.

The NFLS is implemented at the provincial level in Mpumalanga through the Mpumalanga Freight Logistics Forum, or MFLF.