The Progress of Road Transport in South Africa.
Page 14
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riOMMERCIAL motors operated by private companies have been found so much cheaper and so much more effective than the South African railway system that the local administration is beginning to regard it as a menace from -which it must seek protection through legislative enactments.
Using six-wheeled motor lorries, the Orange Free State Motor Company is now carrying goods. all the way from Harrismith to Durban at rates approximately 10 per cent. lower than those obtaining on the railway system. The motor service is also much quicker. At present a rather small company is carrying out this work, but it is expected that shortly a larger company, with a capital of 120,000, will be floated.
The railway competition with motor road services is now most serious between Durban and PieterinaritzbUrg. Here Pullman motorbuses daily carry good loads of passengers between the two places, whilst heavy motor lorries are employed for the transport of goods. The railways have replied to this by reducing fares for passengers and goods and by quickening the services, but the motors still retain their popularity.
Another extension of the Natal road motor • services is a goods service B30 between Durban and Eshowe the capital of Zululand. Much Of the passenger transport from Durban to its suburbs and neighbouring villages is run by natives and Indians. They were the pioneers here and they still have the bulk of the third-class traffic, also doing a very good business in the transport of goods.
Road Competition Attacked.
That' the Government may seek in some way to reduce this competition was foreshadowed when the Minister of Railways remarked, in introducing his Budget, "The Administration's policy of reducing tariffs has been arrested by the factor of road motor competition. I have commented in this House on several occasions on the question of competition from road motor agencies. The Administration does the pioneering work of providing transport facilities, and then private road competitors step in and reap where the State has sown."
The only step the Government is likely to take is that of designating private -motor services "common carriers," by which they would be forced to take all forms of traffic and not only the most remunerative, but even in such an event the motor services would still show a good profit, for the success
of the commercial vehicle in South Africa is sure.
Recently, when the South African Government decided to bring the, Angola Boers into South-West Africa, it was considered that motor lorries would do the work much better than donkey wagons. At first 36 motor lorries were to be provided by the South-West African Administration, but the number was later reduced to six and these were continually on the road between the Portuguese border and Gobabis, in the Protectorhte.
The lorries, in addition to carrying the Boer families, brought wagons and furniture from Swartbooi's Drift, on the border. Two lorries were equipped for carrying passengers, two for the transport of wagons, and two for conveying furniture. In this way, every fortnight three parties, each consisting of five families, were brought to Gobabis, whence they were taken by donkey wagons to their new farms.
In all 130 families have to be transported in this way, and although the first party did not leave before August 25th, it is expected that all will have left Angola by the end of December. The trek, would last over a year if donkey wagons were used, that service being much more expensive.