From the Editor’s Desk
September 11, 2026

Last week, a transport operator told me he had decided to close his business. In fact, the final closure moves had taken place on the very morning we spoke, so it was still fresh in his mind – and in his emotions. This wasn’t a failed cowboy operator being forced out. This was an established 50-plus-rig transporter choosing to get out. “Why?” I asked. His reply wasn’t what I expected. “I want my life back,” he said simply.

As we went further into the discussion, he explained that when he started the business some years ago, it was an exciting time. As the business progressed, it was fun. But over the past few years, that excitement had disappeared, replaced by a daily pressure-cooker grind that had gradually taken over his life. The fun was gone. “I didn’t start the business to end up with a heart attack, which is where I was heading; to give up all my personal time and interests; to spend less time with my family and no time with my friends.” He outlined some of the increasing pressures that had brought him to this point – pressures many transport operators are facing in today’s economic climate.

It wasn’t the normal challenges of running a business that he was shying away from. Those he could handle as he is no stranger to the quirks and pressures of this stressed economy. The problem was that too many outside influences, none of his making and many over which he had little or no control, were hammering the business. Constant fuel price increases were just one. “I thought that after COVID the industry would settle and get back to normality but it didn’t. In fact, it got worse. It became a daily fight, with rates being undercut while costs were rising. It turned from growth to survival.” One might argue that all transporters are facing similar challenges. That’s true. But in his case, he’d had enough of the fight. Enough of the 24/7 grind. He wanted his life back. Luckily, he wasn’t a skabanga operator. He kept his rigs in good condition and had managed to sell them off.

Why do I highlight this case? Because he is not the first transporter I have spoken to who feels this way. I know a number of operators who remain in the business but would dearly like to get out. They are there reluctantly because, as one put it, “it is no longer fun”.

I recall back in 1994 when FleetWatch interviewed every political party standing in South Africa’s first democratic elections, asking what their transport policy was. The ANC had, at the time, a working document which contained a statement that the trucking industry served as an ideal entry point for the formerly disadvantaged to enter mainstream economic activity. Well, maybe it was then. It certainly isn’t now. Trucking has become a tough industry in which to operate, yet many people still see “big truck, big profits”. What they don’t see is “big truck, big costs, big risks, small profit”. And that is why so many wannabe truckers – particularly in the side-tipper segment – have gone out, bought a rig and hit the road, only to hit the skids. They run at unsustainably low rates, helping to destroy an already uneven rates playing field. Many customers and some brokers love it because they can play one transporter off against another to secure the lowest rate. In the process, those operators often destroy themselves.

I remember stopping alongside an owner-driver whose truck had broken down at the side of the road. He cried in front of me. Yes, cried. He told me he had always dreamed of getting into transport and after being assured of a contract by a “friend of a friend”, had bought a used MAN truck tractor and side-tipper combination for – wait for it – R400 000. That breakdown proved to be the end of the road for him. It was one breakdown of many. He was waiting for a tow-truck. “I have now lost all my money,” he told me. And that’s when he started crying. I gave him a hug. That’s all I could do. To fix that rig in its entirety would probably have cost more than what he paid for it. It was totally unroadworthy. One axle on one of the trailers had no brake boosters fitted and there were numerous other faults across the combination. It was a sad day for him – and for me, seeing a man as broken as his truck.

There are many similar operators running at below-economic rates and this is just one of numerous factors that have forced some of the more reputable operators to turn the dials on their businesses from growth to survival. And when survival becomes the daily objective, the business starts taking over your life. The enjoyment disappears. Family time disappears. Personal time disappears. Eventually, for some, the desire to carry on disappears as well.

There are too many adverse influences battering this industry and, if you look closely, you’ll see that trucking is hurting. That should concern all of us. Because when a successful operator with more than 50 rigs and years of experience decides that walking away is preferable to carrying on, we should be asking ourselves what has gone wrong. He found his answer. “I want my life back.” If things don’t change, I fear he won’t be the last.

Patrick O’Leary
Managing Editor, FleetWatch