If I was Brian Joffe, CEO of the Bidvest Group Limited, I wouldn’t be too ‘˜Proudly Bidvest’ for running the rig pictured here on public roads.
Operating under the Bidfreight Intermodal company name, FleetWatch went onto Bidfreight Intermodal’s website and it spelt out how the company’s City Deep operations has an owner-driver scheme for transporting import, export and domestic containers within the Gauteng region.
I quote from the site: “This scheme is part of the company’s enterprise development initiative which is designed to encourage young entrepreneurs to start up businesses of their own. The partnership allows approved individuals to provide mechanical horses, while Bidfreight Intermodal provides deliveries, trailers, parking, security and other requirements to perform local transportation efficiently.’
Not too sure about the ‘˜efficiently’ bit for the rig shown here was grossly overloaded. It may have been performing local transportation ‘˜illegally’ yes but ‘˜efficiently’ no.
The first tell-tale signs were the tyres, all equally under-inflated and battling under a heavy load. The second sign was the mud flaps which were scraping the ground.
Taking a closer look at the rear of the container we saw metal shaving and thus sent the rig to the weighbridge at the Langlaagte test centre and sure enough, it was 9 tons overloaded.
Unfortunately, when later looking for the rig to test its brakes and other aspects of its roadworthiness, it was nowhere to be found. We were told that the lady at the weighbridge had ‘˜used her discretion’ and let it go as the scales were not certificated. Aaaargh!
Unfortunately the rig was wrongly allowed to continue.
