From the Editor’s Desk
September 25, 2026
It’s Wednesday, September 23, and I’m in-between two significant events – the first took place recently in Cape Town and the second takes place this Friday in Gauteng. In fact, as you read this, I’m probably on my way to the second one.
The Cape Town event was the announcement by Clicks that it has secured 30 new-generation SANY electric trucks as the retailer accelerates the electrification of its national distribution network. With these trucks, the Clicks Group’s Montague Gardens distribution centre is set to become the first retail distribution centre in Africa to operate a 100% electric truck fleet. Clicks has invested more than R65-million in solar photovoltaic generation, battery energy storage and charging infrastructure to support the transition. And there is more to come, with the goal being for more than 90% of the Group’s heavy-duty truck fleet to be electric by September 2028.
Friday’s event – today as you read this – is the handover of Hino 300 hybrid trucks to SMSA, a key logistics partner supporting the Toyota Africa Parts Centre (TAPC). The invite from Hino states: “The handover represents a significant milestone in the on-going efforts by Toyota Africa Parts Centre and its logistics partners to reduce emissions and improve environmental sustainability across their operations.” SMSA’s invite carries a similar message, saying the event will highlight the move towards hybrid technology as part of a joint initiative “to reduce carbon emissions and support more sustainable solutions within the transport and logistics industry.”
At the Clicks event, Bertina Engelbrecht, Clicks Group CEO, stated: “This is what responsible corporate citizenship looks like. With our partners, we are not simply responding to change. We are helping to lead it.” I’m sure Engelbrecht won’t mind if I attach that sentiment to the Hino/SMSA event because, in my opinion, both moves demonstrate exactly that. One is going the electric truck route and the other the hybrid route but both have similar aims: reducing emissions and building more sustainable transport operations.
On this point, I quote a Daimler Truck response to a FleetWatch query earlier this year on the best route towards reducing emissions and ensuring sustainability: “We acknowledge that there is no single ‘silver bullet’ to accomplish our goal of achieving CO₂-neutral trucks and buses by 2050. Rather, a combination of technologies will be required. Battery-electric trucks remain a core pillar of our zero-emission strategy, particularly suited for urban and regional transport. At the same time, hydrogen fuel-cell technology will be critical for long-haul and heavy-duty applications.”
Daimler Truck added that its position was not to prioritise one technology over another but to strike the right balance between solutions to meet differing customer needs. And that is what we are seeing. Truck OEMs are investing heavily in exploring various technologies to reduce emissions, while customers such as Clicks and SMSA are adopting solutions best suited to their particular operations. These partnerships are moving in the right direction not only for their businesses but also for the environment. As Engelbrecht put it: “We are building a more resilient, efficient and sustainable supply chain that supports our growth while reducing our impact on the planet.” That is what corporate responsibility looks like and I’m sure the same sentiment will apply when the Hino/SMSA move to hybrids is announced later today.
Now let’s contrast that with what I regard as corporate – or institutional – irresponsibility. Only a week after the Clicks event, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it had finalised the repeal of the majority of the 2024 greenhouse-gas requirements for US power plants and proposed rescinding the remaining greenhouse-gas standards for the power sector. Coming out of the USA where its President, Donald Trump, regards climate change and global warming as a ‘hoax’, this did not come as a surprise. I have come to regard almost every move made by Donald Trump’s administration as being driven by the mantra ‘follow the money’ – and the EPA’s justification is largely economic. It says the additional proposal, if finalised, would save $370-million (around R6,08-billion) in direct compliance costs, over and above other savings it expects from its broader deregulation of the power sector. There is, however, another side to that balance sheet.
According to the United Nations, fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are by far the largest contributor to global climate change. And climate change is not some distant theoretical threat. Its effects are already being experienced across the world – and there is more to come. The United States matters enormously in this equation. European Commission data ranks it as the world’s second-largest greenhouse-gas emitter behind China. And, as has so often been stated, global warming has no borders. Decisions taken by one of the world’s largest emitters inevitably have consequences beyond its own shores.
Environmental organisations have strongly criticised the EPA’s move. In a BBC article, Nathaniel Keohane, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, described it as “a giant step backward”, arguing that the EPA had ignored climate science and its responsibility to protect public health and welfare. And here is where that $370-million figure sticks in my throat. The EPA highlights the money that could be saved in direct compliance costs. But what about the economic, environmental and social costs of worsening climate change? Those costs also belong on the balance sheet.
Now compare that approach with what Engelbrecht said at the Clicks event: “South Africa’s transport sector is a significant contributor to the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, with road transport accounting for most transport-related emissions. Changing the way goods move on our roads therefore has an important role to play in building a lower-carbon future.”
Clicks has also demonstrated that environmental responsibility and financial sense do not necessarily sit on opposite sides of the table. Its 30-truck electric fleet is expected to save approximately 780 000 litres of diesel and avoid around 2 000 tonnes of tailpipe carbon dioxide emissions annually. Clicks projects annual fuel savings of between R20-million and R25-million, together with a further R2-million to R3-million reduction in maintenance costs. So, there is a financial benefit consideration but it’s not the only factor taken into account. There’s a lesson in that.
FleetWatch once again salutes the truck OEMs and those customers who are taking climate change seriously and acting on it. I am proud to be associated with an industry where the money side – critical though it is – is not always the only consideration. There is another balance sheet. It measures reduced emissions, resources conserved and the kind of planet we leave behind. Clicks and SMSA are putting numbers on both balance sheets. It is time that others start doing the same.
Patrick O’Leary
Managing Editor, FleetWatch
