AARTO Fleet Solutions

AARTO Potholes & Pitfalls

by Dennis Jackson

The new AARTO Traffic Demerit System is bound to impact negatively on fleet owners, company vehicles and drivers, if the fleet operator is not adequately acquainted with the operation of the system. Previously the focus on fleet management centred on vehicle assets. With AARTO in place, driver supervision and management will necessitate more attentiveness.

The RTMC is still consulting with various stakeholders on Aarto and further amendments to the act are possible. The national implementation date has been set for between January and March 2012.

Fleet owners need to assume responsibility in limiting the demerit points accumulated by their drivers. In terms of the Act, drivers will start with zero points and will accumulate points for each traffic offence. The maximum number of points allowed is twelve, and every point exceeding twelve will result in a three-month suspension of a driver’s licence for each point.

The fleet manager of a national retail group calculated that an extra R1.2m will be necessitated, just to ascertain the status of all his drivers’ demerit points on a monthly basis! According to the Act, if a driver commits a traffic infringement, both the driver and the vehicle's owner could receive demerit points.

If the first infringement notice is not responded to, it continues on to a second notice, (courtesy letter), and on to an enforcement order, whereby, in 96 days, the sheriff of the court can seize and sell movable property and deface licence discs and operator cards, on all vehicles in the fleet.

The AARTO Act will require stringent systems and processes to be put in place by fleet operators. It goes without saying that a vehicle, invariably valued at around R750.000 or more, should be assigned to a person who will take accountability for its efficient functioning. Pool vehicles will require a time and utilization recording system, so as to collate accurate information on the driver using the vehicle at a specific time.

In terms of the Act, written consent is needed to obtain an employee’s demerit points record and, and essentially, a review of labour contracts are necessitated. In addition clarification is needed for a driver that has a licence suspended. The consequences for a fleet manager who fails to manage his drivers effectively, or omits to record points accumulated by the drivers in his fleet, could be devastating. The entire fleet could be impounded and the sheriff of the court can seize and sell movable property, and deface licence discs and operator cards on all the vehicles. Furthermore, an identifiable Director could be criminally prosecuted and receive a two-year prison sentence and/or a fine of R20,000 if found guilty of neglecting to exercise proper control over his vehicles and drivers.

Fleet operators also need to consider the impact of the legislation on labour contracts. It is important for procedures to be drawn up to ensure that driver-employees are well informed of company policies relating to the implications and requirements of the Act.

Conversely, a major benefit to fleet operators will be increased driver responsibility and a reduction in fleet vehicle accidents. However, the Act will also have a major impact on corporate car policies and utilisation. This will require adaptable and flexible systems to be implemented for the new system to determine the driver of a vehicle at any specific time. Driver management and GPS control systems are options to consider.

Toll road usage will be recorded electronically and relevant fees will be deducted from the registered vehicles account. Fleet owners that fail to register and use a toll road without the necessary electronic verification and billing devices, will be mailed with invoices to the owner of the vehicles at his last recorded address on eNATIS. The invoice will be converted to an AARTO Infringement if the owner does not pay the invoice within 30 days. The toll fees, together with a penalty amount will become payable if the invoice is not settled within 30 days. As per the current Schedule 3 of the AARTO Regulations, the fine for failing to pay for the use of a toll road is R250. This may however change in future and a prison sentence of up to 6 months associated with such an offence may apply.

Finally, unless the system is properly implemented and enforced by the authorities in a correct manner that is devoid of maladministration and corruption, it will ultimately degrade into chaos. Awareness of driver behaviour at all times is necessary as it is abundantly clear that management of AARTO and toll fees could become very arduous for the fleet owner unless appropriately managed.