June 15, 2017
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Walking dead ‘Teach Gr 1 pupils how to cross the road safely’ ALWYN VILJOEN STATISTICS from the Road Traffic Management Corpora tion’s 2009 to 2016 road traffic report calendars show KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng have the most road deaths in SA, each province contributing almost 20% to the national total. Northern Cape (2,9%), Free State (7,0%) and North West (7,7%) had the lowest number of deaths. Thanks to seat belts, crumple zones and reinforced roof beams, drivers often walk away from low speed collisions. Pedestrians are not so lucky. On average over the past dec ade, pedestrians made up just over one in every four road deaths (27%), but last year this number rose to 38%. Of the 14 071 friends and fami
ly who died in road deaths last year, 5 410 were walking or in a few instances, cycling next to the road. Yes, a lot of them were taking their chance in traffic by jaywalk ing (38,8%), but hitandrun crashes killed 18,5%. Drivers meanwhile are mostly dying because of human error, but high speed is also killing many (14,1%), while overtaking in the face of oncoming traffic claimed a surprisingly low 6,9%, drunk driving or driving while on drugs 3,6%, and driver fatigue 2,2%. The Automobile Association (AA) said in a statement these figures should worry every mo torist in the country. “These numbers seem to indi cate that awareness campaigns and education initiatives are not working well enough, driver atti
tudes are getting worse, and that law enforcement is not making the impact it should. “We are deeply concerned about these fatalities, more so because they show an increase, and call for urgent action from all roleplayers involved in road safety to reverse this,” the AA said. The AA noted that while the government plays a pivotal role in addressing the carnage on the country’s roads, motorists and pedestrians seem to not be heed ing the call to drive and walk saf er, and should see these numbers as a stark warning. “Too often motorists are driv ing recklessly or not obeying the rules of the road. “Similarly, pedestrians are not protecting themselves by being more visible to cars, or are taking chances crossing over roads
The Harry Gwala stadium and pitch in Pietermaritzburg, which seats only 12 000 people, would fill to overflowing if the 14 071 people who died on South Africa’s roads last year could all return. PHOTO: FOOTBALLTRIPPER.COM where they shouldn’t. “More effort is needed by both groups of road users, and more effort is needed by organisations involved in road safety to make safety a priority,” the AA said. Wheels spoke to several citi zens in KZN’s capital to hear how this can be done. Dan Govender, a community activist, agreed with the AA that a wider ap proach to road safety education
is needed, and said he has made several proposals to relevant bodies to start by teaching Grade Rs how to cross a road safely. Vehicle technician Lunga Siba ya said people who have never steered a vehicle have no clue of closing distances or reaction times, which is why pedestrians often get it fatally wrong. He mooted using KZN’s steep hills and drifting trikes to teach
pedestrians these principles in a fun way. Top drift car driver Kurt Vol mink agreed fun is the best way to teach road safety to both driv ers and pedestrians, and said the motoring event to be hosted at Mason’s Mill for Youth Day to morrow aims to impart knowl edge on car control and speed to the fans — most of whom walk in from Edendale.
Sanral on average collects 1 400 bags of litter monthly along the 138 km road between Umdloti and Empangeni, and pleads with road users to stop throwing things out of their vehicles. PHOTO: SANRAL
Plea for road users not to litter AS part of the international day for people to do something posi tive for the environment, Sanral has asked motorists and passen gers to keep their litter in their cars. Sanral’s environmental man ager Mpati Makoa said it was as tonishing how many things peo ple just throw out of their vehicle windows, with little regard on the impact it has. Cleaning up the mess is ex pensive and timeconsuming, and has become an unfortunate part of what the South African National Roads Agency SOC Ltd (Sanral) has to do right across the country. Sanral reported that a total of 80 601 litter bags were collected during the 2016/17 financial year in the Eastern Cape alone. These were along the N2, R62, Tsitsi kamma toll plaza, R58, N19, N20, R390, R391 and the R396. Around 10 cubic metres of lit ter is collected per day per team on days that debris and litter is collected. In some areas collec
tion is done once a month, while in some twice a month. All litter is disposed of at registered local municipal landfill sites at each town along the routes. There are some strange items that have been picked up by San ral’s routine road maintenance staff. These include plastic bags full of used nappies, bottles with urine and animal carcasses amongst others. Fast food wrappers, boxes and soft drink bottles are typical lit ter that is collected on a regular basis on national roads. Loads of household litter in refuse bags are also picked up on the side of the roads, totalling about six to 10 cubic metres in the Eastern Cape. In KZN, the experience is not much different. The 138 km stretch of road from Umdloti to Empangeni is split into four sec tions. An emerging subcontrac tor is appointed for each section to conduct routine road mainte nance and this includes litter picking. On this stretch, litter
picking is done once a month at the beginning of each month. On average on each of the four sections, 350 bags of litter are picked up at the beginning of each month. On the whole stretch of road, a total of 1 400 bags are picked up monthly. Looking at major routes in the both the Western and Northern Cape, about 22 000 bags of lit ter are collected on average, on a monthly basis. Where possi ble, a sizable portion is diverted away from landfill and used for recycling initiatives, particularly glass and plastic. “Picking up litter is part of routine road maintenance du ties. It takes 10 days to complete the litter pickup exercise. All the bags of litter are loaded onto ve hicles and offloaded at regis tered landfill sites along the routes. The strangest items the teams have picked up vary from a wedding ring to strange toys that are best not mentioned,” said Makoa. — WR.
Royal Truck & Bus 164 Ohrtmann Road, Willowton, Pietermaritzburg 3201 Contact Numbers: Office: 033 387 6420 • Shan: 073 581 8822
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June 15, 2017
Robotic Volvo does not trample on plants VOLVO Trucks has developed a new selfsteering truck that could become a significant productivity booster for Bra zilian sugarcane growers. Like the giant Komatsu robot trucks operating without drivers on mines in Australia and Chile, as well as John Deere tractors and harvesters, Volvo’s truck steers with great precision through the fields, causing less damage to the young plants that will form the following year’s
crop. At present, about four percent of the crop is lost as young plants are run over and the soil is compacted by mov ing vehicles. This translates into thou sands in lost revenue per truck per sea son. Brazil’s Usina Santa Terezinha Group, which tested the prototype Volvo truck in the company’s huge fields, said the potential for bigger harvests is signifi cant — up to 10 tons per hectare per year.
“With the help of Volvo Trucks’ solu tion we can increase productivity, not just for one single crop but for the entire lifecycle of the sugarcane plant, which lasts five to six years,” said Santa Terezin ha’s finance and procurement director Paulo Meneguetti. Volvo is also testing a robot truck for underground mining operations in the Kristineberg Mine in northern Sweden. — Wheels Reporter.
Daimler is 3D printing quality parts for its bus range. PHOTO: QUICKCPIC
Daimler 3Dprints new bus parts STUTTGART — Daimler Buses is ex ploiting the benefits of 3D printing to meet customers’ special re quirements and produce small batches and replacement parts for the MercedesBenz and Setra brands. Head of Daimler Buses Hartmut Schick said 3D printing provides the bus division within the Daim ler Group with a means of re sponding swiftly, flexibly, economi cally and ecologically to individual customer requests for replace ment parts. Some 780 components have been printed for customer vehicles and over 150 different replace
ment parts for buses are currently being scrutinised and validated with regard to their feasibility as 3Dprinted parts. Highquality polyamide plastics are used to laser print any desired geometry, even lowvolume modi fied parts adapted to customers’ requirements. The entire process, from the initial idea through de sign, costing and production to delivery, takes only a matter of days. The customer can subsequently reorder any 3D part. This guaran tees a swift supply of replacement parts even after several decades and worldwide. — Supplied.
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A selfdriving Volvo truck steers with precision through a sugar cane field. PHOTO: VOLVO
Autonomous transportation Barloworld’s KAMOGELO MMUTLANA looks at disruptions that will impact on goods delivery ACCORDING to research firm Frost & Sullivan, logistics global spend is expected to reach $10,6 trillion by 2020, with trans portation accounting for the majority of the spending at 65%. Certain trends will be shaping every as pect of this market. Chief among these are the emergence of autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, big data, blockchain technology and online marketplaces. SELFSTEERING VEHICLES Frost & Sullivan predicts most moving ve hicles within logistics — from forklift to delivery fleets — will be semiautonomous and some fully autonomous in the not too distant future. For the supply chain, autonomous logis tics will translate into platooning trucks, selfsteering ships and autonomous drone deliveries to name a few. Existing and proposed projects in this space include the DHL Parcelocopter, Google’s Project Wing Drone and Ama zon’s Prime Air. DATADRIVEN DECISIONS Data is the new oil for every type of busi ness. Daily analysis of structured data will undoubtedly lead to enhanced efficiencies and quicker, calculated decisionmaking within the supply chain. Growing access to data will also mean that analytics will move from reactive to preemptive to anticipatory. Amazon, for example, through its anticipatory shipping model, will know what you want even be fore you know you want it. For the wider industry and logistics stakeholders, predictive and prescriptive analytics are already presenting a number of applications. These include route opti misation in real time and product tracking data.
ONLINE MARKETPLACES With regards to brokeragerelated services within the supply chain, it is predicted that two key platforms will disrupt the status quo: mobile based and online marketpla ces. The emergence of online marketplaces within the supply chain will involve the closer integration of all parties to include all stakeholders — namely sellers, buyers, freight forwarders and financial institu tions, all connected to each other through an open, online platform. Notably, mobile based freight brokers are seeking to outdo traditional brokerage firms by offering higher asset utilisation and expedited rev enue allocation. BLOCKCHAINS Although it is a term more frequently asso ciated with financial technology business es, blockchain technology is poised to im pact key functions within logistics. This platform verifies digital transac tions on the network and is arguably set to become the new operating system for supply chain and logistics globally. By integrating this technology, the blockchain can enable a strong and secure exchange for shared logistics, coordinat ing a vast array of activities from sharing unutilised space in a shipping container or warehouse, to optimising truck fleets and drivers. Blockchain technology can also yield important benefits with regards to B2B transactions — such as cross border payroll processing and smart contracts. This technology is already in use in a platform called Ethereum, a decentralised platform that runs smart contracts. These are contracts steered by applications that “run exactly as programmed, without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference”. For logistics stakeholders, the Ethereum
platform is set to facilitate in negotiating prices and monitoring inventory levels that will result in minimising transaction costs and building more agile supply chains. In addition, the application can ini tiate more secure forms of transactions and facilitate shared logistics opportuni ties in near real time. 3D PRINTING A technology that has long been waiting in the corporate wings, 3D printing capa bilities are improving daily with vast po tential in terms of freedom of design. It can also lower production costs by up to 50% — translating from low cost homes printed within a day to expertly custom ised medical implants and prosthetics. ‘FACTORYINABOX’ In the near future, each individual 3D printer could be able to print several differ ent materials using multiple processes in multiple, decentralised locations. As a result, logistics and supply chain management could be drastically trans formed — to only servicing nimble, inno vative, garagesized industries. While these technologies and trends are arguably still in the development stage, they are forcing businesses to shift their approach and to strongly consider and em brace transformation by exploring possi ble applications. For supply chain management and lo gistics stakeholders, we at Barloworld Lo gistics believe that the emergence of these trends serve as both inspiration and moti vation to begin the process of future proofing and implementing sustainable processes, right now. Without a doubt, only the agile and re sponsive will survive today in order to thrive tomorrow. • Kamogelo Mmutlana is chief executive of Barloworld Logistics.
MOTORING WitnessWheels
June 15, 2017
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Awards for IPace and Velar Land Rover team wins with new off roader and electric concept PRETORIA — The AllNew Range Rover Velar has won the Best Brand Design Language prize at the Car De sign Awards — the first industry rec ognition of its unprecedented glam our, modernity and elegance. The Velar will go on sale in South Africa after September, with diesel and petrol engines — all with turbos — available in 4 or 6cylinder config urations. Allwheel drive is standard fitment and even the entry level 2litre makes 132 kW and 430 Nm. The Jaguar IPace Concept electric performance SUV brought more suc cess to Britain’s biggest car manufac turer, winning the Concept Car cate gory. The awards, held at the Turin Motor Show by Auto & Design maga zine, celebrate brands that have con tributed significantly to the evolution of automotive design. An international panel of journal ists chooses winners in three catego ries: Concept Cars, Production Cars and Brand Design Language. “It’s great to be recognised for the hard work and creative endeavour of the whole Land Rover team,” said Ger ry McGovern, chief design officer, Land Rover. “Velar is a true team effort and one
that will continue the transformation of our business.” Velar also took second place in the Production Cars category. Designed to fill the white space be tween the Range Rover Sport and the Range Rover Evoque, Velar offers lev els of luxury, refinement and allter rain capability never before seen in the midsize SUV segment. The Jaguar IPace Concept won the Best Concept Car category. One of the most visually arresting concepts ever produced by Jaguar, the electric per formance SUV takes full advantage of the packaging freedom offered by electrification. It previews Jaguar’s first electric ve hicle, the Jaguar IPace, which will be in South Africa next year. “This award recognises that the Jaguar IPace Concept is a radical de parture for electric vehicles,” said Ian Callum, Jaguar director of design. “It represents the next generation of battery electric vehicle design. “It’s a dramatic, futurefacing de sign — the product of authentic Jag uar DNA matched with beautiful, pre mium details and British craftsman ship,” Callum said in a statement. — WR.
The Range Rover Velar will launch in South Africa after spring. Designed to fill the white space between the Range Rover Sport and the Range Rover Evoque, the Velar offers levels of luxury, refinement and allterrain capability never before seen in the midsize SUV segment. PHOTO: MOTORPRESS
SA CAR RENTALS AMONG CHEAPEST A 2016 survey by Deutsche Bank found South African car rental prices are the second cheapest in the world, behind only China in terms of a likeforlike dollar adjusted rate per day benchmark. Lance Smith, executive: sales at Avis southern Africa, said local car rates are also about one quarter the price of a comparable car rental in New York City. While the Deutsche Bank study uses Avis Budget Group LLC data, what it fails to highlight is the rela tive size of China’s rental market, which is a comparatively small rental market given that most vehicles are hired with chauffeurs. Thanks to exchange rate shifts,
the dollar price of SA car rentals has halved in the past four years — from $69,30 in 2012 to $35 in 2016. South Africa’s car rental rate came to $35 per day. “As car rental providers, we have been doing our level best to keep prices down in order to offer the lo cal market the best deals possible. But when one looks at the rates in ternational travellers pay, South Afri ca is almost unbeatable,” said Smith. Tourists who rent a car to travel in South Africa will also be happy to hear the bank’s weekend getaway index rates SA as third in best value, behind only India and Malaysia, and only Indonesia has cheaper meals at pubs. — WR. Don’t let its generous proportions and everyday practicality fool you. Inspired by F-TYPE, the Jaguar F-PACE has the DNA of a sports car.
DISCOVERY PACKS HOPE IN A BOX JAGUAR Land Rover dealerships are in the middle of a collection month for the Land Rover hope box. Participating dealers have a Red Crossliveried Land Rover Discovery Sport fitted with a Land Rover Hope Box. This container will be used to collect donations of non perishable foodstuffs, toiletries, children’s toys, educational items, clothing and blankets. Along with donations from dealer staff and customers, members of the public will also be able to contribute some of these essential items. When this year’s Land Rover
F-PACE’s Lightweight Aluminium Architecture is stiff and strong, for incredible agility and handling. And its Torque Vectoring provides precise braking on the inside wheels while feeding torque to the outside wheels for even better cornering. Extra spacious, powerful and nimble, Jaguar’s first performance SUV changes the game.
These Red Crossliveried Land Rover Discovery models act as collection points at dealers. PHOTO: MOTORPICS Hope Boxes campaign wraps up on July 31, the collected items will be handed over to the South African Red Cross Society for distribution to its key projects. For more information on the Land Rover Hope Boxes campaign, visit http://www.landrover.co.za/ experience/news/hopecrossesany terrain.html.
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June 15, 2017
Figo really is a sweet bite ROB RATHGEBER AS a wheelchair user I had my doubts about fitting my chair into the tiny Ford Figo I recently rented. It is a dilemma we older petrol heads constantly face, as rental cars at the affordable spectrum often do not have doors that open wide enough, or sills that are low enough. It turns out I fretted needlessly on the plane, as my folded chair slipped in easily — not in the boot, but on the backseat. Thanks to a low door sill I just rolled the seat in and positioned it between the rear bench and the front passenger seat — such is the leg room back there despite this being a small hatch on a 2,5 metre wheelbase. What a pleasure not have to re move seat squabs or flip down back rests! We were on our way to a game park and as pleased as punch to hear the Ford Wildlife Foundation supports the wildlife we South Africans are so fortunate to have close by. Our personal reactions show how corporations’ social responsibility has become a major influence on how both customers and large corpora tions do business. The Ford Motor company launched the Ford Wildlife Foundation in 2014 and now uses last month’s best selling vehicle in SA, the Ford Ranger, to take several projects further on our coastlines (If wildlife is an interest of yours, go to wildlife@ford.com and find more about the cheetah metropolitan project). But back to the Figo — it means “fig” and that’s just what the Ford’s bottom of the range little car is — a sweet bite.
The author removing his wheelchair from the Ford Figo. PHOTO: JULIA RATHGEBER Six hatches and three sedans are available, powered by either a 1,5 pet rol or diesel engine. Standard features in the Figo that I appreciated include dual front driv er and passenger airbags, a perimeter alarm and remote central locking. Our petrol made its peak power of 82 kW at a reasonably low 4 250 rev olutions, with peak torque of 136 Newtons enabling sporty pass ing of trucks despite our combined weight of over 1,5 tons. The entry level Figo sells for R175 700, pitting it against the slightly cheaper Toyota Etios, the only other 1,5 among the over 3 460 models in SA that sells for under R175 000, although some would ar gue the Polo Vivo 1,4’s power delivery of 55 kW and 132 Nm comes close enough to the Figo’s power to be a competitor at R174 800.
The new owner of GWM in SA, Haval Motors South Africa, has introduced six derivatives of the H2 Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) at competitive prices, starting at R244 900 for the 1,5 T City. A sixspeed auto box adds R30 000 to this price and the top of the range Luxury spec sells for R309 900. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
Kia has expanded the Sportage to a dozen models. PHOTO: KIA
New models for Sportage FOLLOWING the successful intro duction of the allnew KIA Sportage to the South African market late in 2016, KIA Motors South Africa is now expanding the local Sportage model range with seven new and or enhanced derivatives. “Starting at a very competitive R369 995, we launched the allnew Sportage last year with a compact, fivemodel range spanning four specification grades. But, being a brand known for its ‘power to sur prise’, our product planning did not stop there,” says David Sieff, market ing director, KIA Motors SA. “We now expand the model range with seven additional derivatives, not on ly giving our customers more choice
but, more importantly, also creating more value.” The revised Sportage range of a dozen models price from R370 000 for the entry level twolitre Ignite Manual, and go up to R600 000 for the 1,6 TGDI GT Line all wheel drive with a dual clutch transmis sion. All models have a fiveyear/un limited kilometre CV Joint warranty and road speCialists side assist for CV joints, ball joints, ance and a tie rod ends, wheel bearings. fiveyear/ 90 000 km 341 GReYlinG stReet service Pmb. 033 342 9174/75 plan — WR.
The Chinese Youxia X is one of the more elegant electric cars being built in China. PHOTO: YOUXIA
Evees a coming Plans in California and China will change SA’s car choices ALWYN VILJOEN SOUTH African annual vehi cle sales last year tallied up to only 0,68% of 2016’s global vehicle sales. Which is why our car deal ers pay close attention to what happens in America and Chi na — the world’s two biggest vehicle markets. Economies of scale dictate the models de signed for the drivers in these giant markets will eventually filter down to our tiny market. Fans of thirsty V8 roar may want to look away at this point, because our future cars are going to be quietly hum ming fullelectric vehicles — or evees. This after California Gover
nor Jerry Brown, California Air Resources Board chair Mary D. Nichols and other California state officials this week met with all China’s leading automakers and bat tery manufacturers to “ex pand cooperation and accel erate deployment of zero emission cars, trucks and buses”, according to a media statement. China accounts for about 40% of the global market while Californians bought over half of the 17,5 million light vehicles sold in the U.S. last year. China and California also lead in the rapidly growing market for zeroemission ve hicles, which this year sur
passed two million cars, trucks and buses worldwide. In California, 37 different batterypowered, plugin hy brid, and fuel cell electric vehi cle models are currently being sold. In March, California had more than 280 000 zero emission vehicles on the roads, and the governor has set a goal of putting 1,5 million evees on the roads by 2025 and four to five million by 2030. Since 2014, evee sales in China have increased nearly sevenfold to 509 000 vehicles last year. A working group through the ChinaU.S. ZEV Policy Lab at UC Davis will next expand cooperation with Chinese ze
roemission vehicle and bat tery technology companies. The lab is a unique partner ship established in 2014 be tween UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies and the China Automotive Tech nology and Research Centre, both leaders in zeroemission technology and policy. The Chinese brands that at tended the meeting and which can be expected to start re placing the fuel burners of to day included BYD, Beijing Au to Group, Great Wall, Geely, Dongfeng Xiao Kang, WM Motors, Yangtze Motors, along with over battery com panies led by China’s Pana sonic rival, Contemporary Amperex Technology.
Workhorse helicopter like a bakkie drone WORKHORSE, an American technology company that made its name developing telemetrics for trucks, plans to unveil its SureFly helicopter concept at the Paris Air Show on Monday. “The helicopter has been around for 78 years and is fi nally being reinvented,” said Stephen Burns, CEO of Work horse in a statement. “We’ve designed SureFly by leveraging our expertise in batteryelectric powered mo bility, controls and gas genera tors to accelerate the speed to market in this sector.” He said the goal of SureFly is to be safer and more stable than a typical helicopter due to its redundant design, which includes four propeller arms, two fixed contrarotating pro pellers on each arm, a backup battery to drive the electric
The electric 1,1 ton Workhorse SureFly and the allelectric Workhorse bakkie. PHOTO: WORKHORSE motors in the event of engine failure and a ballistic para chute that safely brings down the craft if needed. The idea is to extend a nor mal bakkie’s ability to deliver. Burns said the SureFly’s hy brid design leveraged Work horse’s battery packaging platform, management sys
tems and even controls from its rangeextended battery electric vehicles. It features a small petrol generator and a parallel bat tery pack to ensure a redun dant backup power source. This rangeextending gen erator also eliminates the need for long battery charging peri
ods between flights. SureFly is designed to be easy to operate, and is expect ed to be capable of carrying two passengers up to 110 km. Early models will be pilot operated, but the goal is to introduce future models fea turing autonomous flight ca pable of carrying payloads of up to 180 kg. The company is already working with UPS delivery service to test delivery of par cels using drones that carry a few kilograms at a time. Anticipated markets for the SureFly are precision agricul ture, emergency responders, city commuters and military. Workhorse plans to begin test flights this year and in tends to achieve Federal Avia tion Administration certifica tion in late 2019. — WR. .
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