Hino South Africa recently played a major role in a Brake and Tyre Watch event held in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal.
Partnering with Hino Pinetown and a number of transport associates, the company invited some of its fleet customers to attend the two-day event, the aim of which was to undergo a training session and later assess the roadworthiness of trucks which passed through the Pinetown area.
The first day was spent in a classroom session at the eThekwini Electricity Training Centre, where traffic officials are trained. “Training is the key to this initiative,” said road safety champion, Patrick O’Leary, of Fleetwatch.
“It is very difficult for officials to evaluate a vehicle’s brakes and tyres if they do not know what to look for or if they don’t know how the various braking systems work. New braking systems are continually being introduced to latest model trucks, so traffic officials need to be updated on an ongoing basis. Training is provided free of charge by our partners from the industry,” he explained.
The second day was a hands-on test day at the weighbridge. Randomly-selected trucks were stopped and put through a brake roller test, while all vehicles were checked in the pit for trailer defects and other faults. Of the six inspected, four were found not to be roadworthy and were taken off the road.
This was the 38th occasion that O’Leary and his team, in conjunction with partners from the industry, staged the Brake & Tyre Watch roadside safety check, and marked the second time that Hino and its dealers had given direct support to the project.
“We are pleased to be involved in an initiative that makes our roads safer,” said Ernie Trautmann, the Vice President of Hino SA. “It was disturbing to learn that four of the six trucks checked were not roadworthy. We believe that the authorities need to be far more proactive in conducting their own roadblocks linked to brake and tyre checks.”
He said the Brake & Tyre Watch programme, by its nature, could not be a national watchdog, but was rather a dipstick to highlight the high number of non-roadworthy trucks on the roads.
