Civil Engineering August 2021 | Vol 29 No 7

36 August 2021  Civil Engineering R esearch by the Africa Transport Policy Program (2017) utilising truck GPS data indicated that trucks are in motion less than a quarter of the total time en route between Durban and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A study by the World Bank (2012) suggested that only a quarter of delays along major transport corridors were as a result of poor infrastructure; the remainder is due to non-tariff barriers and poor trade facilitation. The World Bank (2018) estimated that regional administrative inefficiencies (such as regulations, market structure, and inefficiency with border procedures) increase South African road freight operators’ logistics costs on cross-border routes by 10% to 30%. From an economic perspective, improved cross-border trade facilitation can therefore have a signifi- cant impact on logistics costs, industry performance and economic growth. From a social perspective, it will drastically improve the wellbeing and productivity of truck drivers and border post staff. METRICS The most recent data on cross-border road freight transit times between South Africa and Botswana was obtained from a pilot survey conducted by the C-BRTA in 2019. For this study, block transit times from the survey are used, i.e. the time taken between the starting time of the border processes on one side of the border and the time the vehicle is acquitted on the other side of the border. Longer transit times increase costs due to additional buffer stock required in the chain, the carrying cost of the inventory standing at the border, as well as the vehicle-related fixed and variable costs still incurred when vehicles are idle at the border post (Havenga et al., 2013). These costs are typically not explicitly accounted for. Transit time and related logistics costs at the Zeerust Truck Stop are considered in conjunction with the border crossing costs as the truck stop is a mandatory stop en route to the Skilpadshek / Pioneer Gate Border Post. Freight flow volumes through the border post are based on South Africa’s established Freight Demand Model TM (updated annually by the GAIN Group) and the Southern African Regional Prof. Jan Havenga Professor: Logistics Management Stellenbosch University janh@sun.ac.za Etiyel Chibira Senior Manager: Research and Project Management Cross-Border Road Transport Agency etiyel.chibira@cbrta.co.za The economic impact of corridor bottlenecks: A pilot study of the Skilpadshek / Pioneer Gate Border Post The Cross-Border Road Transport Agency (C-BRTA), in collaboration with Stellenbosch University, conducted a pilot study to estimate the economic impact of long transit times on cross-border road freight transport utilising the Skilpadshek / Pioneer Gate Border Post between South Africa and Botswana as a case study. This border post is one of the links on both the Trans-Kalahari and North-South corridors, and an improved understanding of the impact of bottlenecks will facilitate corridor development. Crynos Mutendera Senior Research Specialist: Corridor Assessment & Strategic Analysis Cross-Border Road Transport Agency crynos.mutendera@cbrta.co.za