[rts] Rural Transport Services

[Mac Mashiri]

My name is Mac Mashiri. I am the incumbent convenor of the South African NFG. I work for the CSIR in Pretoria.

When the inhabitants of a selection of rural villages in the Northern Province, South Africa, were asked what they would do if their accessibility improved, most replied that they would [i] take their products, their services and their labour to bigger and more diverse markets; and /or [ii] access higher education and training. These responses appear to suggest that many rural communities are keenly aware of the overriding need to enhance the marketability of their products and labour in the wider, mainstream economy. However, rural transport services are inadequate. This situation has been exacerbated by the inabaility of service providers to provide adequate services without the prospect of government subsidies or big enough market to reduce fixed costs and/or produce sufficient economies of scale. Villagers are thus, for example, oblidged to either pay exorbitant prices for the purchase of goods and services or sell theirs at a give away to merchants/local shop owners because distribution centres/markets are relatively inaccessible. The merchants generally charge high prices to offset high transport and handling costs necessitated by the low volumes of transactions. This has the effect, inter alia, of discouraging enterprising villagers from exploiting opportunities to produce for the market, thereby stunting the will to produce beyond their subsitence requirements.  

In this regard, and in the context of South Africa, the response by mainstream producers and distributors would typically be to develop highly synchronised, bulk-efficient supply chains, connected to large or medium-sized centres, supported by computerised market information. While this model economizes on inventory and handling costs, it consumes large amounts of transport and energy resources. Labour-intensive small-scale producers and distributors are marginalised because of their inability to compete on the same terms. Clearly this model is inappropriate for developing rural communities. 

Instead of the current static conception of how products and services should be distributed to spatially dispersed communities, Transportek has been advocating the need to explore innovative and developmentally effective rural logistics solutions. Solutions would need to adequately respond to and reconcile competing demands for [a] accessing social facilities & transporting people [b] accessing economic opprtunities & transporting goods and services. Transportek defines this phenomenon it calls integrated rural logistics as: a combination of rural communications, freight and passenger transport and storage/exchange services aimed at [i] exploiting possible synergies with allied services [ii] effectively harnessing information & communication technologies, & [iii] leveraging any related innovations, in order to provide affordable and effective access to an expanding range of local as well as mainstream supply chains, business support services and markets. 

Preconditions for sustainability of rural logistics
Particular emphasis needs to be given to a balanced package of locational, infrastructural and operational measures. [i] Locational measures can include the clustering of new housing, infrastructure and facilities in terms of selected activity nodes and satelite centres [ii] Infrastructural measures include the adoption of a holistic, integrated approach to planning of roads, telecommunications, public facilities and multi-purpose centres [iii] Operational measures include [a] the coordination of periodic transport, service provision and market schedules [including aspects such as routes, stopping places & service times [b] information provision, regulation and selective subsidization in support of the coordinated schedules, centres and services [c] facilitation of freight collection/distribution services for incipient enterprises e.g. tourism, agro-forestry processing, etc. 

In the case of South Africa, the requisite linkage development process would be at the district level, and could involve: [i] Nodal facility and activity clustering [here you develop multi-purpose community centres complete with a range of supporting services and periodic markets [ii] Integrated development of 'linkage infrastructure' [road network and information and telecommunication network] and [iii] Development of  'omnibus' logistical support services [passenger transport services, postal and small-freight services]. This exercise should be preceeded by contextual spatial-economic analysis [the existing or potential economic base, local economic development strategies, and policies to redress possible structural distortions]. 

These are some of the rural transport services issues and possible solutions that we are currently grappling with.

Regards,

Mac Mashiri, CSIR, Transportek PO Box 395 Pretoria 0001 South Africa Tel: +27 12 841-2942 Fax: +27 12 841-4054 E-mail: mmashiri at csir.co.za    
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