This is the fifth of a series of blog postings from Clare Bottle, who will be telling us about her travels in Zambia - supported by transport charity Transaid - to see what the transport industry is like out there:
This morning we formulated a list of the people I want to meet over the next couple of weeks. It includes government officials, training providers and transport operators from various modes. Some of them will respond best if I just call into their offices; others prefer a couple of days’ notice. I plan to ask everybody open questions about their opinions and demands of CILT.
The currency here is hard to equate. One pound sterling is about 7,200 Zambian Kwacha, so I feel like a millionaire with my purse full of huge notes. CILT has a handful of corporate members who each pay a subscription of about five million Kwacha. I started trying to imagine companies paying five million pounds for membership of CILT(UK) before I realised it’s more like 700 pounds. That’s still expensive in anyone’s currency though, and the important question I want to answer is what value they expect for their money.
Here are some of CILT Zambia’s National Executive Committee (NEC) members taken after a meeting on Saturday morning:
From left: Martin Mbangu (Dep. Dir. Safety – Road Transport and Safety Agency); Elias Zulu (CILT Trustee – University of Zambia); Henry Chipewo (Past President CILT Zambia); Clare Bottle on behalf of Transaid; Raymond Jhala (President CILT Zambia); Martin Chongo (Hilburn Transport Management Consultancy) and Milton Sakala (CILT Honorary Secretary).
At present, CILT’s income seems to arise mainly from examination fees and seminars/workshops. The accounts suggest that the costly subcontracting of the workshops erodes any potential to generate surplus cash from them, but the localisation of qualifications has reduced CILT’s exposure to paying international rates for setting and marking the tests.
This afternoon I met Roland, a white Zambian who heads up FedHaul (something akin to the FTA or RHA) as well as running his haulage business. Despite being aware of CILT, Roland isn’t a member, predominantly because he hasn’t come under much pressure to sign up. He promised to join and told me that the most useful benefit he could get would be a ‘flow of information’. When I asked him to elaborate he seemed to welcome the opportunity to share his views.
Roland speculated that it would be easy for the government to marginalise the disparate private sector and he gave a couple of examples of recent statutory changes which he felt were not subject to adequate consultation.
The Zambian equivalent of a UK ‘Operator’s Licence’ is called a ‘Road Service Licence’. In the past it was possible to obtain a 5 to 10 year RSL, but recently the maximum term was reduced to one year. The application process makes this very onerous for businesses. Roland described how senior company executives such as himself must queue for up to five days, clutching boxes of original documents pertaining to all their vehicles and drivers, until they are called-up before a government panel.
Another legislative change was the abrupt introduction of mandatory road speed limiters. Just one make and model was permitted, which could only be bought from a sole distributor in Lusaka. Industry pressure effected change at the eleventh hour, but I hope my schedule will allow for a quick visit to the original Zambian road speed limiter stockist with its enticing name: Handyman’s Paradise.
If you’d like to know more and would consider sponsoring me, please visit my charity giving page: http://www.justgiving.com/clarebottle.
Clare Bottle is a freelance logistics specialist, with experience and market knowledge in storage, packaging and transport; she is also a Board Director and Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport UK.