AARTO – The latest

AARTO Update

During the past year several dates announced by the Department of Transport have come and gone without the promised national rollout of AARTO and one can therefore not blame the public for being confused about this. These delays were as a result of numerous problems experienced during the test phases of AARTO in Johannesburg and Pretoria during the past two years.

The minister of transport however on the 15^th of April published the proposed amendments to the existing AARTO regulations. These new regulations seems to be more “user friendly” and streamlined in terms of the flow of documents during the four phases of the administrative process. Another interesting proposed change is an increase of R40 for each offence listed in schedule 3 of the regulations. The reasoning for this is unclear.

Some other changes are:

• Fines / infringements must be served on the offender within 40 days from the date of the offence.
• The agency must inform the infringer of its decision regarding the representations made within 40 days after receipt of the AARTO 08.
• The penalty in the case of an infringer that is the holder of a learners licence will also be calculated on the basis of three times the units indicated in column 5 of schedule 3.
• Forms AARTO 32 and 33 are added to the existing 31 forms and serves as a notice before summons.
• Demerit points for drivers and operators have not been changed.

Most of the changes are welcomed and the new regulations will be incorporated into our AARTO seminars as soon as they are promulgated. In the meantime the technology company, Tasima, tasked with the IT infrastructure behind AARTO, indicated that they are ready for the national rollout of AARTO as well as the implementation of the demerit points system. It is also reported by IT Web that the Road Traffic Management Corporation indicated that the next step in the public participation process will be an AARTO summit at the end of June. A wide range of stakeholders such as organised labour, local authorities, provinces and taxi organisations will participate.

National implementation dates are currently not available and will be published by the minister of transport. It is however widely believed that AARTO will be rolled out to areas such as Cape Town and Durban soon after the consultation process has been finalized and the new regulations have been promulgated. Whichever way you look at it, AARTO is here to stay. Employers are again reminded of some of the implications of AARTO.

• The licence of a driver will be suspended for a period of 3 months for each demerit point above 12.
• Operators will also incur demerit points that, if exceeded, will result in the suspension of all the operator cards issued to the operator.
• Each vehicle of the operator is allowed a maximum of 12 demerit points and if exceeded will result in the suspension of the operator card of that vehicle for a period of three months.

Employers will have to plan ahead and decide how they will manage the risks associated with AARTO as well as the potential consequences of “incapacitated” drivers as a result of the cancellation or suspension of their licences.

An AARTO policy will be of utmost importance in order to effectively;

• address the obligations and risks as a vehicle owner under this Act;
• manage the behaviour of employees authorized to operate (any) company owned vehicle;
• deal with employees “incapacitated” as a result of exceeding the maximum permissible amount of demerit points allowed under the Act.

During our AARTO seminars we focus specifically on the administrative process of AARTO such as the documents that must be used, timeframes applicable, implications for company proxy’s, demerit points applicable on individuals, demerit points for each of the operator vehicles in a fleet and the demerit points for the whole fleet of an operator.

In addition to the above we also focus on the extremely important and much underestimated employment relationship with the driver as a result of AARTO. Part of the course material is a detailed AARTO policy that may be used in order to effectively manage the human recourses part of your fleet.

Our next half day AARTO seminar will take place on the 28^th of June at the Southern Sun, OR Tambo.

Contact Peraldo Senekal at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for bookings.

For AARTO enquiries contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .