FOCUS on Transport and Logistics

10/12/2025

𝗟𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗔 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆🚆
Private rail operator Traxtion is investing R3.4 billion in 46 Wabtec diesel-electric locomotives from KiwiRail in New Zealand.

💡This fully funded initiative, backed by Harith Partners and Absa, signals strong confidence in the country’s rail reforms, says Traxtion CEO James Holley, and opens the door for private freight services.

Key impacts:
🛤️ Boosts freight logistics capacity
🧑‍🔧 Creates 662 direct jobs, with a fivefold multiplier effect
💵 79% of contract value benefits SA companies
🤝 Accelerates regional integration & cross-border trade

As Transnet opens the network to private operators, this move could be a game-changer for economic growth and efficiency in the sector. The first locomotives will be in service within 12 months.

👉 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘚𝘈’𝘴 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘺 & 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺?

09/12/2025

🏆 A proud moment for Babcock, which is honoured to have received the Best Parts Performance Award at the DAF Sales Conference in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

The recognition reflects the dedication of Babcock's Parts team - embracing DAF and TRP initiatives to achieve 37% growth, fully utilising DAF tools and setting a new benchmark in rolling out new TRP initiatives.

👏🏻 Congratulations to the team for their commitment to excellence and performance, and for upholding the Babcock reputation.

09/12/2025

🚛 𝗙𝗢𝗖𝗨𝗦 𝗜𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲 𝟭𝟮/𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝗶𝘀 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 – 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿!
From the world’s best trucks to the heroes keeping South Africa’s transport heartbeat alive, this issue is packed with the stories shaping our industry’s future. Here’s a taste of what’s inside:

💥 COVER STORY: DAF makes the world’s best trucks
It’s official – DAF has taken the 2026 International Truck of the Year crown, and we unpack exactly why. From design to performance, these trucks are rewriting the rulebook.

🚌 Buscor: Four decades of progress
Mpumalanga’s public transport titan gets the spotlight. From electric buses to life-changing community mobility, this is a story of leadership, innovation and heart.

💼 Piercing the SOE veil
R521 billion in bailouts, collapsing infrastructure, executives earning millions… Sharmini Naidoo pulls no punches in this deep dive into the state of South Africa’s SOEs – and why taxpayers should be furious.

🧑✈️ Hail the heroes
We celebrate two giants of the industry – Nick Porée and Mike Fitzmaurice – men who have quietly shaped the logistics backbone of South Africa for decades.

🎄 PLUS: Our end-of-year Steering Column – Charleen Clarke’s take what South Africa really needs for Christmas: a functional transport and logistics system.

📘 Read the full issue now. Download it here: https://buff.ly/49alWh6

It’s bold. It’s honest. It’s essential reading for anyone in transport or logistics.

08/12/2025

🤖 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 & 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲: 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗼𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀
The International Robot Exhibition 2025 in Japan was the ideal opportunity to unveil Hyundai Motor Group’s first mass-produced mobility robot platform, MobED (Mobile Eccentric Droid).

Developed by the company’s Robotics LAB, MobED has been refined over several years into a production-ready, fully autonomous mobility robot platform using artificial intelligence (AI). A cutting-edge eccentric mechanism enables precise posture control and seamless terrain adaptability. These features not only redefine movement across diverse surfaces, they also eliminate the need for environment-specific robot designs.

🗺️ For navigation, MobED uses LiDAR and cameras to perceive surroundings in real time, supporting predictive navigation, obstacle avoidance, optimal route generation and moving object recognition or tracking. Its AI-powered detection system ensures safe, reliable operation in crowded settings or confined spaces.

A wide touchscreen controller with an intuitive 3D UI/UX makes MobED easy for anyone to operate, enabling self-mapping, location designation and autonomous driving.

🗣️ D**g Jin Hyun, vice president and head of Hyundai’s Robotics LAB, had this to say: “Beyond a simple mobility platform, MobED offers a next-generation solution adaptable to diverse industries and everyday life. MobED will set new standards in the global robotics market and accelerate a future where humans and robots coexist.”

📹 Watch a video here: https://buff.ly/Ep6wVXC

05/12/2025

🛻 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗔𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗗𝗮𝗸𝗮𝗿 𝗥𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲? 𝗛𝗶𝗻𝗼
Japanese Hino will again be the only entry from an Asian truck manufacturer contesting the Dakar Rally, taking place in Saudi Arabia from January 3-17, 2026.

💪 For the 35th consecutive time a Hino vehicle – the 600 Series racing truck – will compete in this famous endurance rally-raid. Demonstrating exceptional reliability, Hino’s truck has finished the race every time.

This year a strong field of 46 trucks from eight different OEMs has entered, with teams from Eastern and Western Europe. Iveco, with 20 entries, is the most popular truck. It is joined by MAN with 13 entries, Tatra and DAF (three each), Renault and Scania (two each), and Mercedes-Benz and Volvo (one each).

😯 The Russian Kamaz trucks, which dominated for many years, scoring 19 wins, have not contested the Rally since 2023 when the manufacturer refused to sign a document condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

🐫 The 2026 Dakar Rally will start and finish in the port city of Yanbu with a route that takes an 8,000km loop through Saudi Arabia, including 5,000km of timed racing sections. There will be a one-day rest period in Riyad, the country’s capital, on 10 January.

05/12/2025

Bravo, Isuzu! This Christmas message is pure marketing magic! Even Santa knows it’s time to ditch the reindeer and go diesel. (Will he go electric next year, we wonder?)

ISUZU South Africa

05/12/2025

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More info: https://shorturl.at/3FgY2

03/12/2025

🚢🐋 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀
Earlier this year, a North Atlantic right whale – a mother of six – was found dead, the victim of a ship strike. Hers was one of up to 20,000 whale strikes that occur each year, but what makes the loss especially tragic is that right whales are the planet’s most endangered large whale. Of the roughly 370 right whales left, only 70 are reproductively active females.

These gentle giants face dangers from vessels of all sizes. But there’s hope: scientists and shipping companies are teaming up to develop innovations that help ships avoid whales. These include the Robots4Whales autonomous buoys, gliders and floats, which use digital acoustic monitoring to detect whales in real time – enabling ships to slow down, reroute away from migration zones and prevent collisions.

Thermal imaging systems use artificial intelligence to recognise a whale’s unique thermal signature when blowing – alerting vessel crews within seconds to the presence of whales up to several kilometres away.

Industry partnerships pave the way for more sustainable practices, like that between WHOI and shipping giant CMA CGM where acoustic buoys are positioned along busy coastlines.

Other initiatives, like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “Slow Zones for Right Whales” programme, support voluntary vessel speed reduction to help make oceans safer for marine life.

More info: https://buff.ly/1Qenjuf; https://buff.ly/RVcTOsx

02/12/2025

𝗘𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁!

According to Arrive Alive, that’s how intoxicated this truck driver was when he was stopped on the N3 near Tugela Plaza yesterday.

Medical experts have explained that such a high blood alcohol content cannot be achieved through casual or social drinking; it reflects extreme, life-threatening intoxication. Put simply: it's unbelievable that he wasn't dead.

MEC for Transport and Human Settlements, Siboniso Duma, confirmed that "an alert and diligent RTI officer" from Van Reenen arrested the driver at Tugela Plaza as part of the ongoing operation. The officer’s quick action prevented a potentially devastating incident on one of the country’s busiest freight corridors.

02/12/2025

📢 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗺: 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝘂𝗲𝗹 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸𝘀
A rare and urgent briefing to four Parliamentary committees has underscored the real risks to South Africa’s fuel supply if uncertainty at Durban’s Island View Precinct (IVP) continues. The briefing was led by The Fuels Industry Association of South Africa.

📉 Operators at the IVP – the facility responsible for nearly three-quarters of SA’s imported fuels – revealed how investment collapsed during years of uncertainty, jeopardising infrastructure vital to the economy.

With the Joint Committees warned that SA “cannot function without a stable and fully operational IVP”, the Transport Minister’s recent Section 79 Direction is being positioned as a decisive intervention to prevent future supply disruptions.

The Direction unlocks the certainty needed to:
🔧 Maintain tightly integrated port-pipeline-storage systems
🔒 Protect national energy security
💰 Enable R60bn in long-term investment
🤝 Support transformation and SMME development

👉 For the transport and logistics sector, this is a critical stability signal at a time when supply chains are already under pressure.

👀 FOCUS will continue to bring you the intelligence shaping SA’s fuel future.

01/12/2025

01/12/2025

A strong and dependable dealer network is one of the most critical factors when buying a truck; it directly influences your uptime, service quality and long-term operating success. That’s why, in the latest article in our Uptime Edge series, we’re shining a spotlight on this essential topic in the December issue of FOCUS.

UD Trucks Southern Africa continues to raise the bar for reliability and customer support, powered by a dealer network built around uptime, performance and people. At the helm is Marle Visagie, UD Trucks Southern Africa’s general manager: dealer & competence development – a visionary leader whose people-first approach has shaped one of the most trusted networks in the region.

With 39 dealerships across South Africa and a growing presence throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, UD ensures support is always within reach. Each dealership is rigorously evaluated to deliver UD’s core promise of nonstop uptime. From 24-hour breakdown assistance to automated parts replenishment and strong technical capability, UD dealers truly live the mantra: “We eat and sleep uptime.”

Skills development is equally central. UD trains more than 2,000 people a year across the value chain, supported by advanced fleet connectivity through MyUDFleet, used in over 90% of UD vehicles sold.

Read more here: https://shorturl.at/WJyHa

UD Trucks