IRU and South Africa’s Cross-Border Road Transport Agency (C-BRTA) have extended their memorandum of understanding, strengthening their commitment to enhancing international transport, facilitating transit and professionalising road transport.
South Africa is a key transit country connecting neighbouring landlocked countries to global markets. However, logistics operators and traders are facing high costs due to road transport and border crossing challenges, a lack of harmonised procedures, and fragmented national transit systems.
IRU and C-BRTA have now extended their memorandum of understanding for two years to enhance their cooperation and improve border crossings and international transport and transit in South Africa and regionally.
Unlike other regions, most African countries have not implemented, nor acceded to, international transit and border crossing facilitation instruments.
Global standards and best practices such as TIR, a tried-and-tested UN instrument which has successfully streamlined border crossings globally for the past 75 years, could significantly reduce transport and transit times and costs across Africa.
C-BRTA will also work with IRU on developing a professional qualification framework to formalise the road transport sector. Such measures will improve the overall efficiency of transport operations while enhancing road safety in South Africa.