Since the 1930s, freight rail transport has lost market share
against a rapidly developing road transport industry
(Van der Mescht 2006). This is despite The Motor Carrier
Transportation Act 39 of 1930 (Republic of South Africa 1930)
allowing rail protection against road freight competition
(Havenga & Pienaar 2012). More recently, the Department
of Transport (DoT) referred to the inefficiencies and poor
service reliability of rail transport, in particular in its
National Freight Logistics Strategy (Department of Transport
2005b:12). It furthermore stated that the main reasons for this
phenomenon were the ageing asset base, a culture of poor
service delivery, as well as lack of accountability for low
efficiencies.