Development of a sustainable freight transportation system in the central regions of South Africa

Abstract

Freight transportation involves the movement of cargo from various destinations using several transportation modes such as rail, road, maritime and airline to meet the market demands. However, this industry faces issues such as traffic congestion, pollution, uneven freight distribution, and increased freight costs. Having realised the issues of freight transportation, this study aims to develop a sustainable freight transportation system with guidelines for an optimal modal split between the freight rail and road transportation system in the central regions of South Africa. The adopted objectives in this study were to assess the current status quo of freight transportation system by examining the economic and operational efficiency of road and rail to develop a model for balanced freight transportation system in the central regions of South Africa. A quantitative research method was chosen as the best approach to address these objectives. This quantitative research method was chosen because it entails data collection via survey questionnaires and can emphasise objective measurement via statistical analysis. The data obtained were able to depict the current state and challenges of the freight transportation system in South Africa's central regions. Consequently, the current status quo reveals that freight road is utilised more compared to rail freight due to convenience and reliability, whilst rail freight proves to be operationally more viable due to large carrying capacity. Thus, road freight is operationally efficient as compared to rail freight; however, road freight is used more for the demand aspect of freight movement whereas freight rail is used more for the supply aspect of freight movement. Correlation, significance test, variance inflation factor, and multiple regression analysis were used in inferential statistical analysis to determine the relationship that exists between dependent and independent parameters and to identify the coefficients of influential parameters to be used in modelling. Furthermore, under various future scenarios, an empirical model known as the Binary Logit model was used to determine the modal split between freight road and rail in terms of freight shares and generalised freight costs. Finally, guidelines were developed from the developed and empirical model used in this study to achieve a balanced and optimal freight transportation system by addressing key features such as service reliability, decreased travel distances, cost efficiency, operational efficiency, safe handling of goods, and optimum loading capacity.