When Afrox safety, health, environmental and quality head Stephen Moran says the company has had zero truck roll-overs in 2013 to date, he does so circumspectly, because anything is still possible for a company that covers around 1.5-million kilometres a month on Southern Africa’s roads.

He is also proud of the achievement, however, as the move to zero followed 18 roll-overs in 2010, 12 in 2011 and three in 2012.

Each roll-over costs R4-million, says Moran, even though Linde, of which Afrox is a group company, calculates it at €1-million, which is roughly R12-million at the current exchange rate.

“We went from one of the worst in the group in terms of roll-overs to one of the best,” he notes.

Moran credits a new training course in the prevention of roll-overs for much of the success seen at Afrox.

Despite the company’s excellent truck maintenance programme, much of the operational efficiency still hinges on driver behaviour.

“Most drivers do not understand the power of the vehicle they drive. Roll-over training takes the mystery out of it,” says Moran.

A roll-over can happen in two seconds.

“They understand it now. They get the physics,” says Moran. “Not one driver that has had the training has had a roll-over.”

Globally, the Linde group has one major incident every five days, of which half are truck roll-overs.

The cost saving that the training has provided to Afrox is quite significant, at R2.8-million to train 453 drivers.

The training project is run by MasterDrive, which is part of the RAC group.

CEO Eugene Herbert says truck roll-overs are caused by many factors, such as load movement, brake conditions and acceleration.

Liquid loads are especially prone to roll-overs, as are loads with a high gravity point, such as those found in cement mixers.

However, Herbert notes that drivers are ten times more likely the cause of a roll-over than any other factor.

The roll-over training programme consists of practical and theoretical training. The practical part makes use of a specially made loaded rig that allows drivers to test the point at which a roll-over will occur. The rig, however, has “safety wheels”, or outriggers, that will prevent a roll-over.

The training programme is made possible with the sponsorship of MAN, Voith, Knorr-Bremse, Geotab, Tirepoint, Goodyear, TFM, JOST, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, BPW and Ulrich Seats.

Herbert says the training, developed especially for Afrox, is now being expanded to other fleet operators.

Road Safety Foundation founding member Petro Kruger notes that trucks make up 9% of South Africa’s car parc, but are involved in 12% of accidents, according to Department of Transport statistics.