Cover story
TRANSLIFT
The road transport industry in South Africa has been forewarned about the need to reduce the number of heavy vehicles on our roads but...
...can the waste industry adapt to
the growing need for intermodal J
eremy Cronin, deputy minister of transport, Abrie De Swart of IMPERIAL Logistics, and Dr Jan Havenga, head of the Supply Chain Management School at the University of Stellenbosch, among others, delivered presentations on the topic of reducing heavy vehicles on South Africa’s roads at the Transport Forum’s monthly special interest group session in Paarl on 1 September. The large group of attendees from all over the country was an indication of the interest in this topic. The message was clear, the statistics and facts supported it and Transnet has moved forward already by having launched the
first phase (RFI) of a tender process to investigate the options and technologies available for a solution to transfer containers from road to rail and vice versa.
The ACT System The Advanced Container Transport System (ACTS) is another resident concept to be found in the Translift BV stable. Introduced in 1984, it was designed specifically for road/rail interfacing and is now widely used in Europe as well as in parts of the UK, Israel and USA – providing a seamless transfer solution between road and rail for the transportation of bulk containers over long distances. The system basically consists of three elements: • ACTS turntables fitted on suitable flatbed rail wagons • ACTS slide-on frames fitted to existing or new containers • road transport vehicles fitted with Translift ‘chain-lift’ equipment. Together these form the ACT System.
ACTS slide-on frame (fitted to existing or new containers)
6 – RéSource November 2011