Johannesburg, 19 August 2026 — Unsustainable road freight rates are now the industry body’s central warning. The warning came at a Transport Forum and RFA webinar on Tuesday, per Freight News. There, Road Freight Association chief executive Gavin Kelly said many contracts sit at levels that cannot carry the costs coming at them. His description was blunt. “Quite often, you will see that transport companies disappear overnight because their contracts and all their rates are unsustainable.” Fuel and labour movements land on top of those rates, he said. The warning turns a quiet industry habit, underpricing, into the sector’s named survival risk.
The pressure stack is specific. Ongoing wage negotiations should change the salaries and wages paid to most employees in the sector, Kelly said. That adds a cost few current contracts price. Meanwhile, compliance creates its own asymmetry. Operators who follow road traffic legislation, labour law and cargo requirements carry the full cost of doing so. Their non-compliant competitors do not, underbid them, and push compliant businesses toward the exit. The playing field, in Kelly’s telling, tilts against exactly the operators the system needs.
Then there is the pressure nobody invoices. Corruption and extortion are hitting transport businesses, Kelly said. The RFA receives multiple complaints every day, involving various levels of authority. He gave no further details during the webinar. However, the association’s remedies were practical. Pre-clearance and authorised economic operator registration reduce cross-border risk, he said. Additionally, operators need the technical expertise to match vehicles to cargo. Correct load distribution across multi-consignment vehicles matters just as much.
The Squeeze
Why Unsustainable Road Freight Rates Are the Named Risk
The unsustainable road freight rates warning closes a loop this desk has tracked all month. The Ctrack index showed freight volumes holding while margins compressed. The fuel series priced the squeeze. Diesel rose R6.87 per litre from March to July, then another 138 cents in August. The naamsa numbers showed fleets still investing through it. Now the RFA names the missing discipline: the rate itself. RFA chairperson Penwell Lunga made the scale plain at the May convention. Diesel alone exceeds 40% of operating costs for many operators. Furthermore, unregulated load broking keeps aggregating price pressure downward. A sector can survive expensive inputs. It cannot survive selling below them.
The same webinar carried the human number. Judith Bester, project lead for the NBCRFLI’s Trucking Wellness programme, said driver mental health has deteriorated. Of the people answering a 2025 wellness question, 35% rated themselves at one or two out of ten. The programme treats that band as indicating suicide risk. She did not specify respondent numbers. The figure belongs in this story because unsustainable economics are not abstract. They land on the people in the cabs, and Trucking Wellness exists precisely to support them.
The Numbers Behind the Freight Rate Warning
Fleet Impact
Building a Rate Floor Against Unsustainable Freight Rates
The operational answer is a rate floor, and a rate floor is a measurement exercise. A fleet cannot defend a rate it cannot cost. Fleets running litre-level fuel monitoring know the true consumption of every lane. That converts the biggest cost line from an estimate into a number. Similarly, vehicle tracking and route data show utilisation, empty running and standing time per contract. Together, those figures produce the only negotiating position that survives a squeeze. This is what the work costs, and below it, the answer is no.
- Cost every lane at measured consumption, not averages: the rate floor starts with real litres per kilometre
- Write escalation clauses for the wage round now: most sector pay is about to change, and silent contracts absorb it
- Register as an authorised economic operator and use pre-clearance: Kelly named both as practical risk reducers
- Log and report extortion incidents to the RFA: daily complaints only become a case when operators document them
Fleet Technology
How Measured Costs Hold the Freight Rate Floor
Companies that vanish overnight rarely mispriced one contract. They mispriced all of them, invisibly, for years. DigitFMS makes the cost side visible. D-Fuel tracks every fill, drain and burn against tank capacity and route data. Each lane’s fuel cost then rests on measurement rather than averages. As a result, clients have cut fuel theft by up to 95%, and quoted rates rest on real consumption. In addition, GPS tracking, route management and driver identification show utilisation and standing time per customer. Competing providers such as Cartrack, Tracker, Netstar, Ctrack and MiX by Powerfleet serve cost-conscious fleets as well. However, the RFA’s warning sets the stakes plainly. Wage costs are moving and extortion is daily. In that market, the operators who know their floor will hold it. The rest will discover it from the wrong side.
Key Numbers · The Rate Squeeze
The warning: contracts priced at unsustainable levels; companies “disappear overnight”, per RFA CEO Gavin Kelly, 18 August 2026.
Cost pressure: diesel over 40% of operating costs for many operators (RFA convention, May); up R6.87 per litre March to July, plus 138c in August.
Incoming: wage negotiations expected to change pay for most sector employees; extortion complaints reaching the RFA daily.
Wellness: 35% of 2025 Trucking Wellness respondents in the highest-risk band, respondent numbers unspecified.
Source: Freight News, 18 August 2026; Transport Forum and RFA webinar; NBCRFLI Trucking Wellness.
Questions Answered
Frequently Asked Questions: Unsustainable Road Freight Rates
What did the RFA warn about freight rates?
RFA chief executive Gavin Kelly warned that many contracts already sit at unsustainable levels. He spoke at a Transport Forum and RFA webinar, per Freight News. Changes in fuel and labour costs could then tip operators over.
Why do transport companies disappear overnight?
Because a below-cost rate hides its damage until a cost moves. Kelly said companies vanish because their contracts and rates are unsustainable. This month’s environment moves several costs at once: diesel, wages and compliance.
What wage changes are coming for the sector?
Ongoing wage negotiations should change the salaries and wages paid to most employees in the road freight sector. Consequently, any rate quoted today without an escalation clause absorbs that outcome unpriced.
What is the compliance asymmetry Kelly described?
Compliant operators carry the full cost of road traffic legislation, labour law and cargo requirements. Non-compliant competitors skip those costs and underbid, which pushes rule-following operators toward the exit.
What did the Trucking Wellness data show?
Judith Bester of the NBCRFLI’s Trucking Wellness programme said 35% of people answering a 2025 mental-health question rated their wellbeing at one or two out of ten. The programme treats that band as indicating suicide risk. She did not specify respondent numbers. The programme itself is the sector’s support resource.
What is authorised economic operator registration?
An accreditation with customs authorities that eases clearance for trusted operators. Kelly named AEO registration and pre-clearance as practical ways to reduce operational risk on cross-border work.
How does a fleet set a defensible rate floor?
Measure the true cost per kilometre per lane, fuel included, then refuse work below it. A rate floor built on measured consumption, utilisation and compliance costs turns a pricing argument into an arithmetic one.
Facts checked 19 August 2026. Source: Freight News reporting on the Transport Forum and RFA webinar, with convention context from FleetWatch. Related: our Q2 margin analysis and why fleets are buying through the squeeze.
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