If people are carried on a goods vehicle they must be separated from goods

Question

I would greatly appreciate your assistance with the following. I am a Construction Health and Safety Officer and require clarification on Regulation 247. We are trying to get our vehicles compliant and being a small company we are unable to provide separate transport for goods and persons and so we want to make our vehicles compliant in terms of transporting goods and persons.

My dilemma is that several of the big construction companies refuse to allow us to do so on construction sites, claiming it violates road safety rules. I believe I have the current version of the Regulations which would seem to indicate it is legal as long as persons are protected, but at the end of the paragraph it states “(Proviso to regulation 247 inserted by regulation 38 of Government  Notice R404 of 2007)”. Can you advise what this Notice refers to, I have had little luck trying to find it on the web?

Answer:

The proviso clause determines that goods and persons must be separated. I copy the regulation for you.

Circumstances under which persons may be carried on goods vehicle

Reg 247.    No person shall operate on a public road a goods vehicle conveying persons unless that portion of the vehicle in which such persons are being conveyed is enclosed to a height of—

(a)        at least 350 millimetres above the surface upon which such person is seated; or

(b)        at least 900 millimetres above the surface on which such person is standing, in a manner and with a material of sufficient strength to prevent such person from falling from such vehicle when it is in motion.

Provided that no person shall be conveyed in the goods compartment together with any tools or goods, except their personal effects, unless that portion in which such persons are being conveyed is separated by means of a partition, from the portion in which such goods are being conveyed.

Alta Swanepoel & Associates

Also view:

Transportation of people on back of a bakkie/ goods vehicle

What is the law at this moment about transporting people on back of a bakkie/ goods vehicle?

If people are carried on a goods vehicle they must be separated from goods