Women drivers plying the Durban to Swaziland route are getting high marks for performance and professionalism from their employers in the road freight industry.
The first pioneering group of Swazi women truckers, placed behind the wheels of fuel tankers, have shown their reliability and ensured that more women will be found in the cabs of large, cross-border cargo-carrying trucks.
“They are safety aware and in some ways are better drivers than the men,” said Mduduzi Magongo, the managing director of Unitrans Swaziland’s operations in Matsapha, outside the commercial hub Manzini.
“The women just go from point to point, and no nonsense. If they are expected at 4pm, they arrive at 4pm. With men they arrive a half hour or an hour late and they always have some excuse, like they encountered a roadblock or something,” Lunga Mbuyisa, the contracts manager, said.
The four of five women drivers who currently operate Unitrans 14-wheeled, 44 ton trucks carrying 40 000 litres of fuel to Durban – the fifth driver of the group is on maternity leave – all have homes, husbands and children.
They manage 48 hour workweeks plus overtime along with their domestic lives.
As professional drivers, they have also become adept at dealing with the erratic driving of private cars – “non-professional drivers” as the women call them – police, crime and other dangers, and even sex workers.
Prostitutes who habituate border posts and truck stops resent them because they see in every woman driver one less man driver and thus fewer potential customers.
“Are we better than men drivers? Surely we are!” said Pearl Litchfield, 36, a long-haul driver with five years experience.
“We haven’t got this thing of competing like men do. Men drivers like to race and show off. I just back off when another driver wants to compete.”
“The work is never boring, it’s seriously interesting. I meet people. If it is hot, I have my air conditioning. If it is cold, I have my heater. They give me long routes. It is nine-hours to Durban. The longest is to Polokwane on the N2, and Bloemfontein,” she said.
Instructed to maintain a speed of 80kph, drivers are required to rest every two hours or every 200km, whichever comes first.
“Drivers are never penalised if they need to rest,” Mbuyisa said.
“If they feel they must take a nap, we say go ahead. The fuel trucks are not permitted to spend the night at the border… They must stop at a safe truck stop.”
Litchfield said: “On the N2 I stop at Empangeni. It is R30 a night for parking. There is hot water and there are cameras and security. The guards walk around at night. On the N3 truck stop it’s R120 a night for parking and using the shower.”
She added: “You do your trip so you arrive at a truck stop in time. It is like home. The ladies there cook real food… They call me ‘MamSwazi,’ which means ‘Swazi Lady’.”
On their journeys the trucks are constantly monitored back at the company depot via GPS systems.
The women have their vehicles inspected before departure, and they do 360 degree walk-around every time they stop en route.
They have first aid training.
Tyre repairs and breakdowns are handled by a network of subcontractors the company employs along the routes.
During emergencies the driver is instructed to stay inside the cab, lock the doors and await help.
Fuel trucks are vulnerable to theft, and do not have locks on tank lids.
Experience has shown the cost of repairing locks damaged by thieves is greater than the loss of any fuel, particularly because thefts are usually small amounts siphoned into buckets or containers by opportunists rather than professional hijackers.
Any tampering with the tanker lids sets off an alarm at company headquarters.
The driver is alerted to use her rearview mirrors to see what is happening behind her on the fuel tanker, and to summon law enforcement if necessary.
“My husband is happy that I am one of the first Swazi ladies to drive a truck. He works at Siteki at city council. I have three children who are 17, 10 and the littlest is 13 months,” said Sandra Dlamini, 34, who has been driving for five years.
“I drive five or six days and have a full day’s rest, and have 25 days annual leave. My children’s father and I have a nanny. My children ask if they can go on trips with me in the truck. There are two beds inside, an upper bunk and a lower bunk. I have to tell them it is not permitted,” she said.
Some male truck drivers stow girlfriends inside their cabs, which irritates sex workers who seek customers at truck stops and border posts.
“This has not happened to us, but I know that the sex workers will vandalise trucks if they are angry with the drivers. They have been around these truck stops a long time so they know what to do. They slash tyres, cut fuel pipes and also they can detach the trailer,” Mbuyisa said.
Litchfield was confronted by two suspicious sex workers one night.
She employed some Swazi charm, a little common sense and the spirit of ubuntu to disarm her potential enemies.
“I was asleep and I heard this knocking on the window. ‘Let us in. We want to see who you have inside. Open up or you’ll be in trouble!’ I had heard what these prostitutes can do to a truck so I just opened up for them. They wanted to see if there was a man with a girlfriend in the truck because that is bad for their business. They saw me and they were not that happy because I was not a customer either,” Litchfield said.
“I told them, ‘I need to make money just like you’. I gave them chips. We became friends. I told them I had to get an early start at four in the morning. That morning they knocked on my door at half past three to wake me up. They came by just in case my alarm did not go off,” she recalled.
“It is interesting work,” Dlamini agreed.
“The company is making fuel deliveries into Africa – places like Zambia, and they are considering using women drivers. My sisters and I showed it can be done with women drivers.”
Mbuyisa said the women empowerment programme had been successful because the company had hired some very good drivers.