Petroleum products, which are required to keep the 'wheels' of industry and
commerce turning, are distributed from the various refineries to their destinations
throughout the country on a daily basis and the mode and extent of
transportation or conveyance of these products is varied. This distribution activity
predominantly takes place by means of road tanker, pipeline as well as rail
tanker and quantities during transit could vary from a few hundred litres to many
thousands of litres per trip.
Road tanker transportation is considered to be the most vulnerable form of
distribution means and this poses a high risk in terms of the potential for being
involved in an accident.
The risk potential associated with the road transportation of these fuels, from an
environmental point of view, is aggravated due to:
*The conveyance of bulk loads,
*non-roadworthiness of many vehicles,
*inconsistency in vehicle condition checking systems and in the application of
*safety systems,
*poor road conditions,
*driver fatigue,
*hi-jacking threats,
*the level of incompetence or unsuitability of drivers,
*the inconsistency in driver training programs,
*the vulnerability of the tankers being subject to collision and accidents.
The potential exists for road tankers involved in accidents to leak or spill large
quantities of petroleum products which in turn could result in catastrophic
environmental consequences (such as leaking large quantities of fuel into
sewers, plantations, rivers and streams thus causing much ground and water
pollution). Also, during an accident the fuel leaking from a road tanker may ignite
causing it to burn for several hours before it is finally brought under control and
extinguished. This may result in much air pollution as well as damage to the
surrounding ecological systems. Subsequent explosions could further result in
severe loss of life and associated fires which in turn could cause more
environmental degradation and damage.
For the purpose of this dissertation, focus was specifically placed on the
introduction of internal company control measures that a "supplier” company
(such as Natref (Pty) Ltd) could implement to check whether petroleum product
distributors are complying with predetermined criteria aimed at reducing the
potential for accidents involving road tankers. The measuring of how these
controls have an effect in the bigger scheme of things in terms of reducing
accidents and environmental degradation was very difficult to determine because
it was not possible to extract from the distributors how many of their vehicles
were actually involved in incidents during the study period. As a result it was not
possible to determine whether the improved control measures had an effect on
the number of accidents incurred by the vehicles that were effected by the
improved application of the standards.
The study thus focused primarily on the effect that the implementation of an
inspection system could have in progressively reducing the number of defects
found on road tankers wanting to gain access to Natrefs site as well as
measuring whether an improvement in compliance to standards actually took
place. This study was conducted over a period of 22 months and involved the
development and implementation of a new procedure and training course,
implementation of an inspection checklist, improved reporting methods as well as
improved the overall environmental awareness of the employees involved in the
checking and inspection process. It is however assumed that the implementation
and ongoing enforcement of the company standards has assisted in contributing
towards minimising the potential for pollution exposures arising from accidents
and in so doing minimising environmental degradation to a larger or lesser
extent. / Thesis (M. Environmental Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/293 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | De Villiers, Jonathan Izak |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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