March 2004

In an effort to alleviate some of the problems associated with vehicle registration and traffic law enforcements, the National Department of Transport has promulgated two Acts – the National Traffic Information System (NaTIS) and the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO). These problems include the issues around stolen vehicles, unroadworthy vehicles and driver vehicles and their adjudication.

The AARTO Act has also introduced the possibility of a points demerit system that, for drivers who continually break the law, could result in the suspension or complete cancellation of their licences. NaTIS has been in place since 1996 and, with the pending enactment of AARTO, the combination of these Acts will enforce many significant changes to the way leasing companies have traditionally supported their clients. These changes are mostly in the areas of vehicle registration, vehicle licensing and traffic fine management.

When registering a vehicle, NaTIS requires the name and address of both a Titleholder and an Owner. In an effort to manage traffic fines on behalf of their customers and to simplify the annual re-licensing of vehicles through using their own representative and proxies, the leasing industry companies traditionally have designated themselves as both the Titleholder and Owner.

While there are many changes brought about by these Acts, those having the biggest impact on the leasing company/client relationship are outlined below.

NaTIS – Titleholder vs Owner

The Titleholder is the entity that has purchased (paid for) the vehicle – either a private individual or a company that has purchased the vehicle for cash or a financial institution or a leasing company that is financing the vehicle. Only the Titleholder may alienate (sell) the vehicle and they give permission to the Owner to use the vehicle.

The Owner of a vehicle in terms of the Act is the person who uses and enjoys a motor vehicle.

It is clear from the above definitions that by naming themselves as Owners, leasing companies are contravening the Act as they are not the “users” of the vehicles. The leasing company can only be the Titleholder and the Owner must be the client or their driver.

AARTO – Responsibility of the Owner

The AARTO Act has created a new offence whereby the Owner of the vehicle must, at all times, have the full names, residential and postal addresses and copy of ID or driving licence of the driver of a vehicle, before such driver is allowed to drive it:

• AARTO – Demerit points vs triple fines
• Once AARTO has been initiated throughout the country, most fines, especially fines for moving vehicle transgressions, will attract demerit points. All fines, except summonses issued directly to the driver of a vehicle, will be issued in the name of the registered Owner. It is the responsibility of the Owner to pay the fine and receive the demerit points or to have the fine re-issued in the name of another individual who was the driver.
• Where the Owner is a company, the company is required to have the fine re-issued into the name of the driver. Should this not be possible because of insufficient records or the driver is no longer available, the company is required to pay triple the fine’s value as the demerit points cannot be allocated to a company.

To summarise, these Acts do not allow leasing companies to be Owners and Owners are required at all times to be able to positively identify the person who drove a vehicle. If they are not able to do this, they will have to pay three times the fine value.

The way forward …

While SAVRALA fully supports these initiatives, we have been and are still talking to government in an attempt to reduce the onerous requirements imposed on leasing companies and their clients.

May we suggest that you talk to your SAVRALA-member leasing company about the best possible solutions they are able to offer you to minimise the impact of these Acts on yourselves.