When do you require a PDP / PrDP licence?

Posted on May 26, 2013 by Gareth

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I was recently in a discussion with friends over when one actually needs a PDP licence? One of them is a missionary who often transports people around in one of the church’s Quantums. Investigating the situation it all comes down to how you want to define certain things. The following is the simplest breakdown to determine if you need one or not:

Click for full size
modified from: foresightpublications.co.za

The biggest thing to decide is on the concept of paying customers. Certain websites state it as “a motor vehicle used for the conveyance of persons for reward” and others as “other vehicle carrying paying passengers”. These are two very different topics. In my friend’s case, the passengers aren’t paying, but she may be receiving remuneration for her work at the church and such as is required to drive the mini-bus as part of her duties, thus she would fall in this category.

If we look at the regulation itself:

National Road Traffic Act, 1996 – National Road Traffic Regulations, 1999 – Chapter V: Fitenss of Drivers – Part IV: Professional Driving Permit – 115: Certain drivers of certain vehicles to hold professional driving permit

1) Subject to the provisions of subregulation (2), a professional driving permit shall be held by the driver of –

… e) a motor vehicle used for the conveyance of persons for reward …

Thus if she is being remunerated for her work she would probably require one. It also explains why on sports tours at university we didn’t require one, as we were not being paid for driving.

Other things to note:

The currently used Professional Driving Permit (PrDP) is the continuation of the old Public Driving Permit (PDP) which was used pre 1998 and excluded certain provisions which are now included under the PrDP.
Price will vary with time.
A D (dangerous goods) licence includes a G (goods) licence.
One can hold both a P (people) and G, or P and D PrDP licence at the same time.
The minimum age for a PrDP licence is 18 for a G licence, 21 for a P licence, and 25 for a D licence.
If it’s a goods vehicle under 3.5 tons, it does not require a PrDP.
If it’s a vehicle of any size used to carry passengers for reward, or has 12 or more seats, a PrDP is required.
Almost all vehicles over 3.5 tons will require a PrDP, either for carrying passengers or as a goods vehicle. This is irrelevant of whether you are transporting goods or passengers at the time or not.
A vehicle over 3.5 tons, but is not a goods vehicle, does not require a PrDP. I’ve seen several people make mention of the Ford F250 and how traffic officer’s have demanded a PrDP. According to the law it is not required unless it can be defined as a goods vehicle. It does however require a C1 (old code 10) or higher licence.

This opens another discussion on the definition of goods vehicle. The RTA defines goods as

any movable property

and a goods vehicle as

a motor vehicle, other than a motorcycle, motor tricycle, motor quadrucycle, motorcar, minibus or bus, designed or adapted for the conveyance of goods on a public road and includes a truck-tractor, adaptor dolly, converter dolly and breakdown vehicle

Which is very vague, so people who get fines for their F250 should probably just right a nice letter trying to explain how their vehicle is a private vehicle and should not fall under the definition of a goods vehicle.

To get a PrDP you must also not have been convicted of certain crimes within the space of 5 years (NRTA):

if the applicant has, within a period of five years prior to the date of the application, been convicted of or has paid an admission of guilt on –
i)   driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or a drug having a narcotic effect;
ii)   driving a motor vehicle while the concentration of alcohol in his or her blood exceeded a statutory limitation;
iii)   reckless driving; or
iv)   in the case of an application for a category “P” and “D” permit, an offence of which violence was an element;

With regards to foreign/international/overseas driver’s licences, the exact law is unclear and interpreted differently. My interpretation of the NRTA (specific section) matches Fleetwatch here. If you wish to drive a vehicle that requires a PrDP, you either need a South African licence with a PrDP, or you need a licence from a prescribed country with their equivalent of the PrDP (for example Zimbabwe’s Defensive Driving Licence). If you have a licence from any other country you are not permitted to drive such a vehicle.

This is however countered by the AA in this response of their’s in which they essentially state that if you are allowed to drive a PrDP vehicle in your country, you can drive it in SA.

Please note, I am in no way an expert with regards to traffic laws or any related topic, I am merely laying out the information as I’ve found it, all comments below are also given with a view from the facts I know, always enquire at your local traffic department when uncertain.

My adventure Geocaching in Hogsback, in the rain

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Gareth

As part of an elaborate engagement plan for a friend, I ended up in Hogsback a few weeks ago. Myself and a friend were armed with an iPhone, a Galaxy phone and Garmin GPS as well as a set of clues to go hide in 5 Geocaches in the area. It was both of ours first experience in the hobby.

While I’ve tried to not mention any clues which might help to locate the caches we found, I apologise if the intended effort fails.

The plan was to take a set of clues to place in five different already established geocaches. The couple in question would visit Hogsback the following weekend and find all the clues we had hidden, the clues would build up towards the proposal. It wasn’t the best weekend ever to go hiking around outside, but we had a set mission to accomplish.

9 o’clock on Saturday morning we found ourselves driving on a dirt road out of Hogsback towards our first cache at Wolfridge Falls. It was chilly, it was raining and trees were hanging over the road most of the way, and we were having a little trouble with our GPS devices. We found the falls and keeping the hint in mind hunted around for about 20min without any luck. We then thought we had the wrong location and spent the next three quarter’s of an hour walking down the road and up random paths looking for a suitable location.

Wolfridge Falls

After getting our GPS functioning again we realised we were originally in the correct place, headed back there and spent another 20min scrambling around looking for the cache. Still no luck. Because this was more than just a personal goal, we caved and gave team iPajero a call. Now with a slightly better idea of where to find the clue; we saw where it most likely was. And thus were able to hide the first clue. It took much longer than we had expected and we decided to hurry on to the find the next cache in the hopes they wouldn’t all take that long to find.

Wolfridge Falls cache

Next on the list was Kettlespout falls, a drive back to town and out along another road got us to the parking area to start the hike. A fairly short hike up to the falls, gave us time to turn the GPS on and locate the given GPS coordinates. A short search quickly yielded the cache, in which we logged our finding of it (using the day’s pseudonym, “Cold & Wet”) and planted the second clue.

Kettlespout cache

With the quick find giving us a boost of morale we hopped back in the car and headed towards 39 steps. Another short walk and a 10min search yielded our third cache of the day. Alas we had left the clue we were supposed to leave in the cache back in our car so had to walk there and back again to place it in the cache.

39steps cache

With the rain refusing to relent, we decided to get all the cache’s done before we dried out and got some lunch. Next on our list was the cache at the Chapel on the Hill. Not actually part of the challenge we were setting up, we went to scout out the location as a fall-back in case something went wrong on the day, or we weren’t able to hide all the clues.

kettlie (Large)

A lovely little chapel surrounded by trees, we had a good look around the area (keeping the hint in mind), searching for possible locations of the geocache. After 10min we found where we thought the cache should be, after half an hour of searching we conceded defeat and gave our friends at iPajero another call. He tried to explain where the clue was relative to the marker we had located, and we immediately realised we were in the wrong place as his description didn’t match what we saw. We then found the actual location of the cache. While our first location still tied up with the hitn provided, it was just unlucky that we found it first and the correct one only later. This was also our first introduction to the nano-cache. We opened it up, but decided not to log the find, mainly due to our unsteady and wet hands at the time.

Much smaller than we expected

With our enthusiasm taking another slight beating we figured we had to find the other two clues before lunch otherwise we’d probably never get to them. Next on our list was Urst100. I had mapped all the geocaches on a map to figure out an optimal manner to search for them. It wasn’t till we headed towards Urst100, that I read the clue, and saw the GPS coordinates given were for a potential parking place, and not the position of the cache itself. A quick recalculation had us heading out on the same road as the Wolfridge Falls, stopping earlier to hike down to the Madonna and Child Falls.

Urst100 cache

Having decoded the hint, we searched for about 10min before locating the cache and hiding our second last clue. From there we cut across towards our last cache of the day, the Hogsback Big Tree. A bit of trail running through the forest got us to the tree a bit earlier, giving us plenty time to search for the final cache.

Madonna & Child Falls

We knew going in that this was going to be a difficult cache to find; many people had previously been unable to locate this cache. Once we got there it took us about 10min to locate the clump of trees in which the cache is located. The hint helps in this regard. Half an hour of searching proved to be fruitless, and it getting later in the day, and our stomachs beginning to tire of the milk bottles and wine gums we had earlier fed them, we decided to place a third call to the helpful team iPajero.

He was able to explain the general location of the cache, but not it’s exact location. Another 20min of searching resulted in another phone call. Another half an hour of searching and we decided to call it a day. We instead chose to hide the final clue in a location that it could be believed to be as part of the cache.

39 Steps

With that we beat a quick retreat to the car and our late lunch. While our first two attempts at securing a meal failed, the third led us to the Butterfly’s Bistro near Hogsback’s info centre. With a fairly wide selection of food and good service we both ended up opting for a delicious steak with vegetables and chips with a glass of gluwein to get us back to room temperature. This further aided by the wood-fire and being granted permission to remove our wet shoes and socks.

Overall it was a long day, sometimes it was great, some times we weren’t the happiest people, but it was a fun experience and is a great story to tell. It wasn’t really the geocaching experience I had expected, but from a challenge perspective was great. We set out from East London at 07h00 and arrive back 12 hours later, having got some good excersize, finding five of the six caches we had set out to locate and hiding the required five clues. Although the weather was lousy, it added to the experience :)

I was delighted to hear the following weekend that our efforts were not for nought, and the proposal all went off without a hitch, and occurred under blue skies to double. My thanks also go to team iPajero for their help in locating the caches, without whose help I don’t know what would have happened.

It was odd to note, that after looking for a while, when you saw a place for hiding a cache, you just had a feeling of knowing it was the correct place. You search for a while, digging around, and then you just see this one random arrangement of rocks, and know that’s where the cache is hidden. Also that although the coordinates were useful for mapping these caches’ locations; for five of the six we found, a GPS device wasn’t actually necessary. Kettlespout required the coordinates, the rest were all located by specific features.

My Geocaching account is Fiddlings.

Woody Cape Hike (aka Alexandria) Hiking trail – April 2013

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Gareth

Since I started university I’ve had the opportunity to do several long hikes over the years. Last year being the first year devoid of any such expedition. There was almost an opportunity to do the Shipwreck Hike over Easter, but plans unfortunately fell through. As such myself and a few friends found ourselves looking for something to do. Being a working man now, a two or three day hike was a bit more feasible than my previous hikes and as such we ended up heading for Alexandria early on Saturday morning.

The Woody Cape hiking trail is a two day hike (18.5km & 13km), through the forests, beaches and dunes of the extended Addo Elephant Park. The hike is a circular route with a 12 person hut at the halfway mark overlooking the sea. The park also includes backpacker style accommodation for 12 people at the start of the hike, which means one is able to stay their the night before and after the hike if you so choose. The park is however a short drive out of Port Elizabeth, and even for us coming through from East London on the Saturday morning was no hassle.

The park seemed fairly quiet while we were there, we also had no problem booking the trail in the week before we wanted to hike. The cost for the hike is R120pp which is for the hike and the hut. A further R40pp SANPark Conservation fee is required. You may be required to pay this for each day you are in the park. If you wish to stay at the accommodation before or after your hike, that is a further R120pp per night.

The hike starts out through the Alexandria forest for about 8km, there’s a slight up and down before you start descending towards the sea. At this point you walk through 2km of farmland and ending on the beach. You then hike for about 6km along the beach. After the first 4km you come to a set of cliffs. At this point the route carries on along the base of the cliffs for 2km, however it is impassable at high tide. We ended up going through about two hours after high tide and there was ample space to keep your feet dry. If you do completely mess up your timing, it is apparently possible to climb up the dunes to your right and head along on the top of the cliffs.

Once you complete the last 2km along the bottom of the cliffs you’ll come to a rope and a set of stairs to help you ascend the dunes to the top of the cliffs. The last 3km of the day take you along the top of the cliffs through some bushy areas to the cabin. Be sure to keep left along this section as we happened to miss a sign and had to do some bundu-bashing at one stage to get back on track.

The hut itself was great. It’s up high and has a stunning view looking out over the sea. Two bedrooms with 3 bunk beds each provide sleeping place for 12. Tables and chairs for all are also provided. Although not advertised, when we arrived we found the hut to have a two plate gas stove, with full canister, a fully stocked cupboard with pots, pans crockery and cutlery, more than enough for us. We had brought all equipment and gas stoves for ourselves, and it’s advised that you check with the park before arriving at the hut only to find it all missing. Rain water is provided from two large tanks, which can be used for washing and drinking. No other water sources are found along the route and no showers are provided at the hut. Two toilets (and toilet paper when were there) are available a short way from the hut.

Unless it’s very warm, I advise closing your doors once it gets dark. While eating supper we had three bats come and visit us, who swooped around and around the kitchen for quite a while before finding their way out.

Day two although slightly shorter than day one is probably a little bit tougher. You first cover 2 km through the bushes before coming out on the dunes. The dunes are absolutely spectacular, but it can be quite a long, hot hike for the next 5 km. Signs with footprints on them guide one all the way across the dunes, although a bit of looking ahead can make the crossing a bit easier. After the dunes you cover another km though farmlands before a long 2 km climb up to the forest. After this a leisurely stroll back to the start point gets you safely home.

On day one we started at about 09h00, with high tide at 13h20, we were set to hit the cliffs at exactly the high tide peak. Just before one reaches the beach you come across the fairly recently opened Woody Cape Backpackers. A fairly rustig joint just behind the dunes. it’s impossible to miss and we decided to grab a lunch time beer when we got there to delay our arrival at the cliffs. They offer some meals and other facilities, although depending on the day you may want to phone ahead to guarantee they’re open.

Another stop halfway along the beach for lunch and an afternoon snooze put us well on the receding side of high tide by the time we got to the cliffs. We made it to the hut by 16h40.

Day two we got going just after 08h00 and arrived back at the start around 13h00. Our group was relatively fit, but hiked at a leisurely pace most of the way.

The hike is a really great weekend getaway, especially if you stay nearby. You hike through several vastly different surroundings, each as stunning as the next. The dirt road to the start of the hike is easily drivable in any vehicle, and cover is provided if you’re staying overnight. The facilities were top notch and supported by friendly staff.

You can find contact details for booking here. For more information have a look here, here and here.

Password Protect Office 2010 file with read only

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Gareth

I recently had to throw together an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of people’s attendance to a meeting. It was necessary for the file to be password protected so no one could edit it, but at the same time I needed everyone to be able to view the file.

I remember having done it in Office 2003 without hassle, but in recent years haven’t had the need. And when trying to get it done in Office 2007/2010, I just couldn’t get it right. Google searches were also proving rather futile as most of them referred to the obvious protection options which couldn’t accomplish what I wanted.

If you go to protect in Office, you can choose to make a file Read-Only, you can save it as a Final copy. But then I can’t edit it. You can also password protect sheets, so I did that at first, but then if you want to edit a sheet, you have to un-protect the sheet, make your changes, and then re-protect the sheet. This would work, but I knew at some stage, me or someone else would forget to re-protect the sheet before closing the file.

After much searching, I eventually found this page which gave instructions on how to do it. And it’s fairly easy.

Instructions

Go to ‘Save as’
Click ‘Tools’ at the bottom of the window, and then ‘General Options’
Type in a password in the ‘Password to Modify’ block and click ‘OK’.
Save the file as what ever you want it to be.

Fairly simple, but very difficult to find if you don’t know where to look.