In the months - not years - leading up to the 2010 Fifa World Soccer Cup, road transport in Southern Africa will undoubtedly undergo a major transformation. There will be new opportunities and new challenges facing road transport operators and their suppliers in both spheres of road freight and road passenger transport. This may well require quick, but well-informed, decision-making by all the stakeholders involved.

Transport & Tourism News (TNT News) was launched during the Johannesburg International Motor Show 2008 - initially as a bi-monthly, all-electronic publication, but with the objective to go weekly and finally daily. Its aim is to provide quick decision-making information to aid your involvement in our evolving, multi-modal transport system. Stories will range from being brief to in-depth investigative reports.

TNT will cover all facets that will influence such involvement, including new legislation, the roll out of new transport infrastructure, the implementation of new national transport strategies and the impact it will have on road freight and road passenger transport, including tourism transport.

TNT News will also cover the provision of new products and services - solutions - to aid the upgrading of existing road transport services and the establishment of new road transport enterprises. Moreover, it will acknowledge the achievements of big operators to small entrepreneurs alike by homing in on the fleets and individuals involved.

TNT News is the brainchild of Udo Rypstra, who is well-known in the transport industry having worked for and edited several transport magazines over the past 20 years after a stint as business journalist with Business Day/Business Times. He was the first editor of Fleetwatch which, in its 1994 launch year alone, collected no less than 14 transport magazine awards including the Transnet Transport Journalist of the Year award for Udo himself. Since then, Udo has received two more top national (Siemens/SAGMJ) and one pan-African transport journalism award (Siemens 2005).

The transport world does not stop after 2010. It will be exciting and challenging beyond that year as the country develops an efficient transport system for everyone, including the poor.

TNT News will continue the tradition of independent and objective journalism and will tackle issues which could, on the one hand, degenerate the current transportation system and, on the other, deal with issues which could have a serious impact on the efficiency and profitability of truck and bus transport operations. In that pursuit, we will be open to creative suggestions and constructive criticism.

We will also try to give you the information you need as fast as we can. Support us and we'll support you.

(Udo Rypstra)