South Africa should take the lead in adopting the Transport Internationaux Routiers (TIR) system in sub-Saharan Africa, says the International Road Transport Union (IRU). TIR is a United Nations convention and enables goods to be shipped from a country of origin, through transit countries, to a country of destination in sealed load compartments that are controlled by customs via a multilateral, mutually recognised system – in other words, there are limited physical checks, for example.