The continuous downward pressure on rates, as well as a limited pool of skilled staff, are major challenges facing the logistics industry in South Africa today. According to Sue Wood, operations director of Cargocare, companies have to continuously expand their service offering to ensure they are adding value. They also need to constantly evaluate costs in order to address pressure on margins – while upskilling of staff must be a priority at all times, she said. “We have recently moved to new premises which enables us to offer a much more comprehensive inventory management proposition,” she told FTW. “Information technology integration is just as important as this allows us to be compatible with many of the mainstream enterprise resource planning (ERP) software programmes.” By next month the company will have more than doubled its sales force. “We foresee 40% growth within 12 months for our business,” she said.
