Africa specialist expands its fleet

Abnormal transport specialist Transnetwork Logistics has expanded its fleet of trucks and is transporting new specialised cargo to meet the market developments in Africa. “Operating for more than six years, the company has grown rapidly since it was launched in Durban,” said founder and managing director, Jeremiah Naidoo. “This rapid growth he attributes to perseverance and continuously exploring new opportunities in the marketplace, particularly to out-of-the-way routes that aren’t serviced by other transport companies. Today it has offices in Harare, Zimbabwe; Ndola in Zambia and Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “We’ve paid our school fees since starting the business but we maintain the philosophy that there is always a way to meet a client’s freighting needs, no matter how impossible it may seem from an infrastructure or logistics perspective. And that has given us the impetus needed to succeed in an increasingly competitive market,” Naidoo added. Just one example of that “can-do” approach is when Naidoo got his first contract, which just happened to be on a route that didn’t have an access road into the DRC. “So we hired a bulldozer and created a road,” he said. The fleet of trucks was expanded by eight this year, bringing the total number to 38. “We offer a range of vehicles – from an eight- to a 125-ton payload – to serve any sized load, including super abnormal cargo,” he explained. Naidoo says the company is also in the process of acquiring more specialised vehicles, offering multi-axle trailer units of between 250 tons and 1 000 tons respectively. Transnetwork has furthermore begun transporting live ammunition and explosives, both nationally and crossborder, catering mainly to the mining and the military industry. All trucks include 24-hour satellite tracking equipment providing up-to theminute monitoring of consignments. Naidoo has a farm in Shongweni and will soon move the entire Transnetwork Logistics operation there, including the transport fleet and the warehousing division. “It provides the perfect space for further expansion,” he said. CAPTION Jeremiah Naidoo… ‘outof- the-way routes are our speciality.’