All-female railfreight contractor opens its doors

JOY ORLEK THERE’S A new entrant in the inland haulage railfreight market. City Deep-based Ladies & Wheels opened its doors late last year and with staff and infrastructure now in place, has embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign. Headed up by Mabel Mshayisa, who has 15 years experience in the transport industry, the 4-strong all female team of Lynn Erasmus, Femida Naidoo and Nirsha Reddy combines operational and accounting expertise. While the company has been set up as an independent entity with its own offices at City Deep, the start-up capital was provided by Reddy Cargo Services whose managing director Arnold Reddy saw it as an opportunity to empower his female staff. Reddy Cargo Services has operated for the past 18 years as a transport specialist, concentrating primarily on the road leg between Gauteng and Durban. Its customer-driven approach has seen the extension of its service range to include cross-border transport, domestic distribution, project cargo, warehousing and the like. Reddy believes that the launch of Ladies & Wheels provides Reddy Cargo Services customers with the additional transport option of rail. He stressed however that Ladies & Wheels would operate as a totally independent entity. “We put up the money for the Spoornet bond and have provided them with some vehicles to start operating, but essentially they are now on their own,” said Reddy. “They have their own in-house accounting systems, tracking systems and offices.” Mshayisa believes there are big opportunities to develop the business.