“Over the last decade, we have built strong relationships with all of our key customers. Our level of service goes above and beyond being merely transactional. We can be honest about what can or cannot be done,” says Stefné Lintvelt, co-founder and managing director of Walvis Bay-based Camel Thorn Freight Forwarding.Lintvelt is responsible for the marketing, finance and day-to-day management, while business partner Renald Hite handles the operations side of the business.“Renald does not compromise. He does not make false promises, and our customers appreciate that.“As a result, we have customers who were with us when the company started ten years ago.“They have helped us to stay in business and to grow by paying us on time because we deliver the service on time,” says Lintvelt.Camel Thorn has expanded from being based in a single room shared by the two to one that now employs around 19 people and is an important player in handling frozen goods in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).Service levels are consistently maintained to ensure that the company does not take on more work without the available resources to handle it. Moving frozen cargo through a desert, across borders, to destinations thousands of kilometres away, is no walk in the park.Daily stresses include vessels not arriving on schedule, changes to authority procedures, the imposition of quotas, outbreaks of diseases like bird f lu, truck breakdowns, and, of course, Covid-19 regulations.“We are all too aware that things change overnight.“In fact, in many ways, it is a lot harder to forward freight than it was 10 years ago. “Today, we require more people than usual to do the job because of extra inspections and other red tape, and margins are a lot tighter.“What helps is that Renald and I have a good background in the business. Even now, if a runner or agent is off sick, or someone in the accounts team, we fill in ourselves. It brings one back to earth when you realise what the problems are on the ground, and why simple tasks sometimes take so long,” she says.Another advantage is the decision to focus initially on frozen goods.“While it is a lot riskier than other types of cargo, working with frozen goods has been our saving grace.“Perhaps we were too young and ignorant of the challenges when we started, but we have now established ourselves as leaders in the field and have been able to expand into forwarding other forms of cargo.”Moving frozen cargo through a desert, across borders, is no walk in the park.– Stefné Lintvelt“
