Booming Africa business squeezes truck capacity

TRANSPORT INTO Africa is a booming business in 2008, so much so that established firms are unable to keep up with the demand for road freight services. “We do fifty to one hundred shipments a week to Maputo alone, and to be honest with you with 40 trucks we still don’t have enough trucks to take all the work that comes our way,” said George Braack, road freight operations manager for Express Link Cargo in Johannesburg. Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are other busy routes, though all of sub-Saharan Africa is served and Mozambique in particular has been a heavy volume route for ELC, which also does air and sea freight consolidations and breakbulk. “Sea freight is much cheaper, but where there is port congestion customers prefer road freight or even air freight, although air is much more expensive. It depends on their needs and schedules, but all transport (modes) are keeping us busy,” said Braack, who deals with SA companies shipping to customers throughout SADC. Mozambique requires all manner of cargo, from computer parts to consumer goods, furniture, paints and building supplies, reflecting the building and other needs of a resurging economy. To handle consolidation movement, ELC’s in-house services include industrial packing in Johannesburg with full time carpenters and 2500m2 of secure warehousing capacity and 50 cubic metres of cold room storage five minutes from OR Tambo International Airport.