BP to open Harare and Zambia offices

ALAN PEAT TO FULFIL the need for a more hands-on operation in cross-border road transport BP Freight is opening an office in Harare in two-months, and a sales office in Zambia also in the first quarter. Operations director Brendan Sundelowitz told FTW that during the eight years of developing the business, the company had been using agents in each of its destination countries. “But experience has taught us that branch offices offer better control of traffic flow, and a staff dedicated only to the interests of BP Freight,” he said. The start is therefore being made in two of the eight countries in BP’s southern African freight distribution network. The current scheduling sees Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique each justifying consolidations twice-a-week; Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland daily; three-times-a-week into Windhoek, Namibia; and Malawi every eight-days. The big problem in the sub-Saharan belt is Zimbabwe’s rather penurious state, and a lack of forex strangling trade in the first quarter of last year. But there’s a glimmer of improvement, according to Sundelowitz, and he wants his BP Freight presence in Harare to be ready for the recovery. However, for the moment, Zimbabwe’s trials and tribulations are spilling over into neighbouring states. Sundelowitz pointed to the customs demand that goods transiting Zimbabwe must go as removal-in-bond, accompanied by a demand by Zim customs for a guarantee of ZD3.5-milllion. “Therefore RIBs are going through slower, with all sorts of delays because of lack of funds,” he said. But if you’re alert to the problems, there are usually ways round them, Sundelowitz added, and on-going growth in much of the southern African region still creates growing demand for cross-border traffic.