Companies urged to train, train , train

IN AN industry already hamstrung by the skills shortage, niche specialisation is compounding the problem. That’s the view of Alwyn Nel of Kingfisher Freight Services who advocates a more holistic approach. “We see this inclination towards specialisation in bigger companies where one person controls only a certain segment of the overall movement of freight before passing the file on to the next person in the chain. People have lost the ability to start with cargo at inception and terminate their involvement when it is delivered.” He is also concerned that as companies focus on cost-cutting, they lose the most expensive staff, who also tend to be the most experienced staff, usually in management. These people are often lost to other industries and never again use their skills in freight, he says. What solutions does he see for the problem? “Everyone in the chain needs to bring people in and train them up. There are many companies doing a lot of good work in training their staff, but many are not.” He says his own staff is trained to follow the whole process, and attend weekly training sessions either in-house or from outside sources “There is a lot of good training available. The trick is to make sure your people take advantage of it. Training works not only for the good of your company but for the whole industry,” he added.