Corridor offers 48-hour transit from arrival in Walvis to Gauteng

THE TRANSKALAHARI Highway, the main artery of the Walvis Bay corridor, offers Gauteng business a 48-hour transit from the moment of offloading a container at Walvis Bay to its Highveld destination, said Frank Gschwender, business development executive of the Walvis Bay Corridor Group. "This is a time saving factor which cannot be beaten," he said. "The container is railed overnight to Windhoek, where it is immediately loaded onto the truck transporting it to Gauteng. The corridor system translates into less time, lower costs, greater reliability and more solid security than any other in the SADC region. We have now simplified all the procedures at border posts with the single aim of making this a model corridor and we are satisfied we are achieving that target. "The introduction of a single customs document on April 1, and the use of the TransKalahari Highway as the pilot route for this scheme, shows how valuable our initiative has been in getting the other countries involved to work with us." "At first the South African authorities were reluctant to work with us in our efforts, but now they are throwing their full weight behind the operation and everyone will benefit from it."