l Fleet renewal programme begins
l Container storage outlawed
l No documentation, no entry
WHEN YOUR fleet of vehicles is constantly giving trouble, when the dwell time in the container basin is too long and customers tell you you are not delivering an efficient and predictable service, it's time to take a good, hard look at the situation.
Then find the remedy, says Frans Seloane, container services manager, Gauteng region for CX.
We were just not getting there, he says. You can't afford to operate in competition the way CX was being run here.
We had no less than 45 vehicles in the workshop at a time. We have seven overhead cranes, but two of these were regularly in the repair centre.
Then containers were being allowed to stand around here for too long a period. Everything, it seemed, was not right.
So Seloane set about forming a task team to completely overhaul the quality of service provided.
The age of our fleet has been a major problem. Now we have 29 brand new vehicles hired out to us. The aim is to have 70 new vehicles operating under our name by the year's end. I don't want to hear it said again by a client that our service is unacceptable.
Then there is the matter of the containers. We don't store them here at City Deep any longer. This is not a storage depot. Instead City Deep will only handle imports and exports. We allow only 72 hours here for offloading, after which the container must be removed.
Also vehicles will no longer be allowed in here without proper documentation. That has been a major cause of delays in the past. Too many private hauliers have been coming in without proper documentation, and we have had to wait for instructions. All domestic and over-border traffic will now go to Kazcon. That facility has to be refurbished and we have asked Spoornet for R15 million to meet the needs.
Kazcon will then have a fully fledged staff complement, with its own cartage section of staff and vehicles.
We have developed a strategy on a national level. We've completed the business processes, and we now have one common system operating where the order, transportation and delivery are handled by a single document.
What we are aiming at is ISO 9002 accreditation nationwide with our target set for the beginning of October. Our Welkom depot has achieved this already. Now it is up to City Deep, Kazerne, Durban's Bayhead, Bloemfontein and Pretoria to meet the demands.
We have undertaken a door-to-door awareness campaign with our clients. June 1 was set down as the final date by which all should be aware of our new rules and regulations.
At home base, all operators meet every Wednesday. We are rewriting the standards of our operation. We have an input of information on and feedback from clients. We are starting to revitalise the entire CX operation. We want it to be heard from all quarters that we are, in fact, a very acceptable service operator.
By Leonard Neill
