DAL Agency at full strength

In the current economic
environment there are few
companies that have grown
from one staff member to 61
in the space of a few months –
but for DAL Agency that’s the
reality.
Following the dissolution
of the 11-year-old SAFDAL
partnership with Safmarine at
the end of October last year,
DAL has been hard at work
setting up its own European
and southern African agency
organisations to market space
on the SA–Europe Container
Service in which it is a vessel
sharing member together with
Safmarine, Maersk and MOL.
It’s a process that is now
complete and at full strength.
With Johannesburg-based
managing director Ron Frick
at the helm, the Johannesburg
office is headed up by Roger
Philip who brings to the position
20 years of experience initially
with Freightmarine and more
recently with Safmarine.
In Cape Town, due to the
high concentration of reefer
cargo, Neil Carrick was
appointed to head up the branch.
Previously the shipping manager
at Capespan, his knowledge of
the fruit industry was seen as a
valuable asset for the team.
In Port Elizabeth Willie
Basson is branch manager,
having notched up 30 years of
industry experience, while in
Durban the branch manager,
Malte Kersten, fills a dual role
as general manager responsible
for national, operations and
service delivery.
In East London, where
volumes don’t justify an own
office, King & Sons is the agent.
“Appointing an experienced
team has helped us to hit the
ground running,” says Frick.
Agency agreements have also
been set up in neighbouring
states with Sharaf Shipping
representing the company in
Mozambique and Malawi.
“We believe their intermodal
capabilities into Zimbabwe,
Malawi and Zambia – with their
associate company Transcom
operating their own fleet of
trucks – gives us the edge.”
King & Sons also represents
the company in Namibia,
Cargo Express in Swaziland
and Grindrod Intermodal in
Botswana and Pretoria.
“The challenge from July
to September was to get a full
team of experienced people on
board,” says Frick.
“But thanks to the level
of staff we’ve employed, the
transition has been virtually
seamless.
“We want to offer high
service levels, accuracy of
documentation, which translates
into faster response times,
and the availability of a staff
member on call to fix a problem
if ever there’s a need.”
The next move, says Frick,
is for DAL to optimise its 16%
allocation on the Saecs ships.
“In a situation where vessels
are not full you have the ability
to book over your allocation – if
a partner on the vessel is not
meeting their capacity you can
buy their slots from them which
provides room for growth.”