Fuel costs will continue to dominate

Managing the price of the industry’s essential input, fuel, will be a continuing challenge for the transport industry in the years ahead. After two decades in road cargo haulage, Willie Stuart, managing director of Speedy Overborder Services, sees the fuel cost issue as central to freight companies’ future profitability and even survival. “Yes, the fuel price has gone up and down, but the historic trend is that it has gone up. We won’t see cheaper fuel in the future. How companies manage this cost will determine which will survive and prosper,” said Stuart. 2008 saw Speedy Overborder’s Johannesburg to Botswana operations outperform its other routes, such as the Swaziland to Jo’burg and the temporarily suspended Jo’burg to Harare route. While the year FTW turned 35 was a particularly traumatic one for road freight companies whose lifeblood is literally ever more pricey fuel, compromising not only profits but putting pressure on business plans and such issues as employee compensation, the future may show this year was not unique. “Fuel is the biggest hurdle that we have to handle, our biggest challenge to handle efficiently. An efficient transporter will make a profit by managing the company resources wisely,” Stuart said. One way to better manage resources is through more sophisticated and expansive computer and electronic technology. Applied to customs clearance, such technology would cut down on the time trucks spend dawdling at border posts, burning fuel. “Trucks should be waved right through if all the customs data is on computer. The process should be like electronic banking – all the customs info, payments, forms entered and processed with the same ease,” said Stuart, whose firm has invested significantly over the years in electronic solutions.