FROM THE time company director Willie Stuart began moving freight by delivering packages out of the boot of his Mercedes to today, when the company office and warehouse anchors the northern edge of the Matsapha Industrial Estate, location of so many of its customers, Speedy Overborder has been a big brother to smaller Swazi firms. “Whenever we can we like to farm out work to local start-up companies. Our business has been expanding, and we are glad we have these opportunities,” said Stuart. However , most customers shipping into and out of Swaziland prefer experienced and established firms like Speedy Overborder, and Stuart notes that many new trucking firm owners fail, ending up at his office with pleas to buy them out. “Transportation is a very competitive business, and a mistake is trying to charge unrealistically low prices to get new customers. Our pricing is kept very low, but allows us to offer good service,” he said. Company growth has extended beyond Swaziland and South Africa, first into Botswana, and this past year on to Harare. Speedy Overborder was one of the few companies in any field to set up operations in troubled Zimbabwe recently. “We are holding our own, and we are committed to that country,” said Stuart. Specialising in overnight delivery of parcels, the company has invested in technology to track its trucks and shipments, and through years of experience has mastered the art of swiftly concluding customs business at borders, to meet the daily late morning deliveries to Mbabane and other locations. Forwarder finds lucrative transport niche HAVING MOVED into new offices in the centre of the Matsapha Industrial Estate, Sharp Freight dispatches three trucks from for its parcel delivery service throughout the kingdom. “We don’t specialise. We get cargo from left or right, from personal effects to industrial items, like Parmalat’s dairy products and sugar,” said Shadreck Mnisi, the director of the first entirely Swazi-owned private freight transport company. A bonded warehouse attached to its new premises is kept busy. So are company agents posted at the Oshoek border, which is most heavily utilised by road freight headed for or coming from Johannesburg, and the southern town Nhlangano, where Sharp Freight handles the needs of three garment factories newly established there. The company is also the local agent for the worldwide courier service Berco Express. “Our main focus has always been on clearing and forwarding. It was only a year ago that we got into transport, when we bought a 800 ton truck, to go from Matsapha to Jo’burg,” said Mnisi. This past year has seen Sharp Freight make its first deliveries into Botswana. “There is a lot of interest from our customers to take them to Malawi and Zambia. Right now, we have to ship there through Johannesburg, but we would like to expand into those countries,” said Mnisi. Despite the competitive nature of road transport and an under-producing national economy this year, Mnisi is confident that Sharp Freight’s growth will continue. “It’s like soccer. As a businessman, you don’t just walk off the pitch if things aren’t going your way,” he said.
