Industry heavyweights offer advice on surviving the recession

The South African trucking industry should go back to basics if they want to survive the current economic storm. This was the advice from trucking heavyweights at the annual Road Freight Association Conference in Vanderbijlpark last week. While Rand Merchant Bank economist Rudolf Gouws told delegates the current economic downturn was a global phenomenon not just affecting South African companies, experts advised companies to manage their businesses conservatively during the coming months while doing everything possible to ensure cash flow. Jo Grove, CEO of Unitrans Holdings, said there was no question that the country was in a recession. “Our approach has been to go back to basics. And while many might argue that we are a big public company with money in the bank, I believe this should be the approach of all in this industry regardless of size – one truck or a hundred. You have to go back to basics.” He said it had become clear that banks were too afraid to even lend money to each other never mind to truckers and therefore there was no other choice but to run the business at present as conservatively as possible. “We are managing our business aggressively in terms of capital expenditure and yes in this industry that is very difficult to do, but you have to manage it as tightly as possible. Sweat the assets and don’t even consider expanding at present.” Peter Mountford, Super Group’s divisional CEO of group supply chain division, said the next few months were expected to be even tougher and strong balance sheets would go a long way to seeing companies through. Said Thinus Erasmus, CEO of Imperial Logistics Transport and Warehousing: “Good maintenance plans must be in place as fleets are being run for longer while diesel usage must be managed. Fuel management is very important and it must be as efficient as possible. The best advice is to push hard on fuel, tyres and maintenance.” Erasmus said in these turbulent times cash was going to remain king and companies should remember that.