Industry opts for self-reliance as outages sting

WITH THE cure out of their hands, a number of Gauteng-based freight operations have taken to prevention as the everpresent threat of powerfailures haunts efficiencies in the supply chain. Growing commercial reliance on electronic document processing and IT networking sees productivity grinding to a halt as the power cuts out. Generator sales and hire have boomed in the last year, according to Dave Pretorius of Generator and Plant Hire. “Most businesses depend on electricity to function. Without power, what can you do?” “There is usually nothing one can do except to sit it out,” says John Roodt of clearing and forwarding agents Global Reach Logistics. Roodt was recently able to process the clearing of entries at a competitor’s premises when the power went out, and then reciprocated the gesture when that office blacked out. “There is a general understanding and willingness to help. One can lose up to two days down the chain if a link in the system is offline even for a few hours.” A number of firms are reliant on a central server to coordinate the IT networking and communications for their operations. “There is a huge cost involved in IT recovery when a server suddenly goes offline, never mind the time and productivity lost,” says Hilton Tait of Hike Freight Services. Chrissie DuBarry of freight software solutions firm ShipShape is currently building new offices which will house a generator to support its system. “Our clients all connect to us, so we need to be online all the time.” “It’s a bind, but we are looking into two generators for our office here and the warehouse in Durban,” adds Simon Avis of Nomad Freight. “When the power goes out, you can always go do something else. It’s just a stick on the camel’s back.”