Internet system shares info on agent-hoppers

FINDING A solution to the all too common practice of customers switching from one agent to the next and leaving a trail of bad debts in their wake is the motivation behind the launch this month of an internet-based site - FreightBuro - which allows the clearing and forwarding industry to share information on clients who have not paid their debts. Partner Shawn Rautenbach saw the need for the system when the freight company for which he was working some years ago was liquidated because of a R950 000 bad debt caused by an agent-hopper. With brother Handre, who also has a freight background, and computer specialist Ruaan Nel, FreightBuro was established. "The idea is to enable the agent to research prospective clients via the internet," said Handre Rautenbach. Most agents have been in a situation where a client doesnÕt pay and merely moves on to the next unsuspecting agent who also lands up with a bad debt. We believe that FreightBuro can go a long way to preventing this." The agent pays a R1500 registration fee which gives him access to the listing via a user name and password. He in turn provides FreightBuro with a list of his bad debtors going back three years. For every search the agent pays R25. Information will be updated daily. "It also provides a valuable reference source for sales people," says Shawn Rautenbach who is confident that once the system is established in South Africa it could go global.