Accommodating team. . . from top left (directors): Bruce Emslie, Tony van Aswegen, Jade Da Costa; seated: Janet Tosh, Nerisha Balwanth and Claire Hide. THE CONSTRUCTION of two international hotels in Rwanda has presented a challenge to forwarding company Intra Speed which moved into new premises in Aeroport this month, where they have their own warehouse. “We were planning the move from our City Deep premises while the new building was being completed when the hotel project was presented to us,” says client service manager Claire Hide. “Within two days of receiving the request to tender for the movement of the hotel’s amenities and building material, our director Jade da Costa flew off to Kigali to gather all the relevant information, allowing Intra Speed to submit a competitive and thorough pricing. The contract was secured within two weeks of his trip at which point the procedures and project team were set up. Everything has to be completed by mid December 2003. It requires the transportation of 150 containers of equipment over a three month period, as well as urgent air freight material. What it means is rapid and dedicated application to the task.” Da Costa and project manager Tony van Aswegen, the company’s operations director, head the team, which includes Hide who assisted in the pricing and setting up of procedures, project co-ordinator Janet Tosh and airfreight manager Nerisha Balwanth. The developers are a major South African hotel group. Now the goods required for the project will flow through Intra Speed’s warehouse, which is its first fully-owned property. It also fits in comfortably with the development of the East African trade route on which the company has focused recently. With own offices throughout the region, Intra Speed has sea freight moving through both Dar es Salaam and Mombasa and employs an own fleet of vehicles stationed in Mombasa providing delivery to the client’s door in land-locked nations in the region, like Rwanda, Burundi, DRC and Uganda. “It’s the type of service needed with the developments going on in those areas,” says Hide. “We can provide a fast transit time from the port into those countries, with regular tracking. Each vehicle is fitted with a tracking device and the drivers are given cell phones” Intra Speed is also one of the first operators to offer a direct consolidation to Kampala. This dramatically improves the transit time for LCL cargo from South Africa, says Hide. The company is in the process of opening up more offices through Central and West Africa to provide comprehensive and direct coverage of the continent.
