Labour issues stymie Spoornet's efforts at commercialisation

'Customer pays for inefficiency in the end' Alan Peat SPOORNET IS up against a double-edged sword as it attempts to maintain untroubled labour relations while still promising to act as a "commercialised" concern, says Mario Marcenaro of the major granite exporter, Marlin Corporation. "They need to be able to put their staff under pressure to perform adequately for their clients, while still being a good social performer themselves," he told FTW. "But it's an impossibility. You can't be socially good and still make money." And it's the customer who pays for all this in the end as service levels remain poor, Marcenaro added. "We pay because it's a government company with its hands tied. "Unfortunately, commodities like granite, chrome, cement, chemicals and wheat just can't justify any other means of transport for most of their export consignments." And costing the alternative Ð road transport Ð reveals another anomaly. "They (rail) are very expensive," said Marcenaro. "A road truck from Rustenburg to Durban costs about 10%-15% more per unit than the unit trains we normally use. "One driver and one truck carrying about 20 tons. "How can Spoornet, with a 2 000 ton unit train and one driver, be so close in price." But, although the small difference still batters the price competitiveness of these commodity exports, the desperation amongst the exporters to fulfil their orders is pushing a lot of traffic onto the road. "Road transport has increased phenomenally over the last two years," said Marcenaro. This because Spoornet just can't perform. "A train should take two days to get to Durban," Marcenaro said. "In the past they did manage to offer 3-5 days average time, but in the last couple of years it's actually been taking 9-10 days or more. "That's if we're able to get any wagons at all." This is with all these commodity exporters block booking unit trains, and therefore valuable customers for Spoornet, Marcenaro added. His granite industry alone exports about a million tons a year Ð export shipments valued at around R1.5-billion. "We're fully equipped to load a unit train and turn it around between two-and-four hours," he said, "and it's then ready for shunting out. "But we at Marlin also operate in Brazil, India and China, and the productivity compared to cost in SA is the worst I can think of."