Logistics company fulfils boyhood dream for ex-school principal

WHEN THE Nichbri Transport Services (NTS) vehicle pulls out of the Jet Park loading yards at 10 o'clock every night (Monday to Friday), retired school principal Nick Bestenbier smiles in satisfaction.
The load of parcels destined for Durban, with stops along the route, fulfils a boyhood dream for the former White River resident.
Now his entire family are behind him, working in the NTS operation which started out with a single bakkie, and today is heading towards the goal of being the leading PDI (previously disadvantaged individual) logistics solution company in the country.
That's our goal and we are moving in that direction, says big, burly Nick, now c.e.o. of the company which operates a large fleet of vehicles, ranging from half-ton bakkies to 30-ton super-link freighters. More are on the order books with a 22-ton, 12m transporter budgeted for next year to replace the current smaller vehicle serving the overnight Durban route.
There is an overnight service to Bloemfontein, with 48-hour services to Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London in full operation. The Cape Town service has blossomed to such an extent that one son, Gregory, has moved there as finance and administration director. Younger son Brian is the company's national marketing and operations director, a position he took up two years ago after leaving a television company where he was working.
We started this with little capital and a great deal of determination, says Nick Bestenbier, who defies his seniority position by rolling up his sleeves when necessary and assisting with packing and vehicle repairs.
I had this dream from boyhood of running a transport operation one day, he says. I started out with a bakkie back in the old Lowveld, now Mpumalanga, carrying timber for delivery from the local mills. That soon spread to three bakkies and a tipper. I was doing well even while holding down my post at a school, but the former education department didn't take kindly to my activities, so I sold up the vehicles and the contracts.
But that decided me there was a future in this business. So when my package came through and I was pensioned off, I moved my family to Gauteng and started all over again, driving the first vehicle myself in order to get started.
By 1992 NTS Freight was up and running, starting out with the smaller movement of parcels and light goods in and around Gauteng, and occasionally stretching to Mpumalanga and Northern Province. Three years ago NTS freight established a national network with offices in all major centres of the country.
Now they have developed a unique computer programme and operational procedure which enables delivery of cargo against a client's own documentation or delivery note, rather than having to draw up these on their own.
By delivering on your own delivery document, you can be assured that your individual specific needs are catered for, says Brian Bestenbier.
Very few companies can offer to deliver goods against the client's own documentation. In our case, the proof
of delivery will be duly signed against the client's own documentation.
In addition to its expanding roadfreight business, NTS is now moving into the airfreight service operation.