Managing fuel price surge demands lateral thinking

MANAGING THIS year’s fuel price surge in order to control customers’ shipping costs requires creative thinking – what Tomi Nowak, owner of Avair Freight Logistics, calls lateral thinking. “Yes, we are affected by fuel costs. Everyone is. Keeping shipping affordable is a matter of finding new ways of moving cargo. We apply lateral thinking. Depending on the customer’s time frame, we may use a combination of road and air or sea and air to cut costs. There are other effective ways we’ve found, too,” Nowak said. As a result, the seven year-old firm based at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport continues to move volumes of cargo into its area of specialisation, Africa. “Africa is our forte. From Alexandria to Cape Town, from Maputo to Dakar, we move anything from mining machinery to GSM equipment, motoring equipment, cars and vehicles. We’ve done helicopters and other large loads that require chartering aircraft,” said Nowak, who oversees a staff of 15 to offer complete logistic services. “We offer full service. We tell our customers we can handle their shipments from pick-up to delivery anywhere in Africa,” she said. Avair uses all air carriers to get shipments to their African destinations, thinking outside the box on behalf of customers to monitor costs.