New initiatives help cut costs for Zambia Shippers

As part of a concerted drive to develop and deliver new products and services to the market, Celtic Freight has introduced several initiatives designed to meet clients’ changing needs. According to commercial manager, Aileen Ryan, the company is now not charging for the use of Celtic’s container fleet for cargo to Zambia. “Hauliers and brokers are unfairly charging clients for renting containers and for the return of the container back to South Africa. Celtic offers its containers at no cost, and this has proved to be a marketing winner,” she said. The benefit of having both its container and depot services housed under one roof in its Lusaka, Zambia, premises has also been passed on directly to customers. “Two services are being offered in conjunction with the free container service,” explained Ryan. “Firstly we are offering to hold the customer’s cargo in our Johannesburg depot after packing at no cost, while the client sorts out the paperwork or payment issues in Zambia. This helps with storage costs and gives some assurance to the importer that their cargo is in fact ready to go and payment can go ahead.” The second service is also aimed at assisting importers into Zambia and is a “just in time” solution. “Cargo is moved in containers to our terminal in Lusaka where it is then held – much like an ‘in stock' concept – until their operations are ready to receive the cargo. Once this happens we deliver the cargo and this can be to any location in the country.” According to Ryan this has saved some of the large retail organisations a fortune in storage and warehouse costs. “It is no secret that Zambian warehousing costs are exorbitant,” she said. “These value-added services are a major benefit to our clients.” At the same time, several projects under way in Zambia are already making use of the on-carriage and placing of containers on site using Celtic’s side shifter trucks. “This helps with the major logistical challenges they very often face,” says Ryan. But these services have not only benefited the clients. Celtic has also seen the use of its containers increase. “We have found that the efficiency derived from the use of the containers has meant that we can offer better rates for containerised cargo. In fact we can actually offer cheaper rates than breakbulk cargo for light volumetric business,” she said. “We believe our infrastructure is unique with regard to Zambia and we are leveraging that.” INSERT & CAPTION Firstly we are offering to hold the customer’s cargo in our Johannesburg depot after packing at no cost, while the client sorts out their paperwork or payment issues in Zambia. – Aileen Ryan CAPTION Celtic Freight containers are now available at no added cost as the company finds innovative approaches to doing business.