One-stop clearing and forwarding option caters for air and road

The burgeoning Southern African market has long been a focus of Katlego Global Logistics, which has seen a growth ‘explosion’ in the region. “We are largely roadfreightfocused,” says MD Moses Maboi, “with daily and weekly services to Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Southern Angola. The company caters for part and full loads with customs clearing included in the ‘one-stop’ package. “We have aligned with local and foreign trucking companies which effectively operate under our licence,” says Maboi. The company operates from a warehouse in Pomona where trucks are loaded for various destinations. “We offer co-loading opportunities to other freight forwarders – it’s a win/win situation in that we fill up our trucks and they get to move their goods at a highly competitive rate. “It’s working very well for us and we’re seeing tremendous growth in that sector.” Zambia is a particularly good market for Katlego, with return loads making it a viable proposition. “There’s also been good growth to Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and Zimbabwe. “Our trucks are always full – for example we’re moving a lot of imports from India and Turkey to Zimbabwe and Mozambique.” And while roadfreight is the core focus, airfreight exports are also moving overborder in high volumes – the likes of cell phone packs to Kenya, Zambia and Nigeria. And here the main stumbling block is capacity. “We battle for airfreight space which is at a premium on these routes.” But the company’s recently acquired Iata (International Air Transport Association) status will be a benefit on this score, strengthening its buying power with the airlines and according it more favourable status in the capacity queue, says Maboi.