Outsourced packing removes labour headaches

The warehousing sector is having to
come to terms with the challenge of
rising labour costs and is constantly
seeking ways to boost productivity levels
in the logistics chain.
Tyron Hubbart, general manager of
Outsourced Project Solutions (OPS),
which provides outsourced services
on a per project basis, said one way
businesses were looking to save was
through outsourcing product bagging
and packing of containers for road, rail
and sea cargo, on a per ton rather than
an hourly labour cost basis.
“The largest challenge facing the
warehousing sector is coming to terms
with increasing labour costs, managing
variable labour costs and then still
having to negotiate the very tricky and
restrictive labour law amendments
surrounding the use of casual labour,”
Hubbart said.
Businesses across the country have
turned to the company to handle
projects on site ranging from 500 to
50 000 tonnes of goods per month, he
said.
The company recently started loading
minerals from stockpile into containers
at a per ton rate but the primary
demand has been for outsourcing
the bagging of commodities such as
fertiliser, cotton seed, coal and chrome,
he added. It supplies the hopper or
bagging plant and equipment such as
forklifts, Bobcats, scales, labour and
supervision, required for each project.
“This means a client can call us up to
bag a thousand tons of chrome and load
it into containers. OPS arrives on site,
bags the cargo, loads it into containers
and then leaves,” he said.
“OPS seems to have found a way to
increase productivity of labour while at
the same time helping the client avoid
dealing with all the challenges that
labour brings to business,” he said.
“Outsourcing specific work as
a project does away with the need
for hiring labour brokers or TES
companies,” he said.
Hubbart said there was also an
increasing trend to load bagged cargo
onto rail and road wagons at a per ton
rate.
“Labour is increasingly also paid
at a per ton rate, which improves
productivity of loading. Labour who
are paid hourly rates have a tendency to
drag the work out, so they earn longer
hours and overtime,” he said.