Overnight transporter would welcome 24-hour border post

Acquiring a reputation for speed and reliability is every overnight delivery service company’s goal. But a single missed delivery is enough to tarnish the credibility on which a firm’s business relies. “We have to move every day because we offer a service. People know that if they use Speedy they’ll get their deliveries that day. We go every day even if our truck isn’t full,” said Willie Stuart, owner of Speedy Overborder Services of Swaziland. “We can’t allow any compromises. A lot of our customers deal with Mozambique. They say to their own customers, ‘Come at twelve and your shipment will be here. We’re using Speedy’,” said Stuart. Ensuring reliability has led Stuart to focus on transporting into Swaziland from SA. “We’re not in the export business. Our trucks go out empty, always have. We tried doing exports but found that a truck could be stuck at a customer waiting to load and the rule is we can’t be late at the border,” Stuart said. A company truck arrives at Speedy Overborder’s Johannesburg office in the evening, loads, and returns immediately to the Swaziland border, where the driver sleeps at the locked gate until the 7am opening, when he is at the head of the customs queue. By mid-morning the truck arrives at Speedy Overborder’s main office at the Matsapha Industrial Estate. Consignments are moved to delivery vehicles for quick transport to customers. That routine may end if the Oshoek border’s extended hours planned for the holidays remain as a permanent 24/7 operation.