Own rail contract on the cards P&O NEDLLOYD, in conjunction with an unnamed partner, plans to negotiate its own rail contract with Spoornet next year.
That's the word from sales director Richard Burmeister who believes it makes logical sense for the line to control its own destiny on the inland leg in South Africa as it does in Europe, particularly since the mega-group's volumes have created the necessary economies of scale.
It's all part and parcel of the seamless door-to-door logistics management operation which is P&ON's ultimate objective. We believe it's critical that we are able to offer full control right through, P&ON m.d. John Turner told FTW in Cape Town last week.
We are looking for approval from our people for quite a significant capital investment - in the order of R100 million - in South African inland infrastructure in the course of the next three to four years.
It's not so much a matter of ownership, but rather of control in order to give the type of service the client needs. Burmeister points out that from a South African perspective, door-to-door doesn't start in Durban or Cape Town but inland in Johannesburg.
We believe that the volumes we have - and it will be a joint venture with another party - will warrant a contract from Spoornet.
Once we have our own rail contract we can start looking at our own haulage out of City Deep, the use of our own railhead within Johannesburg and even within Durban.
To page 16 From page 1 The railhead would be a joint venture with another company. And once this is all up and running, container storage, warehousing and other ancillary services are likely to follow.
The company will clearly be pushing the carrier haulage option, says Burmeister, who believes that this is what the manufacturing industry in South Africa is looking for.
If forwarders are wondering where they fit into the picture, Burmeister points out that many of the value added services may be outsourced, and that goes for clearing and forwarding.
We'll outsource it, but we will carry the ultimate responsibility to the client.
