Rail Road promotes small business with owner-drivers

ROAD TRANSPORT provides an excellent opportunity to stimulate small business enterprise through the use of the owner-driver scheme, says Rail Road Africa's Gerald Naidu. "We have around 120 trucks operating at all the ports, including those inland, and all are owner-driven," he says. "Our Johannesburg operation has around 50 of them in and out of the City Deep container depots. There are 30 in Durban with others in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria. "The size of the vehicle is not restricted, as long as it complies with all regulations, and one thing we do insist upon is that all of the drivers working with us are fully hazardous cargo trained." The Durban-based drivers are all registered at the port as being under the control of Rail Road Africa and serve shipping lines and freight forwarders. Most of the work - around 90% - is confined to the Durban and district delivery and collection areas, but based on demand, trucks travel as far afield as Ladysmith in the Natal Midlands. "It's a growing aspect of our business and a sector we are giving greater attention to this year," says Naidu