Road hauliers get wise to pending World Cup disruptions

TRANSPORT OPERATORS are unprepared for either the disruptions that will affect their work or the immense profits to be made from the 2010 World Cup, football star and World Cup promoter Gary Bailey told delegates at last week’s Road Freight Association convention in Swaziland. Few road operators in attendance were aware or prepared for the disruptions ahead. l FIFA will commandeer one lane of every highway, ensuring anticipated congestion will worsen. l Cash in transit will become impossible because security trucks will not be able to travel swiftly, as required by their insurers. Midnight to dawn deliveries will be required, necessitating graveyard shifts for transport firms, banks and ATM fillers. l 2400 bus coaches will be required nationally. Only 400 are available in SA. The majority must be imported from overseas during the northern summer when coaches are mostly in use. l FIFA can close down SA’s city centres at will, making goods transport problematic. Some operators quizzed by FTW said they might shutter their operations for the four-week duration of the event. But they still wondered how they could get in on potentially lucrative World Cup business. “The trucking industry is required to come up with solutions,” Bailey said. “Businesses will be looking to the transport industry for logistics solutions. Foreign firms that pay hard foreign currency offer a big opportunity. Hire extra trucks, get more logistics staff.” He advised transport firms to lease vehicles rather than purchase them, given the finite duration of the World Cup. “There is lots of money to be made in the four week run-up and the four weeks of the tournaments, but then it’s back to normal. The idea is to use other people’s existing fleets and storage facilities,” he said. “Three types of cargo will have to be moved: tournament, hospitality and spectator, which is retail material,” Bailey said.