Roadfreight growth reflects switch from rail

KEVIN MAYHEW
THE INCREASED level of road freight in the past year is beyond natural growth and probably reflects that rail is losing clients to road.
Sean Chouler, the general manager of Bedfordview-based Spotco, says the belief that road is more dependable to meet the needs of time-sensitive deliveries is probably causing people to switch.
“We are getting many more enquiries about long distance hauls - traditionally a rail domain - which indicates to us that cargo is switching,” he explains.
He says the most noticeable increase is on the Johannesburg to Durban and Cape Town runs. There are probably rand sensitive trends to the performance of the two premier routes as well - with the Durban-Johannesburg leg well utilised as is Johannesburg-Cape Town. In both cases the return trips to the two centres are used less.
“We can possibly attribute this to the changes in the rand where imports are attractive for the up run from Durban and exports not so. For Cape Town, which is not a major export or import port for Johannesburg, the down run meets affluent local demand for products, but not much is there to come back with,” he explains.
Spotco specialises in time-sensitive freight with branches in Durban and Cape Town close to the respective airports. It operates extensively over the country’s borders.