Shippers switch to road to avoid Luanda congestion

Growth in the mining sector in Angola has been paralleled by a “gentle increase” in sea, air and road freight cargo volumes, according to Cape Townbased Craig Lentz, export controller at Chavda Freight. “We are able to meet demand with our transport and export clearance services for each of these freight modes,” he told FTW. “We have also established a good relationship with all the inspection agencies – increasing efficiency and service to all our clients.” Lentz also noted that, due to the current congestion at the Port of Luanda, Chavda Freight had experienced greater road freight cargo volumes. And shippers don’t lose out in the time element when they use road freight. “Taking into account that congestion issue,” Lentz said, “there is little time difference between the two modes.” His figures show that the transit time for doorto- door delivery for Cape Town-Luanda road freight is 15 days. “Sea freight, on the other hand, has an average transit time of 5-7 days, but with fluctuating congestion of 5-7 days,” he said. Chavda Freight is also offering shippers of smaller parcels a road freight consolidation service on the routes to Luanda from Cape Town and Johannesburg. “This is backed up by the fact that we have now introduced the use of smaller, 1.3-tonne vehicles to do the Cape Town to Angola routes,” Lentz added, “offering timeous delivery of smaller consignments of cargo.” Chavda Freight has chosen to make use of the SA-Noordoewer/ Vioolsdrif-Oshikango- Santa Clara-Angola routing from Cape Town. “This,” said Lentz, “minimises transit time and border standing time into Namibia, and into Angola.” Established in 2008, the company is constantly expanding and upgrading its services, he told FTW. “We offer a complete door-to-door service for consignments of any size, to and from anywhere in the world – with exports into Africa our main business target,” said Lentz. Chavda Freight services include imports and exports by air, sea and road; professional/ industrial packing; customs clearance; and warehousing and storage. Caption: Craig Lentz … ‘Also offering a consolidation service to Luanda from Cape Town and Johannesburg.’