Spoornet needs to market its services far more rigorously

SPOORNET SHOULD be marketing its under-utilised City Deep services far more rigorously, says Andrew Stewart, managing director of DDL Equipment.
"Far too much of the container traffic moving to and from the South African coast is handled by private road hauliers with inefficient off-loading facilities on their vehicles," he says.
"It has been happening increasingly since the road laws were deregulated, resulting in a big switch from rail to road mainly because private operators, often the one or two-truck people, can offer cheaper tariffs. But that is not the answer."
Stewart points out that transporters are not loading containers correctly, with the majority of vehicles designed for side loading, whereas containers have doors at the back.
"Most use the inter-link method, which places a 12m container in front of a 6m container on their trailers. But the inter-link provides a locking system in front of the smaller unit which prevents the 12m container from being slipped off the trailer in a backwards movement at the off-loading bay. It then requires the truck to be driven to another position where the container can be off-loaded sideways.
"The more suitable method is the rigid-trailer combination where the smaller 6m container sits on the truck body and the larger 12m unit is placed on the connected trailer, with easy backwards off-loading for both units."
But, says Stewart, the ideal situation is for containers to be moved on rail, and this is where he sees Spoornet making a more positive move in gaining market prominence.
"We have the largest inland port in the world here, and remember the nearest harbours are 600km away. Incoming consignments have to be moved from ports of entry over differing terrain, through tunnels and along narrow gauge lines to a destination that is almost 2 000m higher. Spoornet has its trucks prepared to meet this situation and they are the real answer to it. But they need to do more about making producers and importers aware of what they can offer."