Spoornet reaps revenue benefits from new strategic planning

Leonard Neill SPOORNET’S GENERAL Freight Business (GFB) unit, which was revamped with new strategic planning procedures a year ago, is beginning to reap the fruits of its optimisation of customer service delivery, says senior customer service and production manager Ali Motala. “Our teething problems are behind us and a clearer direction is emerging,” he says of the division created from the amalgamation of the commercial department and Rail and Terminals Services department. The biggest step forward, he says, was the establishment of the National Customer Service Centre last November. “This has contributed considerably to the department’s growth. The centre has assisted in ensuring effective communication with both our internal and external customers. We exceeded budget for the first 10 months of the current financial year by more than R262million, from R6.198billion to R6.460billion. This represents a R630million improvement on the revenue achieved during the corresponding period of the previous financial year.” A number of sectors have performed extremely well, he says. The manganese sector exceeded its budget year-to-date by 19,8% to R485million while the non-ferrous sector’s revenue exceeded the budgeted figure of R77.6million by 18,4%. The coal sector showed a 24,8% increase from R377million to R470million for the corresponding period year on year. Other sectors that significantly improved their performances were fast moving consumer goods (from R197million to R239million), cement and building materials, chemicals, fertilisers, timber, paper and publishing. The department’s gain in customer confidence is further illustrated by Saldanha Steel’s coal stockpile, which is sitting at 31 000 tons after reaching a high of 37 000 tons early in January, says Motala. “This is a significant improvement compared with the 6 500 tons that were stockpiled in September last year.”