SPOORNET HAS just released its new rates structure to its customer base - the inter-modal operators with whom we do business, said spokesman Mike Asefovitz - speaking on behalf of senior business manager, Christelle Rentsch.
It has been devised so that Spoornet can level its playing fields.
We have calculated the prices from a common base, Asefovitz told FTW. The discount is determined on how much value the customer brings to us.
The net effect, however, remains constant.
The railways has also introduced what it terms an incentive price on two main routes - Durban-Gauteng, and Gauteng-Port Elizabeth.
Asefovitz divorced the creation of the new structure from the currently grand thinking around the subject of encouraging the export market - denying the claim that they were favouring imports against exports. It was, he said, a structure based on business logic.
Said Asefovitz: The reason for these incentive prices is where we have underutilised capacity.
So really, the emphasis is on filling an empty leg - not choosing between exports and imports.
Maximum utilisation of assets - that's what Spoornet has its mind on, he added.
The fact that some rail users found themselves hard done by, Asefovitz said, was an unfortunate inevitability in any price changes.
There might be some companies crying foul, he told FTW, but that's because they are the unfortunates.
Some prices went up - some came down substantially. The net result, however, is the same.
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