Swiss precision keeps Spedag's project department on the move

PROJECT MANAGER at Spedag South Africa, Lorenz Pimpfinger, believes in the hands-on approach. Office-bound strategists are not what project cargo is all about, says the Swiss-born specialist who has spent the past 14 years in the field, 12 of them based in Kenya and Uganda. Transferred to the Johannesburg office at the end of 2006, he has anchored the division and seen it grow from a four-person operation to a staff of 10 handling a growing list of projects in South and southern Africa. “The more complicated the project, the better for us – that’s our strength,” says Pimpfinger. “Being a smaller company we are much more flexible than a lot of our competitors, and most importantly we have the experience and knowledge to make things work.” Recent contracts include major mining projects in the DRC as well as regular shipments to the likes of Zambia and Mozambique. A major coup was the movement of a tunnel boring machine for the Gautrain which was transported from Durban to Rosebank in October last year – one of the items, a cutter head, weighed 7 2 tons and was 5.6 metres wide. When it comes to projects of this size, personal supervision is crucial, says Pimpfinger. “We always have a staff member on hand to supervise the loading and off-loading of equipment.” At the time of our interview a staff member was overseeing the offloading of 1600 cubic metres of steel for a local project in Mpumalanga. “Our roadfreight co-ordinator has driven the worst part of the road to the DRC and seen at first hand the challenges faced at the border – you need to live the business to be successful.” The challenges facing Spedag are not unique, but it’s the way they’re handled that makes the difference, in Pimpfinger’s view. “The constant fuel increase is an ongoing headache and we were forced to introduce a fuel surcharge to compensate. “Road conditions in the DRC are also a huge problem, but thanks to good relationships with reputable hauliers we are able to satisfy demand, even in a tight supply/demand situation.” Looking ahead he expects continued growth. “The project industry is booming and we have been looking for additional staff for some time to support the growth of the division.”