TFR fails to win strike-struck business

Transnet Freight Rail has failed to capitalise on a golden opportunity presented by the current truckers’ strike. While an effort is being made, according to TFR spokesman Selby Dlamini, negative industry sentiment appears to have scuttled its plans. The railways have certainly been alert to the possibility of new custom coming their way. “But so far,” said Dlamini, “no extra business has been recorded.” This, he added, has been especially so in Durban, where a lot of trucks are still on the road. In the meantime, Dlamini told FTW, TFR GM Themba Gwala, who heads up the container and automotive business (CAB) unit, had written a letter to business people to say the TFR would be ready. “He also told them that we’d be waiving certain storage charges in the terminals if they had extra stock and we couldn’t move them,” he added. When queried about TFR possibly putting on extra capacity to meet any extra demand, Dlamini pointed out that they already had excess capacity in the present schedule. He did, however, stress that TFR “guaranteed a calculated transit time”, so that this “could be built into the rail users’ planning”. But, despite TFR’s offer, potential rail users who talked to FTW appeared to be anything but convinced that the railways could do the job. Indeed, some pretty negative comments were forthcoming. For example, a forwarder told FTW that his first thought when the strike kicked in was that they should start railing more boxes. But he was told – presumably by people in the know – that the strike would be over before the boxes from Durban arrived at City Deep. And that seems to be the general level of no-confidence in TFR. Peter Newton, director of Seaboard said, quoting our FTWOnline headline: “Truckers’ strike – a golden opportunity for TFR? You’ve got to be joking.” Mias Theron of Werda Cargo found it equally amusing: “That is the joke of the year,” he said. Dirk Schöttler, director of Novotrans, commented: “You are asking about our opinion of switching from road to rail,” he told FTW. “We could not with a clear conscience recommend that to our customers. The service has so far been dismal and staff could generally not be bothered. The experiences in the past have been too bad. “The strike will be over soon, but the service level of the rail freight service will probably stay the same. Another question is: How do we get containers from the stations like City Deep to the client?” Wrapping up the anti-TFR sentiment was a comment from an unnamed source. “What’s the point of TFR trying to promote a move from road to rail,” he said, “when they can’t measure up when the cargo is handed to them on a plate?”