Months of intensive market research is behind Transnet Port Terminals’ (TPT) multi-million rand acquisition of 66 new ‘cornerless bathtub’ trailers, designed and manufactured by Pretoriabased Afrit. Sixty trailers have been delivered to Cape Town container terminal as part of the facility’s R4.2-billion capacity creation project, and six to the Pier 1 container terminal in Durban. The trailers are intended to streamline operations and speed up container turnaround times, and alsoprovide a safer method of moving containers from ship-to-shore, according to Ernest Bell, commercial specialist in TPT’s procurement department. The management, he told FTW, had made a strategic decision to approach local original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of trailers directly, and cut out middlemen.
