‘Truckers must prepare for move to rail’

South African truckers must keep an open mind about moving cargo to rail if they want to survive turbulent economic times, but also move into the future. “We need to think about when rail does become effective,” said Peter Mountford, divisional CEO of Super Group’s supply chain division. “And with so much focus on the development of rail, all indications are that rail will once again be effective and we should be ready.” Speaking during a panel discussion on how the road freight industry can survive the tough economic times, trucking industry experts agreed there were challenges facing the road freight industry, but keeping an open mind and preparing for it was far better than a head-in-thesand- approach. “Let’s face it, particular products should be on rail and that is necessarily bad for us in the road freight industry,” said Thinus Erasmus, CEO of Imperial Logistics Transport and Warehousing. “It is not all doom and gloom.” Gerhard van der Horst, CEO of Crossroads Distribution agreed, pointing out that possibly the biggest problem was the uncertainty around rail development in the country. “We don’t know how long it is going to take, but we do know that it is going to happen. As an industry we must prepare for that and be ready. It is important that we have the right systems in place and that we can work with rail, not against it.”