Twenty new trucks on the road

Putting 20 new 30-tonners on
the road to transport steel and
fertiliser to Malawi, Zimbabwe,
Zambia and Mozambique and to bring
back tobacco, cotton, wheat bran and
the like is very encouraging given the
current economic predictions of doom
and gloom.
“The market is looking all right and
we deal mainly with South African
companies so there are no problems with
payments,” says Corné Pretorius, the
managing director of Kodav which has
put the additional new trucks on the road
in association with Zimbabwean partner,
Leopack Transport.
Malawi is the company’s busiest
destination and they are also involved
in transporting aid relief, mainly food
products. He notes that with the world
economy as it is at the moment, it is
difficult to predict the future but he
believes a possible growth area for 2009
could be Zimbabwe. “If Zimbabwe comes
right, trade and transport will explode,”
he says.
“The delays at border posts are also
improving – over Christmas the delays
were enormous, mostly at Beitbridge.
While we usually cross within 12 hours,
the past few weeks it took three to four
days to cross. There was a hell of a lot
of traffic and my suggestion is that they
open another bridge; I can’t think what
else they can do.
“While the roads into Africa are not
improving, there aren’t really any other
problems. Last year the only incident in
which a Kodav truck was involved was a
minor one when a horse was bumped. We
obviously do not drive at night as it is too
dangerous,” Pretorius added.