Unusual cargo to unusual destinations all in a day’s work

Niche marketing department set up at Safmarine FINDING COST-effective and practical solutions to challenging and complex transport opportunities is the mission of a recently established niche marketing department in the Safmarine stable. Headed up by Cape Town-based Paul Zunckel, logistics manager at Safmarine for the past three years, the department has already completed several unusual shipments. Zunckel’s job is to travel extensively within Africa and internationally in search of unusual cargo and to find unique solutions to meet every situation. “I probably have the most exciting job within the Safmarine sales force,” said Zunckel, speaking after his return from the centre of the African continent where he finalised a through-transport deal for thousands of tons of mineral ores to the Far East. “My mandate is to find unusual cargo in unusual places and to find transport solutions that satisfy both our customers and my bosses. I have established valuable contacts locally and internationally with railways, trucking companies, freight forwarders and shipping lines,"
he said. “Following a cooperative deal with a leading outdoors magazine, we are now well-established in the ‘adventure’ market and are often asked to arrange through-transport of off road vehicles and also boats of every size and type to or from obscure parts of the world. And when it comes to boats, one of the largest craft shipped in recent years was a giant yacht, which took up space equal to 209 six metre containers, on a Safmarine containership.”