ZacPak set to diversify and expand

ZacPak is set to diversify and expand its services to freight forwarders and shipping lines – its key strategic objectives for the year ahead. “Our main objective remains to provide service excellence to our umbrella company, CFR Freight, in order to give them a competitive advantage in the marketplace, but we believe our container depot system can be of benefit to the industry in general and have already signed up various clients,” ZacPak Group managing director, Willie Nel, told FTW. He said that the group was also looking at the feasibility of opening a ZacPak branch in Port Elizabeth in the “near future”. Nel noted that other plans included extending its ownership of transport on the ZacPak Durban to ZacPak Johannesburg leg and eventually to ZacPak Cape Town. “At the moment we only manage the transport on the leg between the Port of Durban to our Durban depot and we have benefited greatly in terms of a consistency of service,” he said. Once that has been achieved, Nel said that the next opportunity would be to provide a delivery and release service to manage inbound trade. “We are linked to the South African Revenue Service (Sars) and through managing this process we can dramatically cut down on time for our clients – one of the most valuable commodities in freight,” he added. “We intend to grow our export department to meet anticipated greater demand.” He noted too that the industry was demanding more real-time information and that companies that provide that ongoing communication through the strategic use of technology would have the competitive advantage. “I have also observed that the industry no longer wants to deal only with experts in a specific field but prefers trusted authorities who understand and have longstanding experience in the day-to-day workings of the freight industry.” ZacPak values its neutrality and finds it to be a “value-add” in terms of servicing clients, he said. INSERT & CAPTION We intend to grow our export department to meet anticipated greater demand. – Willie Nel