Inland haulage operator outgrows premises

Despite troubled economic
times, a relatively ‘new-onthe-
block’ inland haulage
company has some ambitious
development plans afoot.
In the three years since its launch,
CMKCD (Cargo Movers Kaserne
Container Depot) has worked hard to
devise tailor-made solutions to suit
customers’ needs.
Its offices in Cape Town were
opened in September 2007 and already
branch manager Lance Leo is planning
to move to larger offices in Paarden
Eiland.
“This is because I will be employing
more staff to handle the operational
and admin-related functions so that I
can dedicate more time to ‘growing
the branch’ through sales and
marketing,” Leo told FTW.
Business in Cape Town last year
was fairly quiet, admits Leo, as the
branch started making in-roads into
this new market.
“But from July/August, volumes
picked up, creating a very positive
outlook for 2009.”
Local transport being the bulk of
CMKCD’s Cape Town business, both
importers and exporters to the Mother
City prefer road rather than rail right
now, and so rail volumes from Cape
Town are “minimal”, adds Leo.
At present road traffic out of Cape
Town outweighs rail transport by a
massive 95%.
“However we still market this
service as obviously rail is definitely
a far more cost-effective means of
transport and a better option if we
want to maintain our roads.”
Leo is concerned at the
destabilising effect of rate-cutting
among smaller operators, but believes
that ‘zero-defect’ service is what
ultimately counts.