In the highly competitive
freight industry
environment, reducing
the cost of doing business
and providing clients with the
tools to simplify their business
solutions is what it’s all about.
“Our intention is to make
it easier and less expensive
for our customers to do
business with us,” says Martin
Keck, managing director of
independent consolidator CFR
Freight. “In addition to our
existing IT service offerings
we now have a tariff engine
available in our client zone as
well as a vessel tracker, which is
a new tool that tracks real-time
vessel locations globally.”
“Our clients have access to all
these solutions,” says seafreight
GM Lee Schoeman. “But we’re
also very conscious that we
want to give them a choice. We
don’t want to lose the human
touch – our clients have the
option to choose how they want
to do business with us.”
And Schoeman believes the
progression to e-commerce is a
natural one. “Customers see the
benefit of it and use it more and
more because it reduces the cost
of doing business and makes it
easier for them.”
Systems and services go
hand in hand – and following
a visit from CFR’s US agent
Shipco, its US product has
taken big strides.
“We already have direct
services from New York to
all South African ports and
from Chicago and Atlanta
to Durban, but we will
introduce new services from
Atlanta to Cape Town and to
Johannesburg in June,” Keck
told FTW. “This provides a
significant improvement in
transit time,” he said. “For cargo
from the US west coast, what
used to be 10 days’ transit to
New York is now five days to
Atlanta, and with the vessel
rotation along the US east coast
we are looking at a total of up to
14 days’ transit time saving for
cargo originating from the west
coast to South Africa.”
The company is also
finding growing support for
its Zacpak depot operation,
says Schoeman. “Cape Town
and Durban depots are up
and running for imports and
exports.”
“The market was really
waiting for this,” says Keck.
“Clients are very supportive
of the idea that their cargo is
under CFR control from the
moment it is packed right
through the dispatch process.”
Underpinning CFR’s success,
says Keck, is its membership
of the Worldwide Alliance
which has grown in stature
since inception seven years ago.
“The most recent addition is a
partner in Pakistan – and if we
look at volume stats, the World
Wide Alliance is recording
double digit growth year on year."
INSERTS AND CAPTIONS
We don't want to
lose the human touch
- our clients have
the option to choose
how they want to do
business with us.
– Lee Schoeman
Cargo is under
CFR control
from packing
right through
the dispatch
process.
- Martin Keck
