A new business that aims to deliver spares to the container industry continues to go from strength to strength. According to Barron Charsley, a director at Speedspace and managing director of the company’s newest enterprise, Speedspares, the company has very quickly filled a void in the South African container industry. “In the past, it was difficult to get reliable supplies of ISO-certified components and container floorboards to carry out repairs to marine containers,” he told FTW. Typically, depots doing repairs would need to source from a limited pool of suppliers, said Charsley. Only once a supplier had been found, followed by the tedious process of getting a quote, placing an order and making a payment, not to mention waiting for delivery, could you expect to receive supplies. Even orders for minor components like handles, keepers or bushes could take weeks. “In the absence of having the spare parts, the depots simply couldn’t carry out the repairs and containers would stand idle, incurring storage costs for the owners, whilst the depots waited for spare parts,” explained Charsley. He said in an effort to ensure a constant supply of spares for the container industry and to address escalating costs, Speedspares was launched. This initiative sees the construction of a custombuilt supply container that is fully stocked with a complete range of container spare parts, ranging from corner casts, cross members, roof and wall panels through to the smalls like cams, keepers, handles, seals and ventilators. “We then deliver a fully stocked container to a depot at absolutely no cost, but on a consignment basis once the client has signed a consignment agreement. “This allows the client free access to the stock in the container, at pre-agreed prices, which they help themselves to as and when they need stock to carry out repairs to containers.” He added that this was an advantage to both the depot and container owners as repairs were now carried out faster with no waiting time for spare parts. “And because the containers can be repaired faster, they are put back into circulation faster, which reduces the cost impact,” he said.
