Industry needs to stem culture of slow payment

The transport industry, at best described
as volatile, needs stricter credit control to
ensure to ensure that customers pay on time
and companies maintain cash flow and are
able to remain profitable.
Sandra De Kock of Destrans says
customers are paying later with more and
more people now only paying accounts
after 60 days instead of 30, as was
previously the norm.
This trend of slow payments is definitely
one of the effects of the recession, Lombard
Insurance’s Francis Kingston recently
told FTW. “There seems to be a culture
developing of slow payments and that
impacts cash flows drastically,” he says.
De Kock says on all cross border work
her company is planning to implement new
measures that will see payments made 14
days after proof of delivery is received.
“This will have a huge impact on cash
flow,” she says. “Not many people realise
that the toll roads alone, for example,
between Johannesburg and Maputo work
out at an average of R900 one way.”
Add to that the new tolls going up in and
around Gauteng and a further impact can be
expected on transporters’ expenses.
“Transport rates will be affected which
in turn will have an impact on the price of
goods.”