CONTENTS

• It's not Truck Hire -It's a people busines
   

• Setting the pace in a competitive service industry
   

• Hands on the business and its people
   

• A strong foothold in the CAPE
   

• OPERATIONS
  high pressure customer interface
   

• LOSS CONTROL
  protecting and insuring valuable assets
  

• Sammy goes the distance
  

• On a mission to minimise DOWNTIME
  

• Patience really IS a virtue...
   

• At the crux of the matter CPK

At the crux of the matter
CPK

While everything happens through people, the heart of any business is cash flow and profitability - no organisation survives without these financial ingredients. In this regard, the truck hire industry is about managing cents-per-kilometre, CPK.

Given this, expense control is paramount in road transport and up-to-date figures are essential in managing a dynamic business with such large fixed and variable overhead costs. And when one talks about being 'up-to-date', that means today's information today!

It is thus that Spartan Truck Hire's financial manager, Marcelle Landman, can be described as a real time man.

"The culture here is to finish today's work today and this takes extra effort. The payback is that we run on current and accurate information for decision-making," he says.
 

Marcelle Landman "We are good at managing the core issue of any transport operation, cents-per-kilomet re, better known as CPK."

Interesting is that the systems used are not cumbersome or complex computer software systems. "The power of Excel is ideal for many fleet applications and we run CPK figures by vehicle registration number. The famous KISS principal - Keep-It-Simple-Stupid - works for us in managing our 400-strong fleet."

Managing the Spartan fleet asset base requires more than tracking data. It's also about forecasting vehicle replacement and maintaining an average fleet age that sweats the assets while still retaining fleet reliability. It's a balancing act where a combination of figure analysis and experiential gut-feel results in the right decisions being made.

Like all others in the company, Landman orientates his financial thinking and systems around both staff and customers.

"Customer orientation in this business demands a proactive, not a reactive stance and our financial success is critical to staff attitude. Why do our people behave with a confident, empowered attitude for our customers? It's because they know Spartan Truck Hire is addressing financial issues seriously and this in turn makes staff feel secure in a stable, strong company."

A refreshing approach given that so many financial managers are mere pen pushers who know little about customer or staff attitudes.