THE DEFINITIVE TRUCKING SITE

March 2008

The power outages brought about by Eskom's load shedding have affected all South Africans, both personally and in business. In the truck transport industry, on-time delivery is everything, especially when those trucks carry perishable goods. When traffic lights stop working because they have no electricity, traffic grinds to a halt, putting the sharpest of delivery schedules out of whack, writes Paul Collings.

Premium retail food supplier, Woolworths, prides itself on the freshness of all its products and as such, relies heavily on refrigeration, both in-store and on the trucks that deliver its merchandise. The transport operation contracted by the food group is Fast 'n Fresh, with a fleet of over 200 refrigerated trucks conducting both primary and secondary just-in-time (JIT) deliveries nationwide.
 

	Woolworths...Keeping customers happy, despite the power cuts
Running on Thyme - the slogan says it all

Knock-on effects
Eskom's ability to supply sufficient electricity to the nation has impacted on the truck transport industry in many ways, but the two salient issues are the effect power outages will have on the growth of the construction sector (especially after a call by government for investors to refrain from capital investment in infrastructure) and the efficiency of truck distribution services when hampered by extreme traffic congestion due to out-of-commission traffic lights.

FleetWatch asked Woolworths and Fast'n Fresh how they are dealing with the blackouts.

Contingency plans
"Woolworths has a growth strategy that includes the establishment of new outlets," says Johan Schafer, Woolworths' transport specialist. "Load shedding has not caused the group to adjust these plans and construction of new stores is continuing as scheduled."

Woolworths food outlets are equipped with generators, says Schafer, "and if need be, we call in a refrigerated truck to help maintain our cold chain in the event of a blackout."

For Fast 'n Fresh, traffic congestion is causing problems, says Attie Lubbe, the haulier's Centurion, Gauteng Operations Manager. "We undertake 300 plus deliveries in a 24-hour cycle. Our peak delivery times coincide with morning and afternoon rush hour periods, those being from 16H00 to 19H00 and 06H00 to 10H00. It is a frequent occurrence now that trucks will be delayed in traffic, making deliveries later than expected and not making it back to the depot in time to load another delivery order. As a contingency, we have standby vehicles to cover for those empty trucks held-up in traffic."

For both Woolworths and Fast 'n Fresh, load shedding is a major cost in contingency strategies. But, being the sharp operators they are, both organisations are ensuring the quality of their product and service does not decline, by working together as a team and planning accordingly.
 

Fast n Fresh's Fleet Control room helps ensure deliveries stay as close to planned as possible