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Past Issues

October 2005

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The supply, fitment and servicing of refrigeration units is an extremely specialised business requiring a watertight support infrastructure to keep the cooling units functioning optimally. This perhaps explains why there are so few bona fide suppliers in South Africa. Skilled technicians, well-stocked parts inventories and a fleet of support vehicles are pre-requisites to running a successful transport refrigeration unit supply operation. Paul Collings speaks to Grenco's Frans van Vianen to get the industry temp on where all this is right now.

Grenco is the sole supplier of Thermo King units to refrigerated transporters in South Africa and has been since 1965 supplying units to everything from 1 ton to big rigs.
 

A FLEET of service vehicles enables Grenco technicians to repair Thermo King units almost anywhere.

GETTING THE vehicle back on the road as soon as possible means fitting a replacement part while the original component gets repaired.

THE DISTINCTIVE livery of Spar on a new Thermo King cooled Serco reefer.

FRANS VAN VIANEN opens up a new unit, fresh off the boat from Ireland.

Van Vianen says there is definitely a growing demand for multi-temperature units but "the market is still trying to find its way around the various implications of multi-temperature transport. It means distribution centres need to be reconfigured and product protocols as defined by the PPECB need to be adhered to. Essentially, a balance needs to struck between the need for critical temperature control and vehicle utilisation. Despite these issues, we believe multi-temp is the way forward for serious operators."

He also contends that the insulated body manufacturing process is developing well with stronger construction techniques being used and improved insulation around 'heat bridges' (areas on the body where heat can penetrate the cool box [e.g. bolts]) generally enhancing the integrity of the cold chain. "We assist our clients who want to export products by putting their trailers through the PPECB trailer certification test at no cost," he says.

With the big Thermo King units running on motors the size of a luxury car's, it makes sense that Grenco offers clients a full-maintenance contract. "It gives operators a fixed cost to their unit maintenance and we control the service schedule so we really take the hassle of keeping the units in top shape away from the customer."

Grenco has eight branches around the country which is good news for long-haul transporters of perishable goods. Van Vianen says the company has some 50 technicians working these branches all of whom have been through the Thermo King certification process.

"Technicians are trained by trainers from abroad as well as in-house. They then get tested via an internet-based Thermo King exam," he says. The pleasing news is that the courses are SETA-approved via the unit standards for The Safe Handling of Refrigerants course. Van Vianen says Grenco is about to induct eight new apprentices, a further indication of the growing demand for refrigerated trucks.

The biggest growth area in this market, he says, is the 6-14 ton rigid truck category, followed by the 1-4 ton bracket, with reefers the least active. This suggests a boom in the secondary distribution market as well as the opening of new manufacturing/service enterprises dealing with perishable foodstuffs.

"Overall, the refrigerated transport industry is doing very well at the moment," says Van Vianen. "We do have an influx of cheap units from the Far East trying to get a slice of the market but they don't have the back-up or support in place here, which is crucial in this business." 

On this point, operators should beware of buying on price alone. It's now over 10 years down the line since South Africa's doors were opened to the rest of the world and we have enough examples of the folly of basing purchase decisions on price alone. It may be cheap upfront but it has proved to be expensive down the line.