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Dyna
the preferred choice
A fleet of attractive Dyna's looks after local distribution.
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MD of Namibia Dairies Etienne Steenkamp (left) with Louw van Heerden, manager of Pupkewitz Toyota Trucks.
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The new Hino Profia 57-370 used for long haul work. |
Transporting perishable products is a specialist operation and serving Namibia every day with 500 dairy product and fruit juice variants is no easy task. That is the business of Namibia Dairies.
Compounding the cost of operation are refrigeration units on every truck, so vital to maintaining the cold chain and product quality. As in the case of sister company Namibia Breweries, quality and safety are entrenched cultural standards of the Olthaver & List group of companies to which Namibia Dairies belongs.
There are 115 vehicles in the Namibia Dairies fleet of which 70 trucks are long-distance and local distribution vehicles, 12 are in long-haul bridging operations and 58 in secondary distribution where Toyota Dyna has become the standard.
Dyna has proved itself in the Namibian far north serving Ovamboland dairy product consumers. Tough road conditions in Ovamboland are no deterrent to Dynas achieving 300 000 kilometres under the constant load of a refrigerated truck body. Experience like this has resulted in Dyna becoming the preferred truck choice for Namibia Dairies distribution.
While Namibia Dairies' main plant is located in Windhoek in central Namibia, the major consumer market lies to the north in Ovamboland. Adding to the transport costs over these great distances are labour overtime charges - this has resulted in a satellite tracking system installation for the fleet that records and transmits vehicle movement after 24 hours. Transport manager, Nick Richter matches vehicle movement to claims for overtime pay.
The desire to travel faster than 80 kph over long distances presents the same challenge to fleet managers everywhere in Namibia. Time and speed control is part of driver attitude and needs consistent reinforcement from depot managers in far-flung business operations.
Latest additions to the Namibia Dairies fleet include two new 6 X 4 Hino Profia 57-370's, ideally suited to Namibian conditions. The Hino Profia was especially selected for southern Africa in the under-400 horsepower segment for tough-haul conditions, including end-tipping semi-trailers, forestry and solid waste operations. Hino Profia will be able to deal with any on and off-road conditions demanded of it.
At Namibia Dairies the Profia operates well under technical capacity with interlink trailers in bridging operations.
A quick-reference specification for Hino Profia
57-370:
| Drive configuration |
6 X 4 truck tractor |
| Gross vehicle mass |
28 500 kg |
| Gross combination mass |
56 000 kg |
| Front axle capacity |
7 500 kg |
| Rear axle capacity |
22 000 kg |
| Engine power- Hino K13C turbo-intercooled |
272 kW @ 2 000 r/min |
| Torque |
1579 Nm @ 1 400 r/min |
| Transmission - ZF 16S151 |
16 speed full synchro |
Why does Namibia Dairies operate its own fleet in a world that embraces outsourcing concepts beyond business core competencies? This was a question posed to managing director, Etienne Steenkamp. The straight-forward response was:
"At Namibia Dairies we pride ourselves in offering more than products. Our competitive advantage and image in FMCG markets is also connected to our service levels. Direct control over our truck fleet is part of our service excellence".
Well said Sir!
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