Capital Equipment News June 2015

TRANSPORT

Flip Myburg

DAF TRUCKS ADD A SHINE to chrome transportation

N gululu Carriers (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Ngululu Holdings, came into being when it bought a controlling share in a well established transport company that operated as Lukas Potgieter Vervoer. Today, Lukas Potgieter Vervoer, renamed Ngululu Bulk Carriers in 2009, also known as NBC, is becoming a significant player in the transportation of platinum concen- trate and holds a leading market share in the transportation of nickel concentrate. Chrome, however, still remains the number one revenue earner for the company. Based in Steelpoort, Limpopo province, the com- pany currently has contracts to transport more than five million tons per annum of raw materials to various strategic areas of South Africa. There are plans in the pipeline to increase this footprint to the rest of the SADC region. Ngululu Bulk Carriers currently runs a fleet of 440 vehicles of which 134 are DAF XF105 460FFT 6X4 truck tractors which operate to the ports of Durban, Richards Bay and Maputo. The DAF trucks were purchased at the beginning of 2014 and to date have each covered, on average, 130 000 km. In an exclusive interview with Flip Myburg, Executive Director, Fleet and Technical, at Ngululu Bulk Carriers he said, “Some years ago we ran a fleet of DAF CF85 truck trac- tors, with excellent results but uncertainties with the distributor at the time forced us to replace the DAFs with other brands in order to keep our business on track.”

When asked his reasons for looking at DAF again, Myburg commented further and ex- plained, “I was approached by the manage- ment of Babcock who took over the distrib- utorship of DAF in Southern Africa in 2010, with some new proposals and assurances of a more defined and structured backup for the product. To be fair to ourselves and the industry, we tested various trucks from the leading manufacturers. Based on the criteria we set: Fuel consumption, payload, FML, finance availability, driver training and service infrastructure around the country, we then introduced a demonstration DAF into the fleet for further evaluation, the re- sult is now history.” “We found that DAF specifications fitted our requirements and over and above that they were able to offer the complete pack- age including finance from Babcock Finan- cial Services so everything was in-house,” added Myburg. Babcock Financial Services is an indepen- dent legal entity fully owned by Babcock Africa (Pty) Ltd and is registered to trade as a service provider for capital equipment. Babcock Financial Services obtains its fi- nance from Babcock Africa as well as the local market. Ngululu Bulk Carriers had applied various service options to its fleet in the past but with the new DAF fleet has opted for a full maintenance plan as part of the package. “I am very satisfied with the package we have received form DAF so far. The trucks are still new and have not required too

much attention on the road but the minor breakdowns have been attended to with the minimum of downtime every time. This reflects favourably on the company’s posi- tive management style and its superior re- sponse to queries which I am pleased to say is not restricted only to the contract we have with them. I am prepared to say that the service is not only good but excellent,” said Myburg. With the revamped structure of the com- pany and the rapid increase in the fleet in recent years, Myburg talks of a consolida- tion period with no real growth plans in the short term. With margins now reflected in single figures, which has become an indus- try norm, the company is looking at some diversification into other transport markets so as to not rely fully on the mining indus- try. This would entail diverting some of its existing fleet for these applications. “With the type of service we are receiving from DAF and the quality of the vehicles themselves it may be in our interests to consider stretching the lifetime of the fleet and look at a 720 000 km or four year re- placement cycle,” concluded Myburg. As a 100 % BEE owned company, Ngululu Bulk Carriers has entered into the spirit of the strategic objective formulated for the progressive economic development of the country and having ‘partnered’ with DAF for its transport requirements, has brought a leading European manufacturer into this strategic alliance. b

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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS JUNE 2015