Capital Equipment News November 2020

TRANSPORT

Global Oil now operates in excess of 20 units from Scania Truck Rental.

S ince its inception, Global Oil has rapidly grown to over 100 fuel retail sites across all nine provinces of South Africa. In a market previously dominated by major oil refining brands, the company has raised the bar to become the largest 100% black-owned fuel retail brand in South Africa. The family-owned group operates two entities, Global Oil, the filling stations division, and Platinum Bulk, the transport arm of the business. With about 120 filling stations across South Africa, transportation is an essential part of Global Oil’s business. Right from the start, explains senior manager Solly Mphosi, the company was looking for an affordable, yet reliable solution for this important arm of its business. “We approached a couple of trucking companies in South Africa, but Scania was the first to respond to us. As a start-up business at the time, we took the decision to go the rental route, mainly due to the fact that we could obtain the trucks we needed without a huge capital outlay. Since then, we have never looked back – Scania Truck Rental continues to tick all the right boxes for us,” says Mphosi. Global Oil initially bought its own five trucks, says wholesale manager Anneké Kruger, before taking a couple of Scania trucks on rental. “We bought five of our own tankers when we started. After a while we compared the cost of running these trucks against Scania Truck Rental ticks all the right boxes for Global Oil Having taken delivery of its first Scania rental truck in 2017, South Africa’s largest independent fuel retailer, Global Oil, now operates in excess of 20 Scania rented vehicles, and counting. With a solution tailored to its specific needs, Global has found Scania Truck Rental to be the ideal trucking partner of choice, writes Munesu Shoko .

the Scania Truck Rental offering and it was clear that rental made more sense for us. The return on investment was quite good as we didn’t have to deal with maintenance issues and all the nitty- gritties of running a truck – that’s all done by Scania on our behalf,” she says, adding that “trucking is not our core business, so we leave it to the experts.” Global Oil took delivery of its first Scania rental truck on March 24, 2017, and by June 4 of the same year, the company had already grown its rented fleet to five. On October 22 this year – at a handover ceremony attended by Capital Equipment News under strict COVID-19 protocols – the company took delivery of a new NTG R40 6x4 Highline supplied with an air suspension and Hazchem kit. With the latest delivery, the company’s rental fleet now exceeds 20 vehicles. Tailored to specific needs All Scania rental trucks are registered for Dangerous Goods. Global has been supplied with a mix of G460 and R460 tractors, explains Gerhard le Roux, Scania’s national truck rental manager, with a few of these units being full ADR spec from the Scania factory, while the majority have been upgraded at the Scania local workshops to be Hazchem compliant to meet the demands of the Global’s line of business. The fleet supplied to Global is tailored to its needs. Richard Brown, Scania’s rental sales manager, says this is in line

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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS NOVEMBER 2020