Zambeef

DRIVING AMBITION

Zambeef Products

Zambeef Products PLC is one of the biggest agricultural companies in Zambia. Every day they are producing tonnes of beef, chicken, eggs, edible oils, flour and bread as well as grains including maize, wheat and soya. It’s a huge operation, and perhaps the most challenging aspect of the business is getting all that food to where it’s supposed to be. This is where Zambeef Transport comes in.

Kelly Crause has been the General Logistics Manager for Zambeef Transport for the last six years. In that time she has been responsible for a fleet of 250 vehicles nationwide, including over 80 refrigerated trucks used for the transport of meats, grains and edible oils. In her time with the company she has been left in absolutely no doubt as to the secret to its success.

“The reason we stand out is that we don’t hire any other companies for transport,” Crause explains. “We’ve our own fully functional workshop that caters to our whole fleet, we don’t rely on external bodies for maintenance and repair. We service everything there; we’ve our own vehicles for everything we transport, our own bakery trucks, our own refrigerated trucks, and our own processing plants. Basically

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Zambeef Products

Good governance coupled with a desire to continually improve farming methods has resulted in Zambeef PLC becoming one of the largest farming operations in the Republic of Zambia. Pannar Seed Zambia is proud to be a major supplier of seed to Zambeef PLC. Over a number of years we have built up a symbiotic relationship with the management and staff of Zambeef who have allowed and assisted us with the planting of statistical trials and larger demonstration blocks on their farms in order to evaluate current and experimental maize, soybean and wheat cultivars under diverse environmental and management conditions. This then enables them the opportunity to select the latest Pannar genetics suited to their specific requirements with confidence.

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in Zambia we’re one of the only companies with our own complete fleet.”

Not outsourcing this side of the business costs the company money, but Crause is convinced that it’s worth it for the level of control it gives Zambeef over its own logistics and supply chain.

“If you rely on external companies that means you have less control. Our entire fleet is equipped with a satellite monitoring system that we use not just to monitor vehicles and ensure that they don’t break speed limits or make unscheduled stops, but also for logistics. Monitoring our vehicles means we know how long it takes to get from one place to another. When they get to delivery points they’ve got 10 minutes to start offloading, so we’re able to chase up the vehicles at all times, and we know where our vehicles are at all times and what their turnaround times are going to be like.”

A Driven WorkforceWhether you’re outsourcing your logistics or doing them

inhouse, it doesn’t matter how much you monitor your trucks if you don’t have the right people in the driving seat. This is a challenge that Crause is intimately familiar with.

“It is a challenge finding reliable, experienced drivers,” she admits. “We actually have quite a large turnover for our drivers because we hold them to extremely high standards. They’re not allowed to drive for long stretches of time because we don’t want them falling asleep behind the wheel. We make sure they keep below the speed limit, and that they don’t make unscheduled stops or go off route.”

However the company has, over the years, acquired a core team of dedicated, reliable drivers.

“We’ve a couple of old timers who’ve been here for over ten years,” Crause says. “We’ve got one guy called Albert who’s ex-army. He’s in his late 50s and he’s one of the best drivers we’ve got. He’s a fantastic guy; he looks after his truck, is a fantastic driver, knows the rules of the road and never makes illegal stoppages. We’re just trying to find dedicated drivers like him!”

It’s a challenge faced by the whole industry. Pick up a newspaper in Zambia and you’ll find pages full of people looking for drivers. The adverts get a huge response as well, but even then finding the right person can be difficult.

Crause tells us about the process: “When we put up adverts for drivers we can expect as many as 80 guys to turn up at the gate. Of those, 40 to 50 will have a valid driving licence. Out of them, maybe 12 will pass both our interviews and the practical tests that we ask them to complete. It’s a very strict process, and at the end out of that we might find

“It’s better to be able to rely on yourself” - Kelly Crause, General Logistics Manager

three drivers we can use.”Of course, there’s good reason for Zambeef Transport to

be so picky about who they hire. As Crause says: “You can’t release someone onto the roads in a 30 tonne truck who doesn’t know what they’re doing. That would be putting the public at risk. We’re dedicated to putting drivers in trucks who are professionals who know how to drive, know the laws of the road and why those laws are there.”

Zambeef Products PLC is taking steps to build up the next generation of truck drivers. Firstly, given the wide array of vehicles that the company has access to they are looking to set up their own truck driving school in the near future.

Secondly, they’re taking another look at how they reward the drivers they already have, to ensure that they nurture the talent already within the company.

“To begin with, we make sure we offer competitive salaries,” Crause says. “The drivers are offered a very good salary along with a daily ration if they are forced to spend time away from home. On top of this we have a bonus scheme for drivers which we’re currently upgrading. We used to offer two bags of maizemeal, a staple food stuff here, for drivers who for instance, were the best at keeping their cargo refrigerated, or went without speeding, or kept their vehicle in the best condition. Now however, depending on criteria that vary between departments, drivers could get a possible bonus of 30-40% more to their salary at the end of the month.”

“Drivers are valuable assets, without them our trucks would be parked,” Crause continues. “That’s why we have

Zambeef Products

Zambeef Products

such strict rules in place for our drivers. A driver from Zambeef will be snatched up by any other company because they know our drivers are well disciplined.”

A Growing FleetAs well as investing in its staff, Zambeef Transport is

also growing in other ways. As demand increases, Zambeef has been investing in building up its fleet.

“We’ve especially had to build up our fleet of refrigerated trucks,” Crause tells us. “When I first took over we had a fleet of maybe 12 refrigerated trucks. That was five years ago. Now we have in the region of 50.”

However, Zambeef isn’t blindly buying as many trucks as it can, these purchases must always be for sound business reasons.

“The main thing is to make sure we always have trucks on the road,” Crause explains. “You lose money when trucks are doing nothing. Whenever we consider buying a new truck we ask ourselves, are we using the fleet to its full capacity? If not, why not? There has to be a very good reason to want to add another truck to the fleet.”

For this reason, Zambeef Transport is planning a large expansion of the fleet early next year; after that they’re putting a halt on truck purchases and see if there are other ways to more efficiently use the vehicles at their disposal.

With the Zambeef group looking to expand its operations in Nigeria and Ghana, the demands on Zambeef Transport are going to be higher than ever. It looks like they are more than up to the challenge.

Zambeef Productswww.zambeef.com+260 211 369 000

Written by William Dodd

www.littlegatepublishing.com