Cargo Carriers has increased its BBBEE score from a Level 7 to a Level 4 logistics service provider in only four years, becoming one of SA’s leading empowered logistics companies

The logistics and supply chain industry has placed an increased focus on transformation. A great majority of South Africa’s top industry players are under pressure to meet Level 4 criteria or better.

Cargo Carriers, a leading logistics services provider, recently achieved Level 4 Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) status. The company has been steadily increasing its empowerment credentials, moving from a Level 7 to a Level 4 in a matter of only four years.

This stems from the company’s long-term plan to raise its BEE score – not merely for the sake of compliance, but for the ability to win more business and create a greater capacity for growth. In order to do this, years ago Cargo Carriers formed a BEE committee to launch the company into a new age of compliance.

“Our diverse and extensive Broad-Based BEE (BBBEE) programme has placed Cargo Carriers in South Africa’s top three listed and empowered transport companies,” says Andre van Vuuren, marketing director at Cargo Carriers.

“The reason we now enjoy an increased score has a lot to do with our skills and enterprise development programmes, as well as our commitment to social development in the communities in which we operate.”

Cargo Carriers promotes education, training, employment equity, and the creation and mentoring of small businesses in order to make a lasting contribution to the industry. These programmes have been put in place both for compliance and the overall good it does for the business and for the country.

Skills development was by far Cargo Carriers’ most improved score, rising from 5.6 in 2010 to 15 – the maximum number of points that can be awarded.

“In terms of equity-based empowerment”, says Boitumelo Choche, group audit and risk manager at Cargo Carriers, “we have set up and now support a number of owner-driver businesses, and have established several industry-focused and empowered businesses with previously disadvantaged industry participants.”

The owner-drivers are well looked after, as Cargo Carriers assists with financial planning, offering training courses to further their abilities as both drivers and business owners. These owner-driver schemes are subject to a very careful selection process, after which a rigorous monthly operational and financial mentoring process begins.

Through various social development programmes, the company achieved the maximum of five points in the socio-economic development section of the scorecard. This was done through a contribution to HIV testing and mobile clinics for all staff.

“As a company that believes that South Africa’s future can only be secured through real transformation, we continuously strive to improve our BBBEE scores,” says Choche.

It is this commitment to transformation that wins and maintains large contracts for Cargo Carriers. The leap from Level 4 to Level 3 may take some time to achieve, but Cargo Carriers is already making a concerted effort to become the most empowered logistics services provider in the country.

TerraNova