The shipping lines were paying transporters a haulage fee for returning empty 40ft containers from JHB or PTA to Durban port, known as 40ft evacuation.
Haulage cost differences between full and empties were marginal for 40ft containers. Sail stuffed these cabortage containers with chrome at the Pretoria warehouse and moved them to the port of Durban. The chrome was then offloaded and the containers were returned to the shipping lines. The shipping lines' haulage fee paid to Sail subsidized the inland logistics fee substantially.
Again, both Sail, the suppliers and the customers benefitted from the saving!
Milan Lalloo June 2014