Convoy Haulage Limited – Collaborative and Cost-Effective Logistics Solutions for Tanzania

Convoy Haulage Limited – Collaborative and Cost-Effective Logistics Solutions for Tanzania

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By Bizclik Editor

When you navigate through the road network of Tanzania, you are bound to come across a Convoy Haulage truck, a company that was born out of a single vision to provide pivotal transportation solutions and an unrivalled commitment to the customer.  

That vision for unrivalled commitment to the customer is present throughout its customer base in East Africa, providing the highest quality of Scania and Mercedes Benz trucks, peerless lead times and unbeatable prices. It is a core value that has remained within Convoy Haulage as the company has grown.

Convoy Haulage was founded in 2013, focusing its operations on providing logistics services across East Africa, including entire geographical coverage of Tanzania where the company is based. Convoy’s network reach also spans up to South Africa and South Sudan, where trucks fulfil routine consignments.

The company has over 170 employed staff, is based at three major hubs in Tanzania, three state of the art workshops, and over 10,000sqm of warehousing facilities within those three hubs. With such a significant workforce, the company has one true goal – to provide cost effective, efficient, agile and reliable logistics to all of its clients - many who are owned and/or operated by global multinational giants.

The road to success

Since its founding in 2013, when its entire operation consisted of only two trucks making in house deliveries for a sister company, Convoy Haulage’s fleet now boasts over 100 owned trucks, over 100 subcontracted trucks, and works across a wide range of industries, from beverage to mining, tobacco to agri-businesses, humanitarian relief to FMCG, and many more.

For Convoy Haulage, there has always been one key element in the company’s growth - the people. As the company has strove to provide agility, efficiency and integrity throughout such significant growth, it has not come without challenge.  Throughout this growth however, a commitment to its people has seen Convoy establish a strong sense of positive synergy from top to bottom, synergy that has realised far greater results through collaborative working than the sum of individual performances.

Over its three major hubs in Tanzania that spans the northern, southern and central regions of the country, the company has helped deliver more than 300,000 tonnes of freight. A crucial component that has enabled such a significant amount of haulage has been the company’s approach to client base.

For its clients, many of whom are also Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange(DSE) listed, Convoy Haulage provides full visibility into order status, generate performance reports, and keep scorecards of service quality which are on par to ISO requirements and Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) certified. The company is also gradually increasing its offerings for customers by proposing innovative strategies to shorten the time from order to delivery, reduce carbon footprint on inbound and outbound transportation, and further cost minimization on freight.

Brewing success with AB InBev

In the company’s journey to become the premier transporter and logistics company throughout East Africa, one of the largest international companies currently operating in Africa chose Convoy Haulage as its partner of choice – the world’s leading brewer, AB InBev.

This partnership in particular represents exactly the way in which Convoy Haulage wants to be seen as the logistics partner of choice.

With AB InBev Tanzania, Convoy Haulage was selected not only for its cost effectiveness but for its key service offerings that were customized to AB InBev’s requirements. This understanding and local touch allowed Convoy Haulage to provide true value to AB InBev, value that surpassed all expectations that the brewer had in the company.

The partnership between the two companies came at a time when AB InBev was in the midst of completing a major acquisition of the African brewing company SABMiller as it looked to solidify a footprint within Africa.

Tanzania is one of the most remote regions of East Africa and so navigating this challenge required a logistics partner that had a key understanding of the geography and a network of high quality trucks.

Convoy provides not only cost effective logistics, but works closely with AB InBev to be part of the conversation surrounding innovation and a world leading product offering.

This, then, made choosing Convoy Haulage as its logistics partner a no-brainer.

Continuous improvement

Convoy Haulage’s major service is the provision of economical and reliable road freight services and end-to-end contract logistics with value added services at no additional cost. The company creates long term solutions for clients who focus on growing their core business and give Convoy the responsibility to create logistics as part of their core competitive advantage. Its road freight services include full truck load, less than truck load, domestic and transit transport, while its contract logistics services include services such as warehousing, distribution, supply chain management and customs brokerage services.

Having secured a major partner, perhaps now would be the time for Convoy Haulage to take the foot off the gas? Not for Convoy Haulage; the road to becoming the premier logistics partner across East Africa is very much only at the beginning. Convoy Haulage is aggressively growing to cater to wider range of industries that have even more complex logistical demands. 

To ensure that it continues to grow, continues to push the boundaries of its capabilities and deliver key logistics solutions that fit some of the most dynamic clients, Convoy Haulage must continue to assess itself and its relationship with its partners in order to quantify exactly how, where and when it can improve.

There are a number of key ways in which Convoy Haulage achieves this, using transparency and self-assessment. Convoy has invested more than $2million in state of the art workshops that ensure its trucks have zero breakdowns. The company tracks its performance heavily and provides performance reports to all clients, scrutinising its performance on key metrics such as lead times, on-trip breakdowns and delays. This is consistent with the company’s promise to deliver reliable fleets and solutions that are exceptionally well maintained.

That reliability and credibility is everything and it is built not only through unrivalled lead times and a strong approach to safety, but through a commitment to continuous improvement.

Tanzania Cigarette Company Ltd (TCC), a member of of Japan Tobacco International, is Tanzania’s premier tobacco manufacturer and distributor. Convoy Haulage Limited is the logistics provider for TCC’s finished goods and raw materials. Convoy Haulage moves freight for TCC throughout Tanzania and additionally in regions covering Zambia, South Sudan, and DRC.

“Convoy Haulage has delivered high quality added-value logistics solution for TCC. Convoy's team understand and adhere to our strict SHEQ requirements and standards, and provide us with timely reports, dedicated new trucks, and cost-optimized services. Convoy Haulage is our strategic partner and we look forward to maintaining this over the years. “says Paskas Rauya, Logistics Manager for TCC.

The road to future success

As Convoy Haulage continues to grow, a key element is that the company continues to test itself and seek new ways to further optimise itself in order to continue to provide service solutions for its ever-expanding portfolio of clients.

Following year-on-year growth, where next for Convoy Haulage? Well, the company is integrating cloud based systems for clients to access and monitor their warehousing and freight requirements into an optimised cross solution, and the company is also working in partnership with clients to achieve joint sustainability goals that are aligned towards carbon offset programs.   Innovation in service provision allows Convoy Haulage to provide enhanced agility, cost savings and new efficiencies through the supply chain, which then get transferred directly to the client.

This, is what Convoy Haulage does best.

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