As stakeholders work – as part of the National Logistics Crisis Committee – to resolve the most prominent issues impacting on the South African logistics system, including cable theft on rail lines and overloading on roads, it is more important than ever for businesses to optimise their supply chains.

Experts participating in a dialogue hosted by the Transport Forum on August 23 agreed that, by actioning data insights, businesses themselves can help to mitigate overloading on the country’s roads, for example.

In providing the context that South Africa, with its 12 227 twenty-foot equivalent units transported across the country each day, operates in, business intelligence company Crickmay MD Jayce Lane pointed out that the $105-trillion world economy was being influenced by large trading blocks, including the US and China.

He mentioned that, although global weak growth impacted on the South African supply chain, trade in services had shown some resilience compared with goods, particularly in the information and communication technology (ICT) space. He added that African trade had shown more resilience amid global crises than many first-world regions.

Lane said there were nonetheless external factors affecting the South African supply chain, including a global move to regionalisation or localisation, away from globalisation, which had been driven by the need to build resilient supply chains owing to recent events such as Covid-19.

Other impacting factors on the supply chain include the green transition, which could cause market access issues in the near future, as well as geopolitical factors, fluctuating commodity prices and the high interest rate environment.

For example, geopolitical events in Africa increased considerably between 2000 and 2023, including in Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique and South Africa, which impacts on transport corridors and logistics decisions.

Border crossing times between Gauteng and Mozambique have also been getting longer, while South African ports remain lowly ranked in global indices.

Lane mentioned that other African countries were improving their supply chain activities through various efforts. An example was Ethiopia, which had opened its logistics industry up to foreign direct investment as of 2019, which had resulted in new airport, railway and road infrastructure being built.

Also, Rwanda started using a non-intrusive inspection system to speed up the process, while Kenya introduced an integration security system at its ports to protect goods, personnel and infrastructure.

To retain South Africa’s market share in global trade, including its 18% market share in platinum and 9.7% market share in gold, Lane emphasised the importance of leveraging data and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to remain competitive.

Telematics company Ctrack South Africa product solutions executive Eugene van Niekerk agreed, saying that the Internet had changed the way people lived and how businesses operates forever.

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” he cited the phrase often proffered by ICT specialists.

Van Niekerk explained that, with the sheer amount of data being generated, including through 65-billion WhatsApp messages being sent, 8.5-billion searches happening through Google, 2.4-billion pieces of content being shared on Facebook, 144-billion hours of content being streamed, 333-billion emails being sent and 150-million hours of Zoom meetings being held, it was often difficult to derive value from data.

To this end, Ctrack uses technology to generate data and come to meaningful conclusions. The 18-billion records of global positioning system data that Ctrack generates every year are streamlined in the form of analytics and dashboards, among other means, to make sense of that information.

The company is able to, for example, monitor fuel use levels of yellow equipment on site to quantify the impact of idle equipment and determine where money can be saved.

Since cost is a major influencer of supply chain development, Van Niekerk said it was important to reduce unnecessary losses and unproductivity, including through staff behavior, all with the help of data insights.

As a case in point, Van Niekerk cited a piece of equipment from a customer having been found to cost R1.59-billion a month to operate, for 74 550 litres of fuel used, of which the idling cost comprised R282-million a month, and the stationary cost comprised R429-million a month.

Ctrack was able to point out what staff behaviour was contributing to higher fuel use, such as leaving equipment to idle in winter to keep cabins heated, and provide actionable insight to the customer.

Industry body Road Freight Association CEO Gavin Kelly said data could be used to remain stable and relevant, and enable a continuous growth path for businesses.

“Data shows where your business is going, where the sector is going and where styles of transport are going. If you do not know, for example, what others are doing, your business cannot remain sustainable and competitive,” he added.

Kelly continued that data could enhance communication and ensure adaptability, as well as provide new business opportunities.

He emphasised that innovation was enabled by knowledge, which often stemmed from data.

Kelly encouraged those with supply chains to either develop the in-house capacity to generate and analyze data, or appoint relevant industry experts externally to this end, lest businesses were left with immeasurable and, therefore, unmeetable goals.