Benji Coetzee is changing the face of the freight transport industry, one truckload at a time.
She is the Chief Executive Officer of EmptyTrips, a technology that connects and matches spare capacity on vehicles to those who need goods transported.
This innovation, launched last year, has helped optimize the movement of goods on the roads and on rail, in a cost-effective way.
“The essence of the business was to try and reduce this problem called empty trips,”says Coetzee when we meet her.
Two years ago, Coetzee, a seasoned management consultant largely focusing on the industrial sector, founded SeedPitch, a niche consultancy, of which she is still the Head Strategist.
With her R2 million ($148,000) in savings, she then embarked on EmptyTrips.
According to Coetzee, transporting goods across the continent is complex and expensive. Regional integration between countries and trade facilitation are also challenges. But that’s not all.
“One of the biggest issues that they have is not that countries don’t talk to each other or allow the goods to move across the continent, but the actual transporters that move the cargo charge exorbitant rates. So that means other people won’t send their goods to other countries within Africa because it is just not feasible,” says Coetzee.
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She took advantage of the big gap in the industry through EmptyTrips by matching a person/company with an empty cargo vehicle – with a fee that they think is reasonable – to a company which has goods that need to be moved.
“We have that better digital platform. We can negotiate better transport fees for those users. So that is the power of that platform. We bring those communities together and reduce the burden in that regard,” she says.
Like Uber and Airbnb before it, EmptyTrips is also a part of the sharing economy.
Coetzee employs six people and has had over 200 corporates test the concept and come on board.
“It has been very aggressive [since],” she says.
There has been one concern for her though; South African rail company Transnet that has not yet come on board for her venture.
“It was easier to lobby people from the trucking industry. But going into rail has not been that easy [because] you are getting into political aspects. You are working with state-owned entities,” says Coetzee.
“Give us your freight and let us try and get more freight off the road on to the rail. A lot of people underestimate how efficient rail can be, if only we could give it another chance.”
This movement of goods applies to all kinds of cargo.
“[What] the government could do in general for technology, not just my platform, is to enable the movement of mining cargo and agricultural cargo&#8230;What the government could do for us is to say ‘this platform becomes the norm for all cargo on behalf of the government’,” she says.
EmptyTrips’ integrated systems paired with smart algorithms matches demand and supply for transport across Africa, without having to get involved in customs regulations.
“Fortunately for us, we just deal with freight orders and clearing agencies so we don’t get involved in the customs issues. But once the cargo has a commercial invoice, it is matched to a transporter. It is very easy to get it across the border. That at least eases quiet a lot. It is when the transporter does not have the required documents that it begins to be quite problematic at the border,” she says.
Coetzee hopes other startup companies such as theirs would realize the importance of the resilience needed.
<blockquote>“I think it doesn’t matter how big or small your business idea or the industry is. I am trying to disrupt a huge industry. It is $8.1 trillion globally. That is huge!”</blockquote>
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Not just resilience and persistence, proving your idea works is also crucial.
“I always say that the economy of ideas is rife. There are many people with ideas, but the idea does not matter, your proof matters. And your proof is, have you executed on it [business idea]?”
EmptyTrips is not just about ensuring that big corporations cut down on costs but it also allows small and medium enterprises to move their cargo efficiently. The impetus is smooth logistics and smart economics.
EmptyTrips could well become the Airbnb of the logistics industry, so it’s best to get on this train before it leaves.

Benji-482

The Tech Disruptor On The Move

Sibongile Sambo spent most of her childhood looking up at the big tubes of metal in the sky. Each time she heard a helicopter or a plane, she would stop everything and imagine how it would feel to be 40,000 feet above sea level.
In her early twenties, Sambo applied to be an airhostess and it had seemed she had the job in the bag. She passed all the written and physical tests and impressed the panel with her knowledge of aviation, but there was one small problem.
“I was too short (1.5m) and at that time they were still really strict about the 1.6m height. I understand why. It’s because they needed people who could easily reach the cabin and be able to take out and pack in the clients’ bags.”
Sambo was later offered a position as crew on a smaller domestic flight, but she had just completed her degree and, after much deliberation, passed up on her dream for a desk job. Years later, while working at De Beers, she found just the opportunity to dream again.
“The position I was in allowed me to fly in their private jets, to all other operations to either Botswana or Namibia. That rekindled the actual love for private jets. And I liked the idea of private jets because you don’t have to wait in  queues at the airports.”
Sambo quit her job to focus on her new love of private jets. She registered her company under Sibongile Rejoice Sambo Aviation (SRS Aviation) and naïvely applied for a tender the government was offering aviation firms for cargo transportation.
“I took it very lightly. You know when you submit a bid, it’s your first time and you actually don’t believe you will get it. And in this industry, I thought it would take me much longer than it did,” she says.
Sambo won the bid and had to raise R1 million ($92, 890) to get the plane from Dubai to South Africa to move the cargo. She applied for loans, but was turned away from businesses that said aviation was risky and her lack of experience was a disadvantage. There was one person Sambo could always count on, her mother.
“She was working as a nurse in London. She came back, released her pension money and asked her sister to also assist with her pension money,” says Sambo.
The job went better than expected and Sambo managed to repay everyone. SRS Aviation began to generate a steady clientele and the money rolled in. She became the first South African woman to own an aviation company, which is 100% black female-owned. Despite her accomplishments, she was often criticized for her lack of experience and many thought she would not survive in the male-dominated industry.
In 2010, disaster stuck. Clients began to pull their planes from SRS Aviation, in what Sambo believes was a plan devised to sabotage her. So, when the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) came to inspect her operation, there were no planes in her hangars and no recorded flights, as she was no longer managing the planes that had  once operated under her license. Sambo lost her license.
“It has been such a roller-coaster. The business took off very well from 2004 to 2007. In 2008, we started seeing a little bit of a slowdown. In 2009, we saw the jet fuel hike, and in 2010 the recession came. So, we experienced a huge dip and I basically retrenched everyone.”
In 2013, Sambo reacquired her license and business began to boom. She currently has seven employees and generates an annual turnover of R5 million ($462,850), which she says is little in comparison to their R35-R50 million turnover during the good days.
Over the years, Sambo has received recognition for her achievements in the industry. In 2007, Fortune Magazine named her a ‘Leader of Tomorrow’, and in 2009 she was nominated for the Queen Victoria Memorial Award by the Europe Business Assembly in London. Last year, she was placed on the FORBES ‘10 Young Africans Millionaires to Watch’ list.
“I wish I could tell people that it doesn’t look as easy as you read about. It made me feel happy that I didn’t lose hope and just let my dream die. I persevered and I hung on to some of my investments, which helped me get back on track.”
SRS Aviation offers services that include: VIP charter, air cargo charter, tourist transfers and film work. It has expanded into supplying aircraft spare parts for Boeing and Airbus and is looking at handling ground equipment for airports.
“I still don’t own any airplanes. I still lease people’s airplanes, so they come and go on my license. That is a challenge because I can’t really be completely in control of the particular machine. Therefore, I can’t really control my time.”
Being in an industry that is not female-dominated has made Sambo a role model. She has proven that when it comes to dreaming, the sky is certainly not the limit.

Tag: Cargo

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The Tech Disruptor On The Move

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