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Linebooker, a Cape Town based online bidding platform in the freight transport sector, has produced an average saving of 12% for its clients since it launched five months ago.

The firm said its success showed how ripe South Africa’s freight transport industry was for disruption. Naude Rademan, the managing director at Linebooker, said the firm provided an affordable and efficient alternative in a space where costs are traditionally murky and broker fees are high. “We’ve saved customers an average of 12% on their transport costs, with some clients enjoying a consistent saving of 21%.

In the current tough economic climate, all savings matter, and our last 500 loads were achieved three times faster than the previous 500, indicating a growth in customer momentum.” Rademan said Linebooker operated through an online, mobile-friendly interface that seamlessly connects transport customers to trucking companies through a simple bidding platform and eliminates unnecessary administration. The service features one point of contact, with dependable endtoend execution of each load. He said the system had 106 transporters, with a fleet of more than 6400 vehicles.

The company had recently expanded its offering to manage all disciplines of primary transport, including agricultural and raw materials and finished goods. Rademan said the Linebooker model had alleviated companies’ workloads by saving them time on sourcing their own transporters. It was intelligently occupying a market gap and playing a key role in marrying transport providers with customers.

The firm had enjoyed an excellent five months since its launch in February, showing indications of growing a repeat customer base, with good growth forecast for the rest of the year. Rademan said the majority of large companies in South Africa opt to contract their road transport needs to a transporter for a fixed price in order to plan for logistics costs in advance.

Exporters Club Western Cape chairman Terry Gale said the exportimport industry could not just use any transporter, because they had to be registered to enter Transnet’s facilities and needed to have the required certification. Gale said certification included moving hazardous goods, refrigerated goods, chemicals and out-of-gauge cargo. “If your container is stopped at a weigh-bridge and does not conform, you are in major trouble. This might work for inner city or local transport, but I cannot see this working for the international trade. Any company worth their salt has built up a relationship with their transporters who know their clients and their particular requirements,” Gale said.