THE THREE CRITICAL LEGS OF HAULAGE BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

About 50% of my posted articles have been centered around the maintenance culture of handling trucking business in Nigeria. The true fact is that if the truck is well maintained, then the life span of the truck will surely increase.
I have seen trucks spending 4,5 and 6 years and working perfectly. Such trucks no doubt are maintained by good truck owners and managers.
What are the three critical legs of haulage business in Nigeria. When one leg is lost or not treated well, the other legs suffer. The three legs all must work together for a successful and consistent haulage business in Nigeria.
These are the three legs below.
1. Technical understanding of the job: The technically of the business starts from the angle of knowing which truck to buy,which truck you ought not to buy. The kind of trailer(flatbed) needed. Here, you need to know the tonnage of the flatbed. These helps you to determine the size and weight of the loads to carry. The type of tyres you need to buy. The market is saturated with many tyres, indian,chinese and italian products.Knowing the type of tyre you need to buy is important(I have told you in my previous blog to stop buying tokunbo tyres,otherwise you are going to lose in the long run.
Also the type or battery to buy. you have to decide if you need to buy 100 volts x 2 or a single 200 volts. Knowing when to change the battery,knowing when to change the tyres,knowing when to service the engine etc.
Technical understanding of the job also included knowing which routes the truck is good to go to.

2. Administration: When you know the technics of the jobs,you should be able to administer. The driver should be one of your focus here.how often does he come to work?? The kind of excuse you get from him, his punctuality, his expertise, his maintenance culture, etc.
Administration also include follow ups. Your ability to sometimes check the place where the goods are to be discharged without the driver's notice. Administration also include knowing the best truck technician for your truck. As a matter of fact,i do follow the techician to buy spare parts so that i wont to short-changed.

3. Sales and Marketing: Who are you contacts? In the haulage business in Nigera, you need contacts, who are the contacts?They are Agents,middlemen, and companies. How do you relate with them? Your customer service approach will determine whether you will have a long lasting relationship or otherwise.
Believe honesty, if your truck is sound,well maintained, with good hooks, nice clean looking head, before you come back from a delivery, another job will be waiting.
No matter whom you know among all these three players, you will make consistent money.Just try and be servicable.

Can you see that all these three critical legs work together? They move together.

Watch out for my next post(BOOKEEPING)
Bye for now
More Info:: 08185208688
N:B Please Call can only be entertained from 5pm(GMT+1)

DONT LET CONTAINERS FALL DOWN FROM YOUR TRUCK

Hi Guys, I am being busy doing what i know best. You should know that i gotta love myself before anyone.
Today lets talk about why containers fall down from trucks always. Your flatbed(some call it trailer) is very important in the haulage business especially in Nigeria.
If you dont want to experience container falling down from your truck, please i beg you, PAY ATTENTION TO THE HOOKS ON YOUR FLATEDBED. Every flatbed has at least 4 hooks at most 8 hooks. If any inexperience equipment operator( the loading machine is actually called REACHSTACKER) load your truck, he is bound to bend or sometimes break the hook. That is why your driver is allowed to be present when the truck is being loaded to guide the operator for accurate dropping of the container on the flatbed.
There are corrective measures when the hooks are bent or broken. Some trucks dont have complete hooks. If you have 3 hooks during operation, you can go and discharge the load at the final destination and come to drop the empty container,then move to the welder's workshop to adjust the hooks.
Inspection of the hooks must be carried out on regular basis. Your hooks is just like a lock. Once the truck is loaded, the truck driver must put his hand under the flatbed to lock the container with his hooks.
You can get the best flatbed in the world(65 tonnes-80 tonnes) if the truck dont have good hooks "one day one day katakata go burst"( the container will fall) If your container falls, you are going to be in these circumstances below:
1. You are likely to kill people
2. You are likely to damage a someone's car.
3. You will cause heavy traffic and bring serious attention to your stupidity
4. You truck will be impounded until you pay for damages.
5. Then you and the owner of the goods will be in serious dilemna.
I will advise you to always check the hooks. Dont be too greedy.Everything is not about JOBS JOBS JOBS . It is SAFETY FIRST. Bye.

More Info: 08185208688 or haulagemover@gmail.com