Some sugar transporters have accused Illovo Sugar Malawi of foreign companies when giving out contracts but the company says it has an open door policy through which it engages any transporter who meets its specified requirements.
However, the transporters al leged that I l lovo gives local transporters less than 10 percent of the jobs.
“The company is wasting a lot of foreign exchange by opting for foreign transporters instead of us,” said one of the local transporters.
Illovo publicist Ireen Phalula said, however, the company has an open policy for the hiring of transporters who meet the company’s criteria required for local and international haulage.
She said all transporters undertaking work for Illovo Malawi are considered equally, based primarily on compliance with the standards of the company’s tender document but also on historic loyalty and reliability.
“Amongst the two foremost criteria required by Illovo for selected routes
are transit insurance and vehicle tracking systems as stipulated by certain customers to comply with customer traceability regulations,” she said.
She said Illovo currently has 120 registered transporters for the various routes and that the list is made up exclusively of local transporters for local distribution and a mixture of international and local transporters for cross border haulage.
Phalula said while foreign transporters are restricted to certain routes, local transporters on the other hand are free to participate in any route.
“It should also be pointed out that some countries where we send our sugar to such as Rwanda and Burundi prefer their own transporters but without exception, the option to use Malawian transporters is also offered to these customers,” said Phalula.
Leave a Reply