Page 34 - Logistics News - September - October 2021

C O MPANY NE W S

DPD Laser acquires Fast +

Furious

DPDgroup and its South African partner, Laser, recently
announced DPD Laser’s acquisition of Fast + Furious, subject
to final approval from the Competition Commission. The move
was driven by the demand to service South Africa’s e-commerce
growth, which has exploded since March 2020.

“In the last 16 months, we have From driver to logistics
worked incredibly hard at supporting our
customers and their customers through the manager
various COVID-19 waves and subsequent
lockdowns. Consumers need products to live Andries Motswaledi Ntlatleng’s career path has been on
and work, and they need safe, ‘contactless’ an upward trajectory – when he joined WeBuyCars in
delivery, and we focused our attention 2006, he was a driver. He is now Logistics Manager of
there. Now we are doubling up on customer- the group’s Centurion showroom, with responsibilities
centricity and reaching deeper parts of ranging from helping to oversee several WeBuyCars
South Africa via the network expansion and drivers, managing carrier companies from all nine
capability brought by Fast + Furious,” says provinces and the supervision of fitting the cars into the
Anton Visagie, CEO of Philip Hayes, Director of DPD Laser and Centurion showroom.
DPD Laser. CEO of The Laser Group.
As a logistics manager, detail and organisation are key
Fast + Furious, starting in a home garage in Johannesburg factors to Ntlatleng’s day-to-day responsibilities. He is
in 1997, is a South African success story that placed an intense in charge of planning daily routes for WeBuyCars drivers
focus on customer interface and support, delivering 300,000 and making sure that WeBuyCars buyers are allocated the
parcels a month and building a network that can reach the far appropriate number of drivers. It’s also his responsibility
corners of South Africa. to make sure that the carrier companies collect cars from
outlying storage areas and bring them back to their main
The acquisition augments DPD Laser from 900 to 1,500 warehouses or when they collect newly purchased cars, all
people, sees 700 vehicles increase to nearly 1,100 and expands operations happen with maximum efficiency.
15 national branches to a presence of more than 25 areas
nationally, with an estimated 12 million parcel deliveries in the When asked about the logistics around fitting
next 12 months. hundreds of cars in a showroom, Ntlatleng says, “While
we rely very much on technology, it is definitely not as
Anton Visagie, CEO of DPD Laser, says, “We wanted to easy as it looks having to fit 1,500 cars on a showroom
deliver increased transparency, flexibility and control over large floor. I allocate bays for new arrivals and once they have
parcel volumes and to interface real-time with the customer. To been priced and photographed, they are assigned a QR
do this effectively across all of South Africa, we required further code. After parking the car, the driver will then associate
network expansion, scale and density in the rural and regional the car by scanning the QR code on the parking bay and
areas to give customers a greater cost and service benefit. This link it with the QR code on the windscreen of the car. This
acquisition is a win for customers and a win for us.” allows the salespeople to see which car is parked at which
parking bay and at which warehouse.”
L O GI S T I CS NEWS customers can have access to everything they want in every for believing in me and giving me this opportunity. I
Jason Lombard, CEO of Fast + Furious, adds, “Now my
“I am forever grateful to Faan and Dirk van der Walt
street in this country, not just because we can go there, but
now we can go there more frequently, and that changes the
am just as much a car fanatic as Faan, so working in an
dynamic. We are bringing real access and inclusion with this
industry that I love definitely makes the job easier,” says

32 deal and at a critical time.” • Ntlatleng. • www .l o g ist i csn e w s .c o .z a
SEP T E MB E R/O CT O B E R 2021