The State of Logistics™ Survey

South Africa’s preeminent logistics research

The annual State of Logistics™ survey, a Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) initiative published in collaboration with IMPERIAL Logistics and Stellenbosch University is South Africa’s authoritative study on logistics. The survey plays a critical role in the southern African logistics and supply chain management industry. It is increasingly important to monitor South Africa’s performance and put learnings into practice and the survey provides an excellent reference for various stakeholders, including government, analysts, industry captains and supply chain professionals as a source of information and support in the strategic decision-making process.

The annual State of Logistics Survey™ was introduced in 2004 and aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the state of logistics in South Africa, incorporating a micro and macro-economic view, an industry-level and market segment development perspective. It has become an authoritative study in logistics since 2004 and in January 2008, the CSIR joined forces with IMPERIAL Logistics. This has enabled researchers to interact with and test hypotheses in a practical environment, investigating and covering all areas of logistics, including ocean freight, transportation, warehousing and inventory management.

The 7th State of Logistics survey, themed ‘Value Creation towards Global Competitiveness and Sustainability’ identifies key challenges and explores potential solutions to a post-Recessionary South African logistics sector. The survey builds on previous editions, digging deeper into issues such as the cost of bad roads, green logistics, the skills gap, supply chain risk management and logistics in rural markets. It maps out scenarios based on volatile economic conditions, in which agile supply chains are imperative.

South Africa logistics facts

From the 7th Annual State of Logistics™ survey

CO2 emissions
Transport consumes 27% of South Africa’s total final energy, 78% of its liquid fuels and 1.6% of its electricity. In 2009, 23 million tons of greenhouse gasses were emitted due to land freight transport activities, or 49% of transport emissions and just over 5% of total emissions.

Inventory
The cost of storage, handling, stuffing and picking (at current prices) rose by less than the inflation rate, alleviating the cost impacting of rising inventory levels to some extent and leading to an overall increase in storage costs of 1.2%.

‘Extra distance’ case study
Through improved transport planning, Company A decreased ‘extra distance’ within the supply chain by a further 5.9% - from 6.7% to 0.8% compared to Phase I. This represents an additional cost saving of around R20 million and the elimination of 518 tons of CO2 emissions between project phases. Vehicle utilisation improved from 50% to 69% and an increase in units moved per kilometer from 4.63 to 472.

Vehicle and road maintenance costs
In 2009, the estimated road maintenance costs per lane per kilometre on a national road were R150 000. It is assumed that the vehicle maintenance and repair costs on roads ranging from good roads to bad ones vary between R0.96 and R2.11 per kilometre. Total vehicle operating costs vary between R3.00 per kilometre for a good road and R 7.00 per kilometre for a bad road.

Benefit-cost ratio
Research pointed to the minimum and maximum benefit-cost ratios of 1.88 and 3.47, respectively. This implies that the potential benefit - in terms of vehicle operating cost savings – that could be realised over a seven-year period is between 1.88 and 3.47 times the cost of maintaining the road.

The State of Logistics™ surveys can be downloaded by clicking on the relevant links below:

7^th State of Logistics™ survey

6^th State of Logistics™ survey

5^th State of Logistics™ survey

4^th State of Logistics™ survey