Carrus News

Carrus Group

• IT’S OFF TO THE OLYMPICS FOR ASHLEIGH!

Congratulations go to Carrus-sponsored Senior Protea gymnast, Ashleigh Heldsinger who has qualified to compete in this year’s Olympic Games in London.

“This is a remarkable achievement and we would like to acknowledge Ashleigh and her training team for all of the hard work and dedication that has gone into making this dream a reality,” says Felicia Venter, Director, Carrus.

17 year old Ashleigh will be competing in the Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, Vault & Floor Exercise events and will spend the next couple of months working hard honing her skills and perfecting her routines.

• CARRUS 2011 EXECUTIVE GOLF DAY – A RESOUNDING SUCCESS

The annual Carrus Executive Golf Day took place on 8 December 2011 at the exclusive Serengeti Golf Course, winner of the “Best New Golf Course for 2010” Award and host to the 2011 SA Open.

The field included amongst others valued clients as well as local Ambassadors, Director Generals and Generals

• CARRUS ACHIEVES SETA ACCREDITATION AS TRAINING PROVIDER

Congratulations to the Carrus Capacity Building team who achieved SETA accreditation as a training provider, in November 2011.

“We are delighted with this achievement as we strongly believe in taking skills development to market. We are now able to not only uplift and develop the skills of our own staff but those of the general population of users as well,” says Carin Surman, Carrus Capacity Building Manager.

Carrus Capacity Building will now be able to offer accredited training courses in Customer Care, Professional Driving, HIV / AIDS, as well as Train the Trainer.

“We will be focussing on providing accredited training in areas where there is the greatest need for skills development. For instance, the professional driver qualification is a necessary and vital skill but very few drivers have been given the opportunity to develop this skill set,” comments Surman.

As part of their skills development initiatives, Carrus will also be running ten Learnerships in Professional Driving in 2012.

• CARRUS RAISES R50 000 FOR FAITH CHARITY FUND

A joint fundraising initiative between Carrus and Beyerskloof has raised an impressive R50 000 in aid of The Beyers Truter Foetal Alcohol-Syndrome and Interrelated Treatment Help Fund (FAITH). The charity wine tasting and auction took place at the scenic Serengeti Golf and Wildlife Estate on the 8 December 2011. The event was attended by 120 guests who were treated to some of the best wine in winemaker Truter’s stable, in the well-known and much-celebrated Beyerskloof range.

This stellar wine tasting event and wine auction was well supported by various local dignitaries, including an ambassador, various Director Generals and members of the SAPS leadership team.

“It is very gratifying to be involved in supporting such a worthy charity that assists many families and communities,” says Reg Marais, CEO, Carrus. “I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone that attended and so generously opened up their hearts and wallets to support this often overlooked cause. We hope you will join us again in the future as we continue our efforts to support the FAITH Charity Fund.”

FAITH is a Section 21 company and operates as a non-profit organisation raising funds through various activities, distributing donations for specific projects, charities and other organisations working with children, families and communities affected by alcohol abuse. It focuses primarily on Foetal Alcohol Syndrome which is known to be the foremost preventable reason for mental retardation and birth defects in the winelands area. FAITH strives to implement innovative ideas in advocacy, prevention, education and intervention.

Due to the resounding success of this fundraising event, Carrus and Beyerskloof will certainly be looking at joint fundraising initiatives in 2012.

Carrus Fleet Management

• Carrus scoops international Mix Telematics success story award

Congratulations to the Carrus Fleet Management team for their winning submission in the MiX Telematics international spot-prize competition. The success story competition forms part of MiX Telematics’ main sales performance competition and MiX Telematics’ partners were encouraged to send in success stories to qualify to win a spot prize consisting of a F1 gift pack. Success stories had to include facts and figures relating to savings made to different sized fleets by using MiX Telematics fleet management solutions.

“We are thrilled with our win especially considering we were competing internationally”, says Sanrie Steenkamp from Carrus. “It is a result of a team effort and congratulations go to all involved.”

The main competition is based on overall sales performance and MiX Telematics’ partners worldwide have been allocated into different categories based on size. The main prizes will be awarded at the end of March 2012, their financial year-end.

Carrus Fleet Management offers custom-made solutions to reduce cost, limit risk and improve service flexibility. It has the expertise, the integrity and the track record to be your peace-of-mind partner of choice. In line with this they have taken the decision to associate with ‘best of breed’ and align with market-leading technologies, such as MiX Telematics, Matrix, VDO and SAP.

Carrus Fleet Management

• Carrus assists McCain's to monitor its harvesters

For McCain, South Africa’s leading supplier of frozen chips, vegetables, and meals both to the retail and to the rapidly expanding food services industry, innovation is the key to great products, market success and customer satisfaction.

The company has built its success by not only utilising cutting-edge agronomy and superior technology, but also by sharing its expertise in sustainable agricultural practices with its growers and by supporting programs and practices that reduce its environmental footprint.

In fact, it was this focus that first brought McCain in contact with Carrus in 2009 to assist with the monitoring of its pea, bean and sweet corn harvesters. McCain needed to monitor the operation of each machine, including the total harvest hours as well as the hectares harvested per machine on an electronic basis.

Sanrie Steenkamp, Carrus Information Technology: New Business and Development, says, “Carrus assisted with sourcing tracking units that could be installed in the harvesters and then assisted with monitoring the data provided by the units. We installed FM3316 units in each harvester, with various pickups (hopper, harvesting table etc.). We then carried out the configuration on the unit itself and, by utilizing best of breed technology, managed to automate all of the reporting.”

“One of the biggest challenges we initially faced was to get the formulas correct to report the hectares per machine. Once this was completed, we spent time training McCain staff to equip them with the necessary skills to operate the system in the vehicles as well as in the office on the reporting side.”

McCain now receives reports on a daily basis advising them of the operating hours of each machine and the hectares harvested. “The data has assisted us greatly in improving efficiencies. It has also assisted with our business decisions as management now receives actual figures from the vehicles and forecasting has become just that much more accurate,” says Japie Engelbrecht, Vegetable Supply Manager at McCain.

In order to monitor the operations on an ongoing basis a Control Centre was also set up to monitor performance. Here again, McCain staff were trained to run the fleet management side of the business. Steenkamp commented that whereas MCCain has decided to establish its own Control Centre, Carrus provides clients with the ability to monitor its operations through implementation of the Carrus Fleet Risk Operations Command Centre or FROCC as we like to call it. FROCC provides you with the ability to monitor your operational efficiency on a real time basis.

Commenting on the success of the venture, Steenkamp says a major contributing factor has been the partnership approach adopted by Carrus and McCain. “McCain assisted us from day one and throughout the process we have worked hand-in-hand to develop the bond through various team building activities.”

The approach has certainly borne dividends with McCain managing to achieve real, on-time hectares reporting with visibility of all sites and operations. “We can now clearly calculate time spent on each site to complete projects. The fleet management component of the system is also live now and this provides us with details pertaining to vehicle licensing, services and accident analysis. The advantage is that each division can now take full responsibility for their vehicles and operations,” says Engelbrecht.

Moving forward, Carrus will continue to support McCain, in time improving their fuel management through the installation of the Carrus Fuel Solution system.

Carrus Tshenolo

• Carrus Tshenolo revamps fleet operations of leading Waste Management company

It’s been two years of a solid and successful relationship between Carrus, specialists in business process solutions across the fields of logistics, human capital, fleet management, fleet maintenance and service delivery optimisation, and a leading South African Waste Management company.

Since the relationship was established in July 2008, Carrus has assisted with a total revamp of the company’s fleet operations and in the process has brought about excellent cost savings. Boitumelo Mabusela CA (SA), Managing Director Carrus Tshenolo, says the project has been a success story for Carrus, with statistics and monetary figures that prove it. “We won the contract through a fleet evaluation project conducted by 3P Consulting. Needs were clearly defined. The client needed operational efficiency, contract management and to implement a cost saving mechanism. We were eager to begin implementing change,” she says.

As with all new relationships there were challenges that needed to be addressed and solutions found. Mabusela says that one of the greatest challenges was getting buy-in from all stakeholders from a change management perspective. “This is a common challenge when operational changes need to be made, especially in well-established businesses,” she adds. Dealing with existing service providers involved in the fleet structures was also a challenge since they saw Carrus as a threat. “We immediately tried to discard the pre-conceived ideas that we might be a direct competitor and clarified what our role and mandate would be,” she says. In time, the client began to realise the value of the relationship, and many of the challenges were overcome.

arrus kicked off the change process by establishing project governance and operational structures made up of representatives both from the client and Carrus team members. The team began to work as a unit to reduce the fleet size, improve availability of the fleet by monitoring its maintenance, increase available operating hours for service delivery and reduce kilometres travelled by the fleet. “By just reducing the amount of kilometres travelled we reduced the fuel bill substantially,” comments Mabusela. Carrus also introduced the technology needed to monitor operations and produce real time information that was essential for sound decision making.

As the months rolled on, our client started to see results and successes of the project. The team had managed to improve availability of the core fleet by 27% (from 78% to 105%) in the past 12 months. “This success was achieved through improved maintenance turnaround time and quality inspections as well as a significantly reduced fleet size. We removed 100 vehicles from the fleet,” says Mabusela. A Fleet Risk Operations Control Centre was established which monitors in real time all the activities of the fleet. A further success was reducing the kilometres travelled by 1.6 million kilometres through daily fleet requirement planning and kilometre management initiatives. Other successes that are harder to quantify included the implementation of contract management, driver interventions and the transfer of skills to the client’s staff.

“Working in partnership has been the key to the success of this project,” says Mabusela. “It has been and continues to be highly important that our client supports Carrus, given the fact that the operational responsibility lies internally. Our experience has shown that we can only bring efficiencies within the clients’ environment, when the client paves the way for change. We have seen that it is not possible to attain operational efficiencies without constant support from a client as they make the operational decisions. Carrus evaluates, identifies weaknesses and makes recommendations, and then assists in the implementation only once the client’s steering committee and the Exco has authorised such.

For Carrus, this project has given us the ideal platform to showcase our abilities within the waste environment, especially around the fleet management consulting arena.

Carrus Ukhozi

• Placing skilled artisans is a key objective

In 2003, the National Advisory Council for Innovation conducted a study that revealed a shortage of about 6 000 artisans in South Africa. The study also revealed the alarming statistic that, based on the R400 billion estimated infrastructure development projects earmarked by the South African private and public sectors, the figure was projected to increase to as much as 15 000 in the longer term. The average current age of an artisan has increased to 55 years and the Minister of Higher Education has indicated that 70,000 artisans have to be trained within the next five years.

“There has been a dramatic decrease in artisan apprentices between 1975 and 2005 and to address this, Carrus has made the sourcing and placement of skilled artisans a key strategic focus of its recruitment division,” says Jean-Francois Couve, Carrus’ General Manager in charge of Human Capital Solutions. To support this strategic focus, Carrus has procured the services of highly-skilled and motivated artisans for deployment at prospective clients.

“We align ourselves with ‘best of breed’, i.e. the best skill that is available. We have the ability to find that skill through a comprehensive recruitment process. We are able to accommodate a specific need for our client which usually includes a combination of experience, skill, capacity and ability,” says Couve.

Carrus uses a hands-on approach during the recruitment process to find the right skill for the right job and is actively involved in the artisan environment. It plans to align with various training centres in order to contribute positively towards solving the problem of the scarcity of artisans in South Africa. When asked about the current barriers and obstacles within this industry, Couve focused on the shortage and availability of skill adding that Carrus Ukhozi, as a private lead employer, has the ability to assist both candidate and client with learnership programs.

“We continually ensure best-of-breed skill is maintained. Carrus Ukhozi is a business partner that sources best-of-breed artisans and manages time, experience, skill, and capacity. We are proud to be one of the leaders in recruitment and the placement of human capital resources in multinational corporations and organisations,” Couve concludes. “We clarify the need and then we satisfy the need.”

Carrus Group

• Hello Cuba!

In March, Reg Marais, CEO of Carrus Group, Riaan Venter, Carrus Group Director of New Business and Richard Machaba, Chairperson of Carrus Tshenolo, embarked on a trip to Cuba in an effort to investigate new business opportunities.

Marais says the trip was highly beneficial and offered a great opportunity to take the Carrus brand to Cuba. “We were fortunate enough to meet with several authorities including the South Africa Ambassador to Cuba, representatives from various Caribbean states and ambassadors from several African countries. Through these meetings we got a very clear insight into the issues facing Cuba and the differences and similarities between South Africa and Cuba,” he says.

Interestingly, while South Africa has a skills shortage but the capital to sustain enterprises, Cuba on the other hand has an amazing excess of skill but doesn’t have the capital needed to drive enterprise. “We identified a definite business opportunity involving skills transfer in exchange for the technology and methodology that South Africa can offer Cuba. As we are well aware South

Africa’s skill shortage crises cannot be solved overnight but Cuba may offer solutions especially in terms of the healthcare and medical sector. Cuba’s education system is producing highly-skilled medical practitioners that may very well be interested in bringing their skills to South African soil,” says Marais

Service delivery optimisation was also a discussion topic since Carrus Tshenolo works within the area of service delivery optimisation within the public sector. Marais says it was interesting to see the service delivery issues that Cuba faces and believes Carrus Tshenolo could be instrumental in partnering with Cuba to achieve service delivery optimisation in its public sector.

“This trip offered great opportunities to network and establish relationships with the decision-makers in Cuba. We hope to further the engagement and continue investigating business opportunities that will benefit both countries,” concludes Marais.

Carrus Fleet Management

• Carrus and McCain employees test out their driving skills

It was a great day at the Kyalami Race track when Carrus and McCain employees took to the tarmac to improve their driving skills.

The team of nine arrived at the track bright and early and launched into their training with a presentation on driver safety. The instructors pointed out things on the road that drivers should be aware of and how accidents are caused.

After the presentation, the group was taken onto the track, divided into smaller groups and assigned to cars. Three trainees and one instructor were allocated to each BMW. Cones were placed on the track and the instructors demonstrated to the group just how things should be done. Then it was time for the trainees to get behind the wheel.

“With each lap we became more and more confident. We were encouraged to increase our speed and to test our reaction times as the speed increased,” said Christo Du Plessis from Carrus Fleet Management, who attended the training.

The instructors then demonstrated how far it takes vehicles to stop when travelling at various speeds as well as the difference technology such as ESP and ABS can make in a vehicle.

“After lunch we headed to the skid pan where we were shown correct ways of braking on wet surfaces and got to test these out ourselves,” adds Du Plessis.

“At the end of the day each trainee received a certificate and photos of the driving experience. We had a great time and it was a good bonding experience for all who took part. There’s nothing like the sheer terror of racing around a track to really bring a group together,” he says with a smile.

Carrus Group

• Golf, wine and all things fine!

It promised to be a day of great golf, great company and great wine as ten 4-balls took to the course for the Carrus Executive Golf Day held on 26 November at Serengeti Golf Course. The Golf Day offered a great opportunity to showcase Carrus to new and potential clients and to thank existing clients for their loyalty throughout the year.

The teams made up of chairmen, CEOs, Carrus clients, potential clients and even an ambassador battled it out on the course before being invited indoors for a dinner hosted by Carrus’ CEO, Reg Marais.

A highlight of the evening was the wine tasting event lead by Beyers Truter, renowned wine maker for Kanonkop and Beyerskloof wines and owner of the Beyerskloof wine estate. Truter placed special emphasis on his Faith wine of which the last three bottles in South Africa were being raffled on the evening. He pointed out that the word ‘Faith’ on the bottle’s label was created using the very soil from which the grapevine that was used to make the wine, had sprung.

Carin Surman, Carrus Group Marketing Manager, says the event was linked to Carrus’ Corporate Social Investment initiatives. “Carrus donated R5 000 from the event to the South African Junior Golf Foundation. Through the raffle of the three Faith bottles of wine we raised R6 000. Carrus then doubled this amount and we donated R12 000 to Vision for Africa, an organisation supporting Aids orphans in Alexandra township,” she says.

The event was a resounding success with many golfers commenting on what a great time they’d had. “It was a very special event that gave us the opportunity to network and celebrate with colleagues and clients in a casual and beautiful setting. We are definitely looking forward to the 2011 event, which will be bigger and better,” concludes Surman.

Carrus Human Capital

• Ruto Mills drivers learn the ropes at Carrus’ driver training

The Carrus Driver Assessment and Training team recently headed to Ruto Mills, the largest milling company in South Africa, to assist its drivers with improving their driving skills.

Forty-eight drivers were assessed on-site and over four weeks, driver training was held at Ruto Mills. Each driver did five days of in-classroom training followed by two days of practical on-route training.

The course included topics such as eliminating areas of red-band driving including harsh braking, excessive idling and speeding. It also taught drivers how to prepare a vehicle for a trip, defensive driving principles and how to handle emergencies such as accidents, break-downs, hijackings and so on.

A focus of the training was also to prepare drivers for different weather conditions and the hazards that these conditions present when driving. The new Aarto system was also explained as well as what is expected of drivers in terms of having a professional drivers’ attitude when dealing with customers.

“This training is always beneficial and we have already seen an improvement in driver behaviour. An exciting development for Carrus is the launch of the Carrus Driver Training Academy scheduled for the new year. Using our knowledge and expertise we hope to provide customers with a driver training course that will improve their fleet efficiency and reduce costs by improving driver behaviour,” says Carin Surman, Carrus Group Marketing Manager.

Carrus Ukhozi

• Carrus Ukhozi signs up Capitec

Carrus Ukhozi recently signed up Capitec and will be managing the recruitment and executive search aspects of the business as of January 2011.

Jean-Francois Couve, General Manager Carrus Ukhozi, says Carrus is excited about taking on Capitec as a new client. “Capitec is a new company that is rocking the banking world. It is a best of breed company that is unconventional with a very different marketing strategy. At Carrus, we like to align ourselves with companies of this caliber and enjoy the quick-paced environment that Capitec offers,” he says.

Capitec is one of the fastest growing organisations in South Africa, recruiting hundreds of new employees each month and signing up thousands of new accounts each month too. “Over the last four or so years, Capitec’s shares have sky-rocketed. They are definitely the new hotshots in town and we are enthusiastic about looking for the right staff to complement the company’s vision and ethics,” he concludes.

Carrus Fleet Management

• It’s harvest time! Carrus assists McCain monitor its sweet corn harvesters

Carrus has a well-established relationship with McCain and recently began assisting with the monitoring of its sweet corn harvesters.

Sanrie Steenkamp, Carrus Information Technology: New Business and Development, says sweet corn harvesters are similar to pea harvesters. “Like McCain’s pea harvesters, through technology available, we can monitor the total harvest hours as well as hectares covered per harvester,” she says.

Carrus assists with sourcing tracking units that can be installed in the harvesters and then monitors the data provided by these units. “This data has assisted greatly in improving efficiency. It has also assisted with management decisions as management now receives accurate figures from the vehicles. We will continue to work closely with McCain in this initiative and look forward to more positive results from the project,” concludes Steenkamp.

Carrus Technical Services

• Carrus Technical Services assists Air Chefs up fleet availability

Carrus Technical has been working closely with Air Chefs for just under two years in order to maximise its fleet productivity and reduce the downtime of vehicles. Nicky Barrand, Technical Director, says Carrus Technical Services provides assistance with the maintenance of Air Chef’s vehicles. “Our mechanics are on site at the airport in Johannesburg and are responsible for ensuring Air Chef’s fleet keeps on operating.

We respond to breakdowns and if any major repairs are needed, we send the vehicles to the workshop. However, by regularly maintaining the vehicles we have reduced the need to send vehicles to the workshop significantly,” he says. Carrus has managed to improve the fleet availability from 45% to 95%. Maintenance costs have also dropped by 40%.

Air Chefs provides catering services for many major airlines in South Africa and its vehicles need to be in tip top condition considering they have to approach multibillion rand aircrafts and up- and off-load inflight meals. “Air Chefs has placed its confidence in our expertise. Air Chefs carries major risk, operating in such close proximity to aircrafts and we take our responsibility in this regards very seriously.”

“We are proud of this achievement and look forward to continuing our relationship with Air Chef’s and finding ways to further improve the fleet’s efficiency,” he concludes.

Carrus Fleet Management

• Carrus wins Debis contract in Northern Cape

Carrus has been appointed to maintain the Debis fleet in the Northern Cape. Debis is a major supplier of vehicles with one of its major clients being Telkom. Pieter Barnard, Technical Manager at Carrus, says Carrus will be responsible for 100 Debis vehicles that are spread out across the Northern Cape. “This area is vast and very remote which presents its own set of challenges for vehicles and the maintenance thereof,” he says.

Carrus has a roll out project planned for Eskom in the new year, also in the Northern Cape Region, and is busy completing the pilot project phase with 83 vehicles installed as far as the Springbok area.

Carrus will be based at its new offices in Upington which will be fully operational by 1st February 2011.

“This is an exciting new avenue for Carrus and we look forward to seeing great results for these fleets in the new year,” concludes Barnard.

Carrus Fleet Management

• Carrus assists WBHO with first crane experiment

In a fun and exciting project, Carrus has been working with WBHO on a new and innovative way to monitor the activities of its cranes that are rented out to subsidiaries.

Carrus installed one of its vehicle tracking units into one of WBHO’s cranes in order to monitor its activities during a normal working day. Sanrie Steenkamp, New Business & Development Executive, says Carrus had to deal with various challenges during this experiment but had some interesting results at the end. “One of the challenges we faces was that the crane operates on 320V and our unit only operates on 12-24V. Also crane obviously doesn’t move or do any trips so we had to adjust what in fact was being monitored by the unit,” she says. Carrus did however overcome these obstacles and provide WBHO with some very interesting data.

“We were able to provide WBHO with the starting and ending time of each day’s operations as well as how many times the hoist was used. With a special connection that we installed we are able to tell if the operator had overloaded the crane and report on the total hours worked (actual hour meter),” says Steenkamp.

Carrus Fleet Management

• Carrus celebrates its first Botswana mining customer

Carrus is proudly extending its footprint with its first Botswana customer, Botswana Ash. Botswana Ash is a salt mine next to the Makgadigadi pans and Carrus will be partnering with the mine to provide effective and efficient fleet management. “We are upgrading the current fleet management system at the mine to include the latest live technologies,” says Felicia Venter, Director of Carrus.

The mine is located in a very rural area and having access at all times to the GPS positioning of all vehicles within the fleet is vital. “The technology we are busy introducing will ensure that fleet managers can track their vehicles as well as monitor fuel efficiency, driver behaviour and generally increase the efficiency of the fleet,” adds Venter.

Carrus will also be assisting Botswana Ash with its day-to-day operations such as fleet maintenance, licensing and driver authorisation. “We have been working hard at expanding our operations beyond South Africa’s borders for some time now and Botswana Ash has afforded us the opportunity to make this a reality. We are looking forward to establishing a meaningful and mutually beneficial long term relationship with Botswana Ash,” concludes Venter.

Carrus Ukhozi

• Recruitment Preferred Supplier Status

Carrus Ukhozi is delighted to announce that they recently achieved preferred supplier status for two major, international banking Groups in the area of human capital recruitment.
General Manager of Carrus Ukhozi, Jean-Francois Couve, reports that this promotes the Carrus Recruitment Division to new heights.

• Online Recruitment Goes Live at Carrus

Our new online recruitment system allows potential candidates to enter all their details online, thereby eliminating the need for time-consuming CVs.
Clients of Carrus Ukhozi benefit by receiving CVs in their preferred format.
This online recruitment system also offers select clients the ability to access CVs directly from our system.

• National FMCG Company Selects Carrus

Carrus Ukhozi has been selected to provide professional drivers and professional driver training to a national FMCG Company.  Just Carrus’ way of keeping industry on the move.

Carrus Fleet Management

• New CFM branch in Bloemfontein

CFM are pleased to announce the official opening of their new branch in Bloemfontein in March 2010.  This outlet offers a diverse sales and service function in vehicle monitoring & tracking.
A full Fleet Risk Operating Control Centre (FROCC) is planned for this facility in the near future, so don’t lose track of this space.
Recently appointed Official distributor for control instruments specifically VDO tachometers.
Trained 5 people to be Mix Telematics and Matrix accredited technicians.
Signed agreement with Mix Telematics and Matrix as an approved dealer service centre.

• Making McCains More Efficient

CFM are leading the field in modified management systems designed specifically for combined harvesters. McCain’s are reaping the benefits of our technology in this area by improved efficiency in their harvesting operations. Our management systems deliver accurate reports on hectares harvested, exact numbers of tips/empties and harvester running times.  Carrus are thinking again for McCain.