Rising costs resulting from fuel and maintenance are the biggest issues that are currently keeping transport operators awake at night.

These two issues are really driving pressure and have led to some operators believing that the industry is becoming saturated – since it is very difficult to drive growth in the tough economic conditions.

The industry can learn a lot from well-established operators that have invested a lot of time and resources in implementing strategies and policies to lower costs.

Some of the strategies that these operators have put in place include, pre-buying fuel (to get discounts), focus on route optimisation, performing regular maintenance, paying greater attention to tyre pressures and general tyre maintenance and payload optimisation.

Things are not going to get easier. Therefore, transport operators, both large and small need to start working more together and develop long-term strategies to manage rising costs, road carnage and retain skilled drivers, amongst other factors.