Longrun Logistics – Our Experience: Pay Upfront, Risk Losing It

WARNING – LONGRUN LOGISTICS

Longrun Logistics 140A Kelvin Drive, Morningside Manor, Sandton, Johannesburg, Gauteng 2196, South Africa Tel: +***2

Our contacts:

Don Kaluba – Director Valerie Vorster – Logistics & Warehouse Manager I would strongly caution anyone considering using Longrun Logistics for cross-border transport.

IWS uses several transport providers for Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Longrun approached us for work and we agreed to support them with a number of trial loads. While transport does not always go perfectly, our experience with Longrun has been that problems are handled in an extremely one-sided and commercially unreasonable manner.

Be particularly aware of their cancellation clause:

“10. Cancellation and Dead Freight a) A cancellation and dead freight fee equivalent to 100% of the total value of this estimate (quote) applies to any firm bookings cancelled by the client.”

We prepaid Longrun over R110,000 for a truck to Lusaka. The truck was not provided, so we cancelled the booking and arranged the transport with another provider. Longrun has re**** on the above clause and is refusing to refund the prepaid amount. We dispute their entitlement to retain the money.

Their standing-time charges are also significant at approximately R11,500 to R12,500 per day and their position is that you cannot offset these charges against funds already held by them. Instead, you must make a further payment and provide POP before they will release/deliver the cargo.

In one Lusaka shipment, we paid in excess of R70,000 in standing time. We had staff waiting after hours for the truck, only to discover that the cargo had been offloaded at Longrun's warehouse (after we paid) without notifying us. The cargo was subsequently delivered over approximately six days using smaller vehicles, with a number of damages occurring.

When we subsequently raised the issue of the delay and sought compensation, Longrun rep**** that they owe us nothing.

Our experience has been sufficiently concerning that we would advise any company considering using Longrun to carefully review their terms and conditions, particularly the cancellation/dead-freight provisions and standing-time/payment requirements, before placing funds with them.