helen mba _2 - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

From table 4.1 it is clear that 82 % of the companies that participated in the surveyfocused on a combination of markets, consisting of the automotive market,agricultural market and perishable market. Only 18 % of the participants focusedmainly on the automotive sector of the import/export market.The reason for focusing on only two markets is that the general market comprises allmarkets. This approach allows the spread of business risk. The risk would be too bigto focus on only one type of market.The spread of the intermodal industry’s client base is illustrated in Table 4.2. It is ofimportance to the intermodal transporter to know the spread of the client base,because this will determine on whom to focus its marketing strategies.Table 4.2: Organisation’s activity in the logistics chainCategory Response frequency PercentageClearing and forwarding 1 9Shipping line 9 82Cargo owner - -Agent - -Landside operator 1 9TOTAL 11 100Table 4.2 shows that the majority of organisations that were interviewed (82 %)resorted under the category of shipping lines. Clearing and forwarding agentsconstituted 9 % of the respondents, while the landside operators represented 9 % ofrespondents. No respondents were cargo owners and agents, the reason being thatcargo owners normally work through a clearing and forwarding agent or the shippingline to import / export goods, while agents were present only in the bigger ports(Durban and Cape Town) of South Africa.The volume of containers handled per month by the client will determine the potential109