“Smart” salt trucks commissioned

Old salt trucks replaced

Walvis Bay Salt commissioned the first three of five smart salt trucks on Monday, ushering in a new era for salt transportation between the salt works and the port of Walvis Bay.

The trucks are hi-tech, performance based vehicles that will greatly reduce the impact on the town’s road infrastructure, noise pollution, and with less emissions.
Walvis Bay Salt is the first in Africa to commission these trucks. So efficient are these trucks, that five can do the work the entire fleet of ten links did in the past, and daily trips between the salt mine and the port is cut by 50 %
The trucks carry 64 tons of salt in one haul, compared to the old fleet of interlinks that carried 34 tons per haul.
See the full media statement on the commissioning of the trucks on page 2 today’s edition.

In its ongoing quest to optimise transport efficiencies, Walvis Bay Salt has partnered with Unitrans Namibia to introduce new Performance Based Standards (PBS) vehicles, or smart trucks, to move salt from its processing plant south of Walvis Bay to the port. The new PBS vehicles became officially operational Monday 18 July 2021.
The company transports annually in the order of 600 000 tons of processed product to the port of Walvis Bay for exports to various markets internationally. The new fleet of 5 PBS vehicles will replace the previous fleet of 10 interlink trucks, reducing the daily number of trips by nearly half to less than fifty.
According to Walvis Bay Salt Holdings’ Managing Director Andre Snyman, the introduction of the new PBS vehicles is aimed at promoting safety, innovation and efficiency in transport. “Together with Unitrans Namibia we are the first company on the continent that has embraced this new A – double PBS transport technology; now we are bringing this to Walvis Bay.”

The new trucks were designed and built by AFRIT in South Africa, a BUD Group sister company of Walvis Bay Salt, and boasts a payload of 64 ton compared to the 34 ton of the current interlink trucks. It is slightly longer at 27 metres as opposed to the 22-metre length of the current trucks. In total 5 new trucks will be introduced.
Apart from a drastic reduction in the number of daily trips, the new A-Double Side Tipper trucks also offer various other benefits including less load bearing on the road, better turning, less spilling, and a higher rollover stability.
During January 2021 Walvis Bay Salt sponsored the upgrading of the surface at the intersection of Nangolo Mbumba Drive and 5th Road with a brick surface as part of a public – private partnership with the municipality of Walvis Bay.
The PBS project was undertaken in partnership with Unitrans Namibia, the long-standing logistics partner of Walvis Bay Salt. The Roads Authority of Namibia and the local Walvis Bay Municipality have granted the necessary approvals to operate the vehicles on the same route as is currently being used.
Walvis Bay Salt Holdings (Pty) Ltd, through its various subsidiaries, is the largest producer of solar sea salt in sub-Saharan Africa. Apart from its strategic location with direct access to principal international shipping routes through the Port of Walvis Bay, the company’s focus on efficiency of freight and logistics has been central to its success in the southern African market.