Most corporate haulage firms render non-exclusive services to 2 or more FMCGs or other categories of major haulage services users. These relationship or partnership are premised on some terms and conditions legally crafted in the form of contractual agreements. Since those contracts are renewable every 2 or 3 years and in some cases 5years, it makes a lot of sense that a dynamic haulage firm would seize the occasion of each end of year to review the terms and conditions against the actual performance of the parties concerned during the year. You may want to review how well you have delivered on your obligations. Where some shortcomings are observed, you may want to strategize on ways and means of ensuring that they are improved upon in the incoming year. You may also want to assess how well your client has performed most especially with respect to regularity of loading, speed of invoice processing and actual payment and so on and so forth. At the end of the assessment, you may have facts to determine which contract is worth your time and investment and which would probably merit more of your valuable assets in the incoming year.
Talking about funds management, not many haulage firms in this part of the world attach much significance to money or liquidity management. A well-managed haulage company operating healthy contracts with sound FMCGs is a potential cash-cow! Aside leaving the monies in the bank probably to service maturing loan obligations and offsetting operational costs, what else can you do with that spare liquidity pending when another critical expenditure crops up? We have heard of a number of haulage firms leaving as much as N100-N200million sitting idle in a non-interest earning current account for upwards of 1 to 3months! If you belong to this class of investors, you have been very unfair to yourself. Perhaps it’s about time to consider either having a heart-to-heart talk the treasury operations unit of your bank or maybe get talking to professional financial and asset management firms who would advise on what investment options are available for a more profitable and secure management of your extra liquidity.
