Crossing Borders - Malawi Deployment

A fascinating aspect of the Geotechnical Investigations field is the amount of logistics and planning it takes to deploy to any site. Locally, there are always many factors to consider. However, when travelling further into Africa, you soon realise how many added factors there are that need to be considered.

On the 27th of January of this year, our logistics team fired up all cylinders to get the equipment from our base of operations in Johannesburg on the road to Malawi for an exciting new project. Luckily, this is not the first time or the furthest destination that the GeoGroup team had to deploy into deeper Africa. However, before any deployment can commence, the GeoGroup logistics team always do the necessary preparations and planning to ensure the safety of our drivers and cargo.

The first step is always to plan the trip with the driver to ensure their safe arrival. For a journey of this magnitude, our logistics team concluded that the safest route was to have our driver cover the 2700+ kilometre trip through the border at Botswana, follow the main route through Zambia, head to Chikwana via Mchinji in Malawi, and from there arrive at their destination.

Some of the more obvious delays mostly come from all the various border security checkpoints. It always remains imperative that our drivers are familiar with each border's systems and processes. We also ensure that all the necessary cross-border documents are available and accurate.  We choose to travel the safest routes. This does not necessarily mean they take the most direct route. Instead, it's the longer routes that turn out to be the quickest as certain countries are avoided due to security risks. Our drivers are strictly instructed not to drive at night, due to the risks of wild animals on roads at night. Our drivers have to be extra vigilant to avoid any collisions with elephants, giraffes, and lions to mention but a few. 

All our trucks are equipped with fridges, gas bottles and equipment for meal preparations, puncture kits, compressor units and a mobile shower unit with a 200ℓ water tank is the standard loadout for our teams to help themselves should any breakdowns occur. We want to ensure that our drivers are as comfortable on the long road to our various project sites.  A necessity for our drivers is to have reliable cell phones with international sim cards to ensure we can constantly stay in communication with them. Another important tool we use is satellite tracking devices. Should we ever lose contact with a driver, we are able to pinpoint their exact location should we need to dispatch emergency services.

With an excellent team of code-14 drivers and logistics support backup, we know that our drivers and their cargos are fully capable to reach their destinations safely. We are proud of all our teams and especially our drivers for literally always going the extra mile.