“We accept the assignments conventional express companies avoid as well as matching their service for routine items,” says Grant Fletcher, Managing Director. “Our core business is mass express distribution with a bias towards the Advertising/Marketing industries and home-delivery cosmetics.”

The company’s competitive advantage derives from meeting impossible deadlines for all kinds of time-sensitive consignments. “We offer a customised service to deliver exactly what customers want, no matter how extreme the urgency nor the size or nature of shipment. Since we’re not constrained by one-size-fits-all global procedures, we don’t expect customers to fit in with standard operating procedures and office hours.”

Fast and Furious relishes every challenge. People in the company enjoy a permanent adrenalin rush. They work late. They work weekends. They have excellent relationships with transporters, brokers, airlines and shipping lines that enable them to “make a plan” when a job demands extraordinary performance.

The media industry is the most time  sensitive of all. Newspapers, for instance, are the only products irretrievably worthless after their sell-by-date. The supply chain is critical as distribution is worked out with extreme precision. If a magazine insert or supplement is thicker or heavier than expected, it can throw out all the pre-planning. The volume is now too bulky to fit in the delivery vehicles - or too heavy for safe transport. Alternative arrangements have to be made - generally at short notice.

“High-volume printing machines are busy round the clock and some jobs have to fit into a narrow time window especially over weekends,” says Fletcher. “If a machine breaks down, there is little in the way of recovery time. The marketing sphere is demanding. An advertisement may arrive late or the customer may change his mind about the content and order a last-minute reprint. All such eventualities put tight deadlines under further pressure.”

The company also tackles the distribution of other specialised printing and stationery applications such as annual reports and examination papers, which have to be delivered quickly, intact and under conditions of high security.

Fast and Furious is equally accomplished at moving full loads from source to one destination or splitting the loads and arranging distribution to numerous outlets. Home delivery cosmetics may seem to be worlds away but there are commonalities. Once ordered, high-quality cosmetics are eagerly awaited. The consignments need to be picked, packaged and delivered to end users secure from tampering, damage or theft. Similar need profiles apply to various other general cargo items ranging from machinery, equipment and engineering to chemicals, automotive and avionic spares, high-tech equipment and fashion.

Fast and Furious is a New South Africa company, started up under the new national dispensation in the early 1990s. It is a responsible South African corporate citizen, employing, assisting and encouraging ownerdrivers to build their own successful business.