How To Start A Lucrative Haulage Business In Ghana

This is a simple guide on how to start a lucrative haulage business in Ghana. Well, haulage is one of the best business you can venture into in Ghana. This is due to the high demand for the transportation of goods from one location to another.

Haulage means the transportation of goods from one part of the country to the other using heavy-duty vehicles. Haulage services are rendered using vehicles that is capable of lifting much quantity of goods at a time. Such vehicles are tankers, trailers, cranes, tippers, trucks, etc.

Products that Can Be Transported by Haulage

Some of the products that can be transported through haulage services are:

Petroleum products such as Kerosene, Liquefied Natural Gas, Premium Motor Spirit, Engine Oil, Diesel, and any other related petroleum products.

Consumer goods from the manufacturing companies. All consumable goods such as foods and drinks from the manufacturing plants to the distribution or retail destination.

Sand and stones from the dredging sites and quarry sites to the construction sites.

Building materials such as cement, woods, irons, ceiling boards, corrugated sheets, and every other construction materials of these kinds.

Containers from the seaport to the final destination or from destination to the seaport. There are thousands of other goods transported through haulage services that are not mentioned here.

Starting a haulage business in Ghana requires a huge startup capital but with huge returns as well. If you can afford the startup capital or you are looking forward to your own haulage business, then you need to pay great attention to this post.

How To Start A Lucrative Haulage Business In Ghana

Below are guidelines for starting a successful haulage business in Ghana.

1. Opportunities for Haulage in Ghana

Think of the following situations before starting up a Haulage business:

• A family or a business is relocating
• Someone is at the furniture maker’s to collect a new set of furniture
• Someone is taking delivery of metal gates and doors from a welder’s and he needs to move them to his building site
• A group of traders from small towns and villages have come to a city market to purchase wares which they need to move to the hinterland
• Some retailers from within the city are at a major wholesale market to buy wares to move into their various shops in the city
• Some building materials have just been bought and they need to be moved to a building site
• Large quantities of stone crushed at the quarry are waiting for evacuation to construction sites
• A manufacturer turns out large volumes of products daily and needs to move the products to wholesalers across the country
• Loads of imported goods come into the country through the sea ports and they need to be moved to warehouses across the country
• Loads of goods are to be exported from the country and they need to be moved to the ports from different parts of the country
• Petroleum products — petrol, diesel, kerosene, gas — are required daily by individuals and businesses in all nooks and crannies of the country and the products have to be moved in varying quantities to retailers or big end-users
• Various shades of manufactures require different raw materials to be moved to them from different parts  of the country
• Farm produce of industrial significance like maize and those of consumption significance like rice, tomatoes, yams have to be transported from the various farming communities to urban locations where they will be consumed
• Livestock has to be moved from the rearing communities to locations across the country
• Fertilizer and Livestock Feed need to be moved to the farms from the cities.

Each of the above situations occurs in its thousands every minute all over the country — you only need to take a look around you to see them happen; and the common denominator for each of them is haulage — the movement of goods from one location to another.

Billions of tons of goods are transported across the country every year to be able to connect manufactured (locally and imported) and cultivated goods to wholesalers, retailers and consumers, and to get raw materials to factories.

2. Know the Possible Scale of the Haulage Business

Huge as the volume of goods hauled across the country is, the sizes in which they are moved greatly varies depending on distance as well as who and what is involved.

So, the requirement for haulage can range from a delivery tricycle to a panel van, a pick up van, a light truck, a delivery van, a tipper, a trailer, a low loader up to a crane.  Each of these vehicles can be employed in numbers from one to a thousand.  The financial requirement can also range from a few hundreds of Cedis to thousands of Cedis while organizational size required for haulage business will also vary.

3. Choose a Comfortable Niche and Size

Goods for haulage can be grouped.  Notable groups include petroleum, quarry, building material, agricultural, manufactured, industrial, and export goods, consumer goods. In each group, haulage can be undertaken on a small or large scale over short or long distances.

There are a number of approaches that can be adopted by an investor in the haulage business, namely:

• Operating as an Independent operator or a haulage company:  This entails directly managing your trucks and staff to do haulage business.
• Operating as a contractor or sub-contractor:  This involves handing over your truck or trucks — under a contractual arrangement — to a particular client who requires considerable and regular haulage services.  The client pays periodically as agreed.
• Leasing your truck to a haulage company:  In this case, you lease your truck or trucks to a haulage company.  The company uses the trucks to execute its haulage contracts and pays you at agreed rates and intervals.

For reasons of efficiency, it is advisable for you to take a very close look at the nature and requirement of the different niches and choose one depending on your location, circumstances and passion.

After choosing a niche, determine the scale at which you can operate, considering your financial ability.  Make a choice between operating as an independent operator, as a contractor and leasing out trucks to a haulage company.

4. Create a Business Plan and Model

Your business plan will serve as the guide you will follow in conducting the business.  Ensure that what you have put together in the business plan can actually lead to the success of your haulage business.  A good business plan will include the following:

• Detailed information about your business — background, description, statutory requirements, opportunities, risks, threats, mitigation to risks and threats
• Business mission, vision, and objective
• Business model
• Mode of operation
• Organisation
• Capital requirement
• Cash flow projections
• Plans for finance
• Income and profit expectation
• Marketing — customers, competition, service delivery, advertisement
• Management Practices

5. Execute the Business Plan to the Later.

Bring the haulage business to life by working through the details set down in the business plan, to implement the following:

• Register your business
• Fulfill regulatory requirements
• Acquire finance
• Acquire trucks and other requirements
• Staff the business
• Source for business
• Deliver service
• Manage your finance

As you run the Business, take particular care of the following critical areas:

• Driver management
• Insurance
• Regulatory permits
• Truck maintenance
• Service Delivery and Customer Management
• Finance Management — costs, credit, cash, debts, revenue

Final Thoughts

There are many opportunities for potential investors in the haulage business in Ghana. With proper attention and methodological execution to the critical areas listed above, you are bound to succeed in rendering haulage services in Ghana.