Timing
Plan one to two days rather than a fixed number of hours. Loading delays at origin, traffic density, Van Reenen's Pass conditions and driving-hour requirements all move the arrival time.
Port-linked loads
If the load is going into a stack, plan backwards from the stack deadline and build in buffer. Terminal queues are normal, not exceptional, and a missed stack can mean a missed vessel.
Vehicle choice
Superlink tautliners dominate general freight on this lane. Container work runs on skeletals and flatdecks. Chilled and frozen volumes use reefers. Where the delivery point is a tight Durban industrial site, a tri-axle is often the better call.
Common pitfalls
Understated cargo mass, incomplete port documentation, and assuming that a delivery site can offload when it has no forklift. All three are avoidable at quotation stage.