TKL handles enough kiwifruit to feed everyone in India and China twice over

TKL Logistics Limited (formerly Tauranga Kiwifruit Logistics) has played a critical part in
the early success of the kiwifruit season. TKL coordinates the arrival and dispatch of all
Zespri branded kiwifruit through ports around New Zealand to key international markets.
TKL is a company owned by New Zealand post-harvest companies and contracted by
them to operate road transport services and port logistics. TKL transports pallets of
kiwifruit from the packhouses to their site at the Mount Maunganui wharf, where they operate
a 5200-pallet coolstore to facilitate the loading of specialised reefer vessels and for
Consolidation of cargo for container loading.

Also, TKL has been contracted by Zespri since 2006 to provide professional services
relating to the planning and loading of ships.

In the Bay of Plenty, TKL’s contracted transport fleet consists of 90 trucks, of which 2/3rds
are container trucks and 1/3rd curtain-sider, enabling TKL to handle 200 containers a day
on average, equating to an average of 4,000 pallets of kiwifruit daily. The Curtainsider fleet
also transports around 3500 pallets of Kiwifruit a day to the Port of Tauranga. With the
shipping pressures of this season, TKL has handled more than 250 truckloads in a 24-
hour period – all without incident – checked and safely loaded onto the ships. And the
company has loaded two charter vessels at a time on some days – all of which have
contributed to new loading records.

TKL Chief Executive, Ian Mearns, stated, “We’ve seen an increase in volume this season,
and hearing that the total is getting close to 7 billion pieces of kiwifruit is astonishing. It is
great to be part of the process and industry that sees our national fruit delivered to
consumers around the world”.

Last week, the charter operation managed to load and dispatch six vessels in 8 days, and
the container team managed to send 1014 containers out to coolstores to load in only
4.5 days. “So far this season, TKL has loaded over 4500 containers and 14 Charter ships,
and it’s only effectively six weeks into the season. The intensity of the season continues
with 1200 containers and four charter vessels to load next week.”

Innovation has been key to TKL’s growth. The company’s bespoke logistics application is
an integrated software solution. “The app is used to dispatch and track our transport fleet
and pallets alike, while at the same time sending detailed information to coolstores as to
what is to be loaded in a specific container. It also allows us to use GPS to track in real-time
location of trucks and share this with our customers. The application also handles all the
administration functions relating to our accounting systems,” explains Ian.

While TKL is based in Tauranga, its operations are also undertaken in Northland,
Auckland, Waikato, Gisborne, Nelson, and Motueka. “Anywhere kiwifruit is packed for
export in New Zealand, TKL is responsible for the logistics of getting it from the packhouse
onto vessels.” Says Ian.

For more information:
Ian Mearns
TKL
Tel: +64 21 952 330
Email: [email protected]

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}