Munawar Shariff: By how much are you expanding your roads? What is the capacity of vehicles you are targeting to absorb on all the new road constructions?

Nabeel Mohammed Saleh: To provide traffic congestion relief, we have transformed many grade interchanges into grade separations and interchanges greatly increasing road capacity effectively and minimising delays. Most of these are the biggest and most unique ones in the world. The number of bridges constructed in Dubai have doubled during the last two years.

Highway capacity is defined to be the maximum number of vehicles passing over a given section of a lane or a road during a given period of time. It is normally given in units of vehicles or passenger cars per hour.

RTA is keen to increase the capacity of the Dubai road network to accommodate the huge increase in traffic volumes. Road capacity can be increased through widening and adding new lanes to the existing network and through increasing the operating speed by solving different intersection and bottleneck problems.

We continuously measure the level of service over each link in the Dubai road network and try to reserve an acceptable level of service over the links according to the international standard (Highway Capacity Manual 2000).

Through these procedures we can and are achieving our targets of relieving traffic congestions, minimising delay time and providing safe and smooth transport for all.

Which are the new areas/developments in Dubai that are being linked and will be linked in the near future with these new roads?

Currently Dubai’s economic development is sky rocketing, and through development of major new road projects, we are trying to keep up with Dubai’s growth and also help accelerate its growth through our initiatives.

Construction of new roads is happening all over Dubai, however, areas where new roads are being developed include: the area around the Arabian canal, the area around Mohamed Bin Rashid Park, the Dubai World Central, the Dubai Land area, the Business Bay and the Dubai Lagoons project.

Nabel Mohammed Saleh, Director of Roads, Roads and Traffic Agency (RTA )

What are the factors you consider when planning the infrastructure of such a fast developing city like Dubai?

Factors to be considered during the planning stage of infrastructure construction are: identifying the target design year based on which design will be carried out, identification of the nature of development around the infrastructure, identification of the land use of the development, anticipating the trip generation rates and the trips generated from the assigned development, perform a trip distribution process, perform traffic assignment and modal split task, perform the soil investigation analysis process and the infrastructure design steps.

By going through the above-mentioned steps, we can predict the number of anticipated users and hence be able to start planning the relevant infrastructure.

Typically, what is the time frame involved from the planning stage of the development of a new road complex to link a new part of town?

There are a number of stages. They are:

1) Strategic Planning Stage: The idea of constructing a new road has to be seen from the strategic planning point of view to predict the impact of the new road on the network.

2) Feasibility Study Stage: Before proceeding with any project, a feasibility study has to be performed on the project to provide an overall view about the benefit cost ratio to see whether the project is feasible or not.

3) Geometric Design Stage: At this stage, the idea of building a road is transformed into engineering drawings and material quantities and specifications of the project. This stage may involve the following steps: preliminary study which involves a traffic study and analysis about the volume of traffic expected on the road, the preliminary design which involves preparation of the preliminary project drawings and lastly the final design which is the preparation of the final project drawing.

4) Tendering Stage: The determination of the lowest bidder of the contract who will do the construction works of the project.

5) Road Construction Stage: The construction and supervision of the project to ensure that the project has been constructed according to the specifications and standards.

The time frame of these stages varies according to the importance and the size of the project.

How does this time frame differ from that of expansions of existing roads?

Developing/expanding an existing road may not take that long comparatively as some of the above-mentioned stages will not be present.

What are the challenges you face in planning and executing the construction of your road networks?

Our biggest challenges during the planning stage are predicting the traffic volumes that will be expected to use the road, anticipating trips generated due to the development of the area around the project, simulating the anticipated traffic movement over different interchanges to simulate the actual movement, overcoming different design restrictions to design a road that complies with the international standards within limited conditions and avoiding major expropriations of the existing plots needed for widening roads and constructing major interchanges.

The challenges we face while construction are: developing a traffic detour plan to divert traffic into alternative routes to avoid delaying road users during the construction stage; overcoming construction problems, choosing the most promising and optimum method statement for infrastructure construction and tallying the planned project schedule with the actual schedule to achieve the milestone project dates.

Which roads are being planned for the near future?

We are planning an extension of the Nad Al Hamar Road, parallel roads up to Jebel Ali -Lihbab Road, the Dubai Academic City Road, the Al Qoudra Road, the Bawady Boulevard, the Meydan Road and the Business Bay Road.

How is this planning of a new road network connected to the overall vision of Dubai’s expansion?

The idea of developing a new road is born from the overall vision of the proposed expansion of Dubai. The construction of a new road contributes significantly to the development of the area around the new road. So, the proposed planning is studied well first. The proposed new roads network will be studied accordingly to be complying with the nature and the size of expansion and development.

Moving on to traffic congestion, how do you plan to lessen the load of cars on Dubai roads?

In order to overcome congestion problems in Dubai, we have developed comprehensive execution plans. They are

1) Developing Dubai’s roads network, through: a) widening and developing the existing road network, b) extending and constructing new roads in different locations, c) ensure network connectivity, d) develop and upgrade different interchanges.

2) Develop public transportation modes, through: a) developing the metro project which can be considered to be the first rail transport project in the GCC. It will contribute significantly in solving traffic congestions, b) developing the modern bus transport and reserving a dedicated lane for buses, c) encouraging people to use different public transportation modes, d) developing modern and air conditioned bus shelters in different Dubai locations, e) extending the metro lines to cover origins and destinations of different trips.

3) Develop strategic operational Polices such as a) encourage car pooling, b) implementing toll roads system (SALIK), c) restricting issuance of new driving licenses, d) implementing some policies towards reducing car ownership percentages.

The demand for antiquities is phenomenal. And whenever there is phenomenal demand for a product, it is usually matched by supply. This is where the supply chain of smuggling antiquities gets kicked off – in the want of the consumer.

Dubai Customs recently held a press conference announcing a major interception of antiquities which were being smuggled in a secret compartment of a wooden ship. The compartment in which the treasures were found on the ship was built to look like a part of the ship’s structure. When Dubai Customs’ officers asked the captain to open the hollow area, he said that if he did so his ship would sink.

“Our officers are trained in all aspects of judging people through their expressions, reactions and body language, and the crew’s body language gave them away,” says Ahmed Butti Ahmed, Director General, Dubai Customs.

Acting on their hunch, the officers found more than a 100 items dating back between 1,000 and 5,000 years hidden away in that secret compartment. Ahmed wouldn’t say where the ship’s port of origin was or where it was headed. He also wouldn’t give out the nationalities of the captain and crew and to which country the antiquities belonged.

Illegal supply chain

Although Ahmed did not acknowledge the origin of the antiquities, many invitees were sure the antiquities were from the ransacked Iraqi museum. Since the beginning of the 2003 American- led invasion, much of the Iraqi culture and history has been systematically looted.

Prior to the war, people who did not have anything to eat used to dig artifacts from the ground and sell whatever they found for food; but ever since the looting of the Iraqi museum, the illegal antiquities trade from the region has exploded, leading many countries to levy heavy restrictions on its activities, thus sending it underground.

Coming back to the supply chain of this business, many say its starts from the time something valuable is dug up or looted, after this the artifact is driven to Jordan or further north to Syria. After reaching either Jordan or Syria, it is sent to one of three cities – Beirut, Dubai or Geneva, in order to create ‘documents’ for the artifact and for it to surface in the market. From this point it is sold to private collectors or established auction houses until it gets a new home.

This illegal trade is even rumoured to have an underground tariff system, with the Hezbollah (from Lebanon) apparently taxing the artifact when it passes through the country.

Improving standards

This is not the first time such a large cache of antiquities have been intercepted in the country. Sharjah, too, has in the recent past captured many ships passing through its port carrying this illegal cultural cargo. Dr. Sabbah Jasem, Head of the Sharjah Directorate of Antiquities, says, “We need to have a federal antiquities law that prevents the buying and selling of historical artefacts all over the country, as Sharjah is currently the only emirate that has one.”

Brian Shepherd, Senior Vice President, Al Tayer Logistics

Gucci handbag. Check. Pucci jacket. Check. Jimmy Choo shoes. Check.

No, this is not an article about the day in the life of a fashionista but about Brian Shepherd, Senior Vice President, Al Tayer Logistics LLC. Part of this group, after all, is Harvey Nichols, one of the world’s most stylish stores. Sheperd happens to be the behind-the-scenes-guy who makes the life of a fashion obsessed diva complete.

Sheperd is a logistics industry veteran of 40 years, so he knows exactly where he’s coming from and where he’s going. “The basics of logistics are the same in any industry,” he says. “It’s all about how you deal with different products, whether it’s coffee or clothes, you have to know how to manage inventory, move stock in the best possible way and handle costs.”

But the logistics of luxury fashion must still be different. Shepherd agrees. He says, “Fashion is treated very differently than other businesses, because we’re talking about high value luxury products which are very fast moving.” Other lifestyle brands like GAP, Banana Republic, have four seasons – Spring, Summer, Fall and Holiday. So essentially, warehouses are stocked up with merchandise for one particular season which are pushed out into the store in two phases, for example, Summer Phase One and Two. Summer One is the biggest push from a marketing perspective. Next follows Phase Two which lasts till almost the last bit of summer.

And unlike luxury brands, stocks of any particular season of lifestyle retail brands are purchased approximately six months in advance. Stock for Holiday 2009 (approximately from October 2008 to January 2009), for example, is purchased in January or February of 2008. This gives the team a large gap and ample opportunity to organise themselves and start bringing the first part of the product to the stores around September or October 2008. The launch and marketing happens by November and the range lasts right through December and January 2009.

Luxury designer fashion is changing all the time. This sets it apart in treatment and handling. Fashion savvy consumers want to find a new collection each time they go to a store, so they can be the first to be seen wearing a new piece of clothing. Buyers at Harvey Nichols buy selected styles in small quantities from suppliers selected by the buyers for the store. Harvey Nichols has a large number (close to 400) of suppliers. Bigger, more established brands like Bottega Veneta and Gucci may require larger orders since a number of these brands are exclusive franchise partners with Al Tayer Insignia and therefore buying is consolidated at a company level.

Buyers travel to brand headquarters a few times each year to select a range of products suitable for the region. These brands can be relied upon to provide a running range of styles to the buyers who have a certain value at their disposal and are very specific about their purchasing requirements. Buyers also continuously visit high fashion clothing fairs where they meet with new suppliers whose designs are of potential appeal to the Middle Eastern customer. Buyers are also regularly on the lookout for new suppliers from a variety of sources. This makes for a variety of stock in the store.

Accessories such as handbags are purchased in even smaller quantities. “We only purchase a limited number of different styles in handbags as that is the kind of business we do and also, here in the Middle East, we do not carry stock of fashion brands,” comments Shepherd.

Throughout the season, Harvey Nichols introduces new products so as to be up to date with the trends in the other fashion capitals of the world. This cross stocking gives UAE consumers the opportunity to own the latest designs from around the world. Almost everything is air freighted so as to ensure that fashion lines in the Middle East are usually launched at the same time as the rest of the world. The cost of air freighting is still very low compared to the value of the products coming in. Within a week from the time the stock arrives, it is processed through the warehouse and arrives at the shop floor.

And what happens to stock that does not get sold? “We have two major sales before and during DSF (Dubai Shopping Festival) and around DSS (Dubai Summer Surprises),” replies Shepherd. “To satisfy customer demand we have the option to move stock around from one store to another depending on demand. Whatever else is still left is sent to the outlet mall.”

Store in Style

The warehouse that stocks Harvey Nichols’ merchandise is in the Al Quoz Industrial area and is just one of the warehouses operated by Al Tayer Logistics. It is not exclusive to Harvey Nichols and services all the companies luxury brands. Purchased in 2005, it was converted into a distribution facility by the Al Tayer Logistics project team. All Al Tayer warehouses are temperature controlled.

As soon as stock arrives, it is unpacked, put on hangers, priced, security tagged and sent to the store. The store conducts further value added services such as steaming, but because the stock is moved so quickly it’s hardly subjected to any creasing. “Everything is treated with great care,” says Shepherd. “We ensure that all merchandise reaches our stores in perfect condition.”

Shipments arrive in Dubai by air from over 500 suppliers located in countries mainly in Asia, Europe and the Americas. The 52 staff members segregate shipments by store, scan them into the WMS system and place them in pallet storage by reach trucks, using hand held RF (Radio frequency) scanners. Within three to five days, the pricing is complete and the stock is withdrawn from storage and transferred to a processing area where the individual merchandise is priced and security tagged and made store ready. Merchandise is then scanned out of the warehouse and transported directly to stores within the average seven day window.

Fashionably challenged

We do face certain challenges in the region,” says Shepherd, explaining that the Middle East customs authorities require a country of origin statement for every item coming in. “As a number of the origin countries do not require this statement,” adds Shepherd, “some suppliers may face a challenge giving us a country of origin statement. This is an issue that can affect our overall efficiency. Although, this is not that much of a problem in Dubai.”

Another issue is organising the international supply chain. Shepherd says that some countries do not have regular flights coming into Dubai, hence they have to fly their merchandise through other centres, consolidating it in central, easily accessible ports, for example. Because the quantities purchased are generally small, however, bringing the supply chain together can be a challenge. “Dubai as a major international airline destination is not that much of a problem because now almost all major airlines come here, but some markets in the region can pose a difficulty at times and offer more of a challenge for our stock, as it may take longer to reach the stores,” he says.

Al Tayer is mulling expansion across various Middle East markets. Moving into Saudi Arabia could prove to be even more challenging as the kingdom’s customs procedures are traditionally stricter than other Middle Eastern countries. Efficiency is also a problem area there. “They’re not as efficient in Saudi Arabia as we are in Dubai for clearing shipments,” says Shepherd. “Our air shipments arriving in Dubai get cleared within a day of arriving. We’re also a known and accredited Platinum customer of Dubai Customs, which gives us the validation of having excellent, certified products.”

The portfolio

Al Tayer’s attire section is divided into two categories: Al Tayer Trends, which are the mass market brands like Gap, Banana Republic, Mamas and Papas, At Home, Texture and Galler Chocolates. The second category is Insignia. Labels that fall under Insignia are Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Emilio Pucci, Jean Paul Gaultier, Sergio Rossi among others. As if being the biggest high value fashion brand retailer in the UAE was not enough, expansion is being considered all over the region.

Organising events, congresses, conferences entails having everything in the right place at the right time. In order to execute successful events, Middle East based organisers are juggling with a variety of logistical challenges.

Imagine the logistics involved in the grandiose opening of the Atlantis hotel last month. The organisers of that event must be very pleased with themselves, though, since everything went according to plan.

For things to run like clock work, planning is key. Vishal D’Souza, Director – Operations, MCI Middle East says, “When a client approaches us for a congress, we have what we call at MCI a Product Organigram. This is a programme showing the client the different levels/components of services within a project. It’s just like setting up a new business.”

Vishal D’Souza, Director – Operations, MCI Middle East

MCI’s modus operandi in creating successful congresses such as FIATA is getting an idea of what the client has been used to in the past. D’Souza says, “We need to understand what they’ve done in the past, how have they operated or who they were working with and what was the structure being used previously to see if they are comfortable with the existing structure or if we need to create something new for them. Our focus here is if it is a new client, we do not want to do things too differently than what he/she is used to in order for the client to have the comfort level with us.”

MCI’s key focus is doing business as a professional congress organiser (PCO) although events also are very much part of the family as congresses have a number of social events and parties all linked into them. Clients usually contact MCI a year or six months in advance. MCI then sits with them to learn the way the client wants the congress to be executed presenting them with a breakdown of costs depending on the number of delegates expected to attend.

Activities typically executed by MCI when it commits to creating a congress include: sending invitations to delegates, organising registration of delegates with the appropriate number of MCI staff, pre-event communication, hotel procurement and management, onsite logistics, VIP and speaker management, sponsorship issues, the actual exhibition, creative production, transportation, social events and technical tours.

Challenges All of these components require a large percentage of logistical back up. Having extensive international and local experience, the challenges MCI faces are related to contracting of hotels/venues. “There are a lot of congresses that are keen to come to this region but there are no congress centres,” says D’Souza. The Dubai International Convention Centre (revamped in 2003 for the IMF) is the only dedicated exhibition centre in Dubai. “If you look at their calendar of events, there is no chance of getting availability for the next four to five years,” he continues.

But there’s hope. “There is a new convention centre coming up at the Jebel Ali airport, the Dubai airport free zone is planning something, so there is a lot of scope for conferences yet to come,” says D’Souza.

Challenges are many in the area of contracting. “Clients are not used to having to come to this part of the world and booking about 300 rooms in a hotel one year in advance and having to pay a 50 per cent deposit of the total cost to book their rooms because this doesn’t happen in Europe. The inventory of hotels in Europe is so large that hotels benefit when you make a large group booking as for that period of time they don’t have to worry about selling rooms because they are usually not running on full occupancy.”

Procurement is a way out of this. By acquiring long term contracts with hotels, transportation companies, F&B, catering and supplies reduces costs as well as establishes a two way benefit scheme.

The glamour quotient The Talent Brokers have been around for 30 years in Dubai. Having organised a number of concerts in Dubai and other regions, they know organising events like the back of their hands. Padma Coram, Managing Director, The Talent Brokers, says, “Organising events such as the ones we do is all about trial and error. I don’t think any textbook can give you the answer for it. Managing logistics is something you have to experience your self and be consciously doing what we do. You need to be passionate and know your territory very well. It doesn’t matter if you’re the biggest promoter in London, you come to Dubai and everything is different. People are different, the location is different, permissions and procedures are different. Also, just because an event works in India it might not work here, you really need to know your land, you need to know the pulse, the heart of the project.”

From left: Padma Coram, Managing Director, The Talent Brokers with Luciano Pavarotti and HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai and in the other picture with husband Richard Coram and Indian actress Kareena Kapoor

The biggest event organised by The Talent Brokers logistics wise was the Power Boat Race concert featuring Amr Diab way back in 1988. Being a free concert, Coram says they had about 60,000 people who attended that concert. “It was huge, probably a majority of the UAE population at the time came for it!”

Having concerts for 80,000 to 90,000 plus audiences in Dubai is simply not possible she says. A large concert with such capacities can happen in India but never here. “Last year, we had about 15,000 to 17,000 people who came to watch Elton John live in Abu Dhabi.”

Coram’s team is well-versed with organising such large open air concerts because having the hard earned experience helps in quick organisation. “It’s like working on a ready template but with different subjects each time,” she says, “we’ve done it so often.” So although she doesn’t have a permanent team, she has what she calls a permanent part-time team of companies to whom she contracts these tasks.

“It’s like setting up a city for a day and then taking it apart. We need to construct the entire stage area with the green room, VIP Lounge, refreshments are (sometimes artistes come with 200 people of their own and organising the logistics for their needs such as transportation, entourage, their own private jets and cargo planes has to be arranged), seating area, toilets. I often describe my job as that of a construction worker or toilet maker as we even have to make the drainage for the toilets,” she chuckles.

Challenges “In this country, my biggest challenge is a lack of a venue, lack of infrastructure, lack of a common location, traffic. Everything to do with an event that takes us all the time to manage such as facilities, generators, electricity that we don’t have because there is no permanent location. It’s my biggest challenge because we spend 90 per cent of our time constructing these facilities for a concert when we have to concentrate on other things such as the show itself. And, trust me, that is an enormous amount of work on its own. We seem to be concentrating on creating infrastructure and facilities of the country which we needn’t have to be doing,” she says. She likens her job to building an entire theatre to show one movie for one night and then taking it apart.

“After an event is over, we get blamed for the facilities or lack of them such as parking which wasn’t suitable or the traffic getting in and out of the venue. We aren’t responsible for that and shouldn’t be the ones to be blamed,” she says. “Unless there’s a venue, event logistics in the region will continue to be a nightmare. The venue cannot be built by a private company it has to be arranged for by the government. The way I see it, organising logistics for a country is about thinking of the future, it’s not about satisfying the needs of the present but anticipating the needs of the nation 70 to 80 years from now. It’s about respecting the people who reside in a country and envisioning their needs in advance, that is my take on planning logistics of a country.”

From its wide use on toll ways, to its extensive use in libraries to track, borrow and return books, to tracking products, improving visibility and also reducing inventory in the fashion industry, RFID is the technology of today and the future.

At the recent Arab-RFID 2008 conference, delegates from a variety of industries converged to share information about how RFID was being used in their respective fields to yield significant benefit and enhance overall effectiveness.

Daniel W Engels, Chief Technology Officer, Authenticrypt says, “RFID is going to enable a revolution in the medical industry in how we are going to take care of people.”

A shortage of nursing staff is commonplace in all hospitals. With RFID, nurses will be able to do their jobs more efficiently and have more time to care for patients. Since RFID enables greater asset management and efficiency, it makes it easier to find IV pumps, beds, determine correct patients, freeing up time for a nurse. This leads to better management, better monitoring of drugs being given to patients reducing patient errors, pharmaceutical errors, medical errors which happen in hospitals and in some cases can have lethal/life altering effects on patients.

Mistakes happen directly due to human error. Human error occurs if nurses are over worked and if there are no strict and regular checks as sometimes errors can also be caused through the system. “RFID can automate and take the human completely out of the loop,” adds Engels.

Another example where RFID can be of great use and benefit is in the case of implants. Implants such as pacemakers and their batteries need to be replaced in a timely manner. Stents are implanted in arteries to expand and push it open. They are medicated in order to reduce the inflammation caused by the blockage. One of the biggest causes of re-blockage of arteries typically within six to 12 months is scar tissue which starts forming on the ends of the stents causing another heart attack. The only way to know what is happening inside the artery is to put a catheter and check. Being a long procedure many doctors do not usually go through with it so effectively another heart attack could prove the re-blockage! If a RFID pressure sensor is put on the stent, a reader will be able to detect a change and would be able to point to doctors to check on the patient’s heart.

Tyres

As diverse as tyres are from the medical field, RFID is being used to identify tyres for transport fleet managers making fleet management easier.

RFID being a hard chip seems to be out of place in flexible and bendable tyres, not according to Patrick F King, Global Electronics Strategist, Michelin. He says, “B2B industries like transportation companies with a number of trucks, airlines and construction vehicle companies have a potential business benefit. I don’t know if passenger tyres will ever have RFID because of the cost factor involved.”

Michelin is cautiously moving forward to a place where RFID in tyres will be widespread and they are mitigating a risk by wilfully releasing the research they are conducting on the use of RFID in tyres in order to establish a tyre standard for the future. “So, if our plan is effective and if RFID does end up in tyres (which for trucks, airlines and other industries get re-treaded) it will be of immense value for an organisation.

King believes that where there is a real value in assets and if there is a chain of custody involved, RFID is necessary. “Our approach is different, we believe it’s going to happen, we believe in standards, in having harmonisation. It has to be a disciplined process and has to have benefits.”

From left: Patrick F King, Global Economic Strategist, Michelin and Daniel W Engels, Chief Technology Officer, Authenticrypt

Robotic future?

So what about the future of this technology? “An organisation led by the government of Korea has what it calls the Internet of Things. Also known as ubiquitous RFID, what actually happens is if you have a certain number of tagged items and with the way in which the technology is moving forward, the items can actually interact with themselves,” says King.

In simple words, if you have say a number of tagged cutlery and if you send a piece of information through a reader, which is captured by one of the tagged items say a napkin, it could actually inform you that it was sitting next to a plate! And so they would have some interaction.

Another vision sees devices actually looking at their location, proximity and other details and reporting as a community. With the more distinct part also dealing with sensors with which devices can not only communicate to you about what’s going on but also give each other commands!

Here’s to the future.

Thomas Varghese seems angry. He doesn’t mince his words. That’s not to say he’s having a rough day or that he doesn’t like his job. He loves being a driver, he says and likes the three-tonne pick up he drives all around Dubai and Sharjah making deliveries for his company Nikai Electronics.

But still I get the impression he feels life could have been better. From when he was little, Varghese wanted to be in the military defending his country. “But God did not help me,” he says. He flunked his pre-degree exams when he was 18, which left him with almost no options. He could either choose to work on his family’s medium-sized rubber plantation in Kerala or do something else. He chose to drive taxis around his small town for a living. Soon, he was good enough to drive buses, too.

After getting married and settling down with his little family in his father’s house, an artificial flowers company in Saudi Arabia offered Varghese a position as driver. He grabbed the opportunity and left India to make a better living. Since his parents have passed away, Varghese’s wife was left to manage the plantation which he co owns with his brother.

Ten years ago, he came to Dubai and has been working here ever since. “This is a good place to work. I don’t want to go back and work on my plantation, as I manage to make good money here and also save for my daughter’s education and wedding,” he says. “My daughter is going to be a nurse once she passes her BSc in Nursing.” He is very proud his elder son is already a qualified nurse, working at the Apollo Hospital in Kolkata.

So what is his typical day like? He wakes up early to wash clothes, cook, eat breakfast and leaves his crowded accommodation around 7.30am to report for duty at Nikai’s Dubai Investments Park office. “I don’t manage to cook daily,” says Varghese, so on those days it’s the hotels and many cafeterias around the city he relies on for lunch and dinner. Once he reaches the office, he picks up all the deliveries he has to do for the day and goes about his routine.

His beat used to be Ras Al Khaimah and Abu Dhabi but those areas are now being covered by newer recruits. So, although Sharjah and Dubai are congested, he still prefers working in these cities, “as it’s less dangerous on congested roads than on roads that are relatively free”. Being with the company for six years gives him a little bit more freedom than others to choose the areas he has to cover.

Weekends are spent cooking and watching television. Even after all these years of cooking on his own, he hasn’t yet managed to replicate the perfect fish curry his wife effortlessly conjures up in minutes whenever he visits.

December this year is the time he goes to Kerala on his annual leave and according to Varghese, “It cannot come soon enough.”

Khalid Abdullah Al Hawai, Managing Director, Mashaweer Transport

The transportation business is not perfect, it can never be. It is one business that can never be without problems,” says Khalid Abdullah Al Hawai, Managing Director, Mashaweer Transport.

Having said that, Al Hawai has a very positive outlook. “Our trucks are always on the roads, which means unending situations of maintenance, violations, heavy fines. But the more the challenges in your way, the higher is the level of satisfaction when you are able to overcome those challenges successfully,” he adds.

Driver shortages Speaking of his biggest challenge – driver shortages he says, “Since the beginning of this year the transfer of GCC heavy duty licences to that of UAE heavy duty licenses was stopped. Which means all those GCC heavy duty drivers were unqualified when they came to the UAE for jobs.”

This caused a mass exodus of drivers to greener pastures. And for those who stuck around, it meant costly training that could not be funded without a pay cheque. And for the lucky few who were UAE-qualified it meant high salaries as demand surpassed supply.

Ten months into the year, Al Hawai has managed to sort that problem out by recruiting a number of GCC-qualified drivers (they have fewer tests than those who are not) and getting them enrolled into driving institutes. “Each month I get around four to five licensed drivers. So steadily our driver situation is improving,” says Al Hawai. Although he admits, salaries being demanded are still very high.

“Because of salaries, drivers are not willing to stick around because they know they will get fatter salaries else-where,” continues Al Hawai. “At Mashaweer, we offer them a good working environment and three-year contracts so we can atleast recover the investment we made in getting them trained.”

Al Hawai says forward thinking goes a long way in keeping any venture afloat. He now has 10 drivers on standby and a satisfying rotating stock to cover for emergencies.

“These days we face a very big problem in the form of heavy fines for any violation on the road. A fine which would earlier cost AED500 now costs AED3,000,” says Al Hawai. Which means drivers lose their entire month’s salary paying for the fine. “That depresses them a lot,” he adds. “So, they just go to the GCC countries where fines are low and rules are not so strict and traffic is also not such a big issue.”

“We try and mentor them,” Al Hawai says, “and support them wherever possible. Such as when they are not able to complete their daily quota of trips due to road blocks, traffic or even delays from the client’s side. We allow them to make up for lost time the next day.”

“We have a very systematic way of working, solutions have to be found to the problems as no problem is without a solution. All our departments are working to their best efficiencies and so we’re very much above all the challenges that we come across daily.”

But he agrees that having friends in high places helps. “It gives us an edge over the competition,” Al Hawai elaborates, “Having and keeping good relations is a cultural thing. This country does not have a dishonest system of functioning, but having influence helps.” Which in simple words translates to quicker dates for driver tests.

Border issues When asked about the competition, Al Hawai says, “Business is good. In the last seven to eight years, we have experienced annual growths of 25 to 30 per cent. Volumes have increased in a big way. There’s room for all of us, the competition only makes us better at our job. We have a strong reputation in the market, we are committed to our clients.”

And for the sake of their clients Mashaweer is starting services to Saudi Arabia soon. “If we want we can start operations to Saudi Arabia today, but economically it’s a difficult decision,” he says.

Saudi Arabia is notorious for the delays at its borders clearing customs and Al Hawai opines that they can make much more money continuing as they are with operations across the UAE and Oman. “If we calculate the number of trucks going to Saudi Arabia and see how many trips they manage to make there, the numbers aren’t forthcoming.” And the rapid depreciation of the vehicles doing such long distances will only add to costs. “But some of our regular clients are insisting as it’s easier for them to handle one forwarder. So we are going to start soon.” Saudi Arabian rules and regulations make the requirement for Arabic-speaking drivers essential.

Is insurance another major cost when dealing with cross-border transport? Al Hawai doesn’t think so. “For the cargo we carry, we have haulers’ insurance which is covered all over the emirates and Oman. So it’s nothing special. In case of an accident we can claim up to AED200,000 each time. Usually the cargo is not worth that much, but when it is we have special coverage for it. Totally, all our vehicles are covered under a million dirham policy with unlimited coverage. Other than that, all our vehicles have third party insurance and on the Omani border vehicle insurance is bought for AED600 for a period of six months. We hardly have any accidents happening with our vehicles, though.”

Delays Speaking about delays, Al Hawai says, “The traffic situation we are finally managing to overcome. It used to be a nightmare, especially sticking to timeliness with our trucks. But with all the new roads and expansions of existing ones, congestions have reduced considerably.”

Currently 80 per cent of Mashaweer’s business is movement of containers from Jebel Ali port (they move approximately 500 containers daily) and 20 per cent is loose cargo (tiles, pvc pipes etc).

Out of their 140 Mercedes trucks, most are leased out on a fixed monthly basis, where Mashaweer receives a lump sum from the client which covers all their operation costs.

Fuel costs, too, are adjusted accordingly with clients. “Of course, our transportation costs were not increased in accordance with the high diesel costs which were changing daily in the last six months,” continues Al Hawai. Customers accepted the marginal increases in their rates, and the rest were absorbed considerably by Mashaweer. “We have to keep our relations,” he says.

So what about the bottom line? Al Hawai says Mashaweer continues to meet its goals. “We have transactions per day, and values haven’t gone below the rate of our interests, the rate of transportation is a standard rate which has never gone below our target,” he says.

Seasoned player “When we started off in the early 1990s, we had only one vehicle. We steadily added to it making a fleet of 140 trucks and about 400 multi utility trailers today,” says Al Hawai. But with all the inflation, a second hand truck which costed Mashaweer AED50,000 about 10 years ago, costs them AED200,000 today. “A new Mercedes truck from Al Gargash will cost me half a million,” he says.

Having a new truck is not what one needs in the business. “Right now our trucks are 1995, 1998 models, they’re all road worthy vehicles and don’t require much maintaining,” he says. But that’s because Mashaweer has invested heavily over the years towards a mechanical and electrical division and its own garage and even several mobile workshops which are three to seven tonne pick ups completely geared to handle any kind of breakdowns.

“We’ve even invested in GPS and GPRS on about 70 of our vehicles,” says Al Hawai proudly. One of the main reasons for this was client satisfaction, so as to provide complete visibility to the client in the trucks leased out to them as well as reducing operation costs of tracking vehicles for the clients on Mashaweer’s side.

Did you know that the majority of the gold which is refined annually around the world is recycled material as opposed to newly mined material? In simple words, you probably possess something Nefertiti owned.

“Gold stays around forever,” says Corey Keller, General Manager, Al Ghurair Giga Gold Refinery. “It’s there on the periodic table along with silver, platinum and palladium. It’s not going anywhere as it’s always held value and people are careful to maintain it. It might get found at the bottom of a pyramid, but regardless of where it’s found, once it is, off it goes into the recycling chain,” he says. “If it was found once, it’s probably still in the market.”

Corey Keller, General Manager, Al Ghurair Giga Gold Refinery

It is a wonder then why prices are so high these days if so much gold is circulating in the market with more being mined daily. Supply surely has to be overshadowing demand. “About four to five years ago, the gold market was responding to the basic principles of supply and demand. As gold mines were mining large quantities, supply was more than demand hence prices were low,” says Keller.

In the last year or so, however, exchange traded funds have allowed more people to buy the physical metal easily. Before one would have to visit a gold refinery or a bank to purchase gold and then find a place to store it. And if you wanted to sell, you’d have to do so only at a discount to the banks or the refineries. Other options such as mutual finds were more profitable to invest in. Now, though, the exchange traded fund works much like a mutual fund, where you just pick up the phone and a trader will buy the gold for you, store it, sell it when you want to and send you the money with the profit or charge you for the loss. This easy access to the gold market has sent prices through the roof.

The entrance to the refinery

The supply chain The supply chain of gold essentially starts when someone owns a lease for a piece of ground which has gold in it. The owner of the land then invests hundreds of millions of dollars to put an infrastructure in place to mine the gold.

There are two places where gold is found: Usually, either a historic river bed where you dig up the dirt and gold comes up in the form of little flakes or nuggets, or mountains of rock with gold in it. These mountains are run through a cyanide leach which picks up the gold out of the rocks and the rocks are returned where they were found, minus the gold. These are the two kinds of gold that show up in gold bars.

After gold is found in mines, some mine owners melt the gold on site to determine the quality and value by weight and the metal’s percentage of gold. Alluvial gold from a river bed usually comes out looking like regular gold – nuggets or flakes. Those flakes or nuggets are then sent for a test to determine quality which is fairly consistent all through the river bed.

Transportation How the gold is transported from the mines depends largely on the size of the mines. Most of the huge, international mining giants who are present in places like Ghana, West Africa, have their own helicopter service from the mine site to Accra, the capital city, where the international airport is located. They also use the services of international security freight forwarding companies like Brinks or G4S who use armoured vehicles to transport the gold.

At the airport, the gold is loaded on to a commercial or private plane if the owner has delivered it by his own helicopter. If it has been assigned to Brinks or G4S, from the point the security company is signed off, they ensure completely the safety of the material to the doorstep of the refinery. In either case, the gold is insured for its value before being sent out anywhere. Without the security company the owner has corporate insurance protect the gold and in case of the security company, they always provide the kind of solid insurance policy a shipment of such high value needs. “Transportation and insurance is where all the money is made in the gold business,” says Keller.

A furnace inside the refinery

Refining “It doesn’t matter what form it shows up in at our doorstep,” continues Keller, “because it all goes into the melt sample area.” This is a place in the refinery the customer can come into as well. He is allowed to witness the melt and sample of the material. It’s basically where the gold is cleaned up from the dust and melted and poured into a nice, clean bar. A sample is sent to the lab and another sample is given to the customer to get it checked out in an independent laboratory. Values are then cross-checked. Once the client is satisfied of the accuracy, the refinery purchases the material from the client.

Once the gold has been acquired, it is converted by the refinery from an unusable metal to one that is usable and of investment grade, which is as close as it can get to liquidity or money. Customers of the refinery are anyone who wants the gold bar for investment purposes (to sit on till the price increases) or industrial purposes. Categories that fall in the industrial purpose of gold are: jewelers who melt the gold again and bring it down to 22 carat, 18 carat or 14 carat gold, depending on what kind of jewellery they are planning to make; as well as manufacturers of satellites or computers.

Biggest market Africa, particularly South Africa has the largest gold refineries in the world, which tend to be government run operations. South Africa is on the top of the list for the amount of gold being mined. Canada, too, is on the list for mining as well as China and Russia.

In terms of recycling jewellery, India is by far the biggest market. Keller says, “Going by gold sales, Dubai is somewhere near the top of the list. The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) – a regulatory authority we work under – suggests that 10 to 15 per cent of the annual volume of the metal is run through Dubai, so it’s certainly becoming a big player.”

Spinneys, Jumeirah Beach Road

In Dubai’s heat, even a few minutes in traffic can shrivel all the fresh produce you have stacked in your boot after a grocery shopping spree. But supermarket giant Spinneys obviously has its business down pat. Not only can you find the freshest fruits, vegetables, cheeses and ready meals, they’re also available
at a premium.

“We like to brag about our fresh produce which is airlifted on a daily basis from different parts of the world – Holland, Lebanon, UK among others,” says Muhammed Zahir Asif, Head of Logistics at the high end grocery chain. “That’s our forte and we’re proud of it.”

“The reason for the pride in our selection is because what we have in our stores is not present anywhere else,” continues Asif. “This is what sets us apart.”

But, with the skyrocketing price of fuel these days, airlifting comes at a high price. “We do not pass the extra cost of airlifting to our consumers,” says Asif. “We’re absorbing most and passing only some of the cost. Profits have been affected, but volume of sales has also increased, thereby balancing out the bottom line.”

Fresh produce is Spinneys’ top line product, having experienced a 55 per cent growth in the last two years. “Our customers are willing to pay a little more for the quality and it is our duty to make sure of their satisfaction,” says Asif. The queues which are always a norm at the check out counters are proof enough.

Managing the operations and logistics of the products is running smooth currently. The main and largest warehouse (around 130,000 sq feet in size) is located in Al Quoz. It has a capacity to house 13,000 pallets and also has 31,215 sq feet of refrigerated space. Another cold space warehouse in Aweer stores all the fresh produce and ready to eat food. Spinneys has also rented space in JAFZA on an e-governance basis for its online clearance facility. In this system, the duty for the goods is paid as and when they move out of the warehouse.

Muhammed Zahir Asif, Head of Logistics, Spinneys

Twenty two refrigerated vehicles deliver products to 34 Spinneys stores around the emirates. And each vehicle is dedicated to delivering one of the three types of products
– fresh, frozen and non-perishables. Deliveries happen round the clock, starting from four in the morning and continuing until midnight. Traffic is the only challenge that causes hindrances in the flow of supply.

All branches are connected to a centralised system that runs on SAP. At present, the auto replenishment system is being streamlined on a few major categories of products such as dental products and juices. This will mean each branch will be able to place orders on the system based on sales and the warehouse will deliver only required quantities. This will improve efficiency as compared to the present system, where for instance, a few imported dry line items such as Waitrose products and spaghetti are delivered on alternate days from the warehouse to all the stores.

Challenges are being overcome on an ongoing basis. Prior to SAP, product quantities were counted when they left the centralised warehouse and then were counted again by the store staff upon receipt and before off loading. This caused delays in delivery times all round. Now, however a pre-set number of each product leaves the warehouse for each store and is not counted upon arrival. This has caused the number of deliveries possible in a day to dramatically increase making life easy.

Internationally, the supply chain is being managed quite efficiently. Since a large volume of their products are from different parts of the world, Spinneys recently acquired the John Hold warehouse in Houston, USA, where a lot of the products gather and then are either shipped or airlifted depending on their type to the Middle East. Once the products reach the UAE, customs clearing agent AMI – a 3PL – handles 100 per cent of all the air and sea clearances. Of course, being a Platinum customer of Dubai Customs also comes in handy.

Business at Spinneys is definitely booming. The grocery store chain is now awaiting the opening of its biggest store in the region – all of 55,000 sq feet in Dubai Mall. Depending on the completion of the mall, the store is expected to throw open its doors sometime end of this month. In the last three years, Spinneys has opened eight new stores in Oman bringing the grand total to 45 stores in the region.

Asif is proud of his company’s achievements. “It’s been 40 years since the first Spinneys opened in Dubai,” he says, “but the rate of growth has been mercurial in the last four to five years. That can easily be attributed to our new CEO, Jannie Holtzhausen. From the time he joined, we’ve grown from about eight to 10 stores to 45 today.” Another 27,000 sq foot store is going to open soon in the Marina Mall, Dubai Marina.

“When our new more than 660,000 sq foot warehouse in the Dubai Logistics City is constructed and complete, we will shift base there. It’s a fantastic location, right next to the new airport. It’s going to be fitted out with the latest technology. It’s going to be huge,” he says proudly.

Hussein Hachem, CEO – GCC, Aramex

Hachem joined Aramex in their Management Trainee programme in 1990, right after he graduated from the American University of Beirut.Beirut was recovering from a civil war and Hachem took the job as way to leave the country. At a time when opportunities were limited, Hachem considers himself lucky to have gotten out.

And, luckily, Hachem’s career grew with the company. “When I joined, I was sent to Jordan for eight months of training,” he says. “After that I went to Kuwait to set up a new office. It was very exciting as we were witnessing the construction and rebuilding of the city after the Gulf war.” The company’s growth in Kuwait was staggering, says Hachem – a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

After eight years in Kuwait, he moved on to Sri Lanka, what he describes as the logistics hub of the Indian Subcontinent. Four years later, in 2002, he moved to the UAE. “When I came to Dubai, I was handling Dubai and the Northern Emirates, then I moved to handling UAE and Oman and now I’m running the Gulf,” he says proudly.

Hachem even refuses to talk about his himself without taking Aramex into consideration. In fact, he knows himself very little outside Aramex. “I do not know myself as a professional outside the industry because I haven’t worked anywhere else,” he says.

The courier business is his comfort zone. “I’m a demanding, aggressive and results oriented person,” he says. “For me things have to happen now.”

But he is not fiery enough to shout at his staff. He believes in nurturing his employees, giving them the right work environment and a satisfying career path. He feels because Aramex has been around – through price fluctuations, depression, war – the company has been able to evolve its culture, its leadership and its customer confidence. This in turn has given employees an environment of transparency, mutual support, competitiveness and aggressiveness.

Hachem says, “We let our new recruits exercise their ideas. We self-criticise and challenge each other for the best of the company. It’s not an individualistic but a group approach.”

Being in an industry where every minute counts, Hachem says that he is accessible 24/7, even when he is on holiday with his family. But he enjoys spending time with them most. After seven years in Dubai, he feels he is at home.

Hachem also seems comfortable with his routine, commuting from Barsha to either the Aramex office near the Dubai Airport or the office in Jebel Ali, if he is not travelling. And by 10:30 am, he is on his third cup of coffee. “I like my coffee,” he says, “and I like to smoke.”