Coal transport in Kenya

Fuel supply chains cannot run on best effort

Industrial consumers of coal — cement kilns, lime plants, sugar mills, tea factories, steel and glass works — hold limited stock on site. When coal deliveries slip, consumption does not pause politely; stock cover erodes, and at some point production planning starts working around fuel rather than demand. The transport programme has to be built against burn rate and days of cover, not against whatever tonnage happens to move in a given week.

FleetGrid Africa plans coal haulage from that starting point. We look at your consumption rate, the stock cover you want to hold, the receiving capability at your site and the realistic cycle time on the route, then determine the daily tonnage and vehicle count required to hold that cover steady.

Vehicles are sourced from vetted transport partners rather than owned by us. Our accountability is the plan, the allocation, the monitoring and the tonnage that actually lands in your yard.

• Imported coal evacuated from Mombasa to inland industrial consumers
• Deliveries to cement kilns, lime plants, boilers and processing factories
• Continuous supply programmes planned against burn rate and stock cover
• Spot movements to cover shortfalls and unplanned demand

Sheeting, spillage and environmental responsibility

Coal is dusty, dark and highly visible when it ends up on the road. Poor sheeting creates a genuine safety hazard for following traffic, draws enforcement attention, and reflects badly on the consumer whose name is on the delivery note. Correct covering is a non-negotiable condition of allocation on every coal load we coordinate, checked before dispatch rather than assumed.

Loading practice matters too. Overfilled bodies shed material at the first hard braking event regardless of how well they are sheeted. We plan tonnage to the legal axle limit and to a body level that can actually be covered, which resolves both the spillage and the compliance problem in the same decision.

Where a receiving site has its own environmental or safety requirements around coal handling, those are passed to the partner as part of the allocation briefing so drivers arrive knowing what is expected at the gate.

Port evacuation and inland delivery

Coal arriving through Mombasa has to be evacuated within the windows the terminal and your storage arrangements allow. Demurrage and storage charges accumulate quickly, so coordination between vessel discharge, stockpile availability and truck presentation is where the money is won or lost.

We plan port evacuation as a concentrated programme: how many trucks must present per day, over how many days, to clear the tonnage within the window. Partners are briefed on port access procedures and documentation so vehicles are not turned away at the gate for avoidable reasons.

On the inland leg, route planning accounts for weighbridges, urban restrictions and the access conditions at the receiving plant. Sites with restricted turning space, tipping constraints or limited receiving hours are flagged before allocation, not discovered by a driver at midnight.

Tonnage accuracy and reporting

Coal is bought by weight and burned by weight, so tonnage accuracy is a commercial issue rather than an administrative one. Weights are captured at loading and at receipt, variance is reported per load, and the documentation pack returned to you supports reconciliation against both supplier and transport invoicing.

Reporting on a continuous programme covers delivered tonnage against plan, cycles completed, on-time presentation at your gate and an exception log. Over time that record also shows where cycle time is lost, which is usually the cheapest lever available for increasing delivered tonnage without adding vehicles.