South Africa’s road transport industry is entering a period of significant change, with rising operating costs, new energy technologies and rapid advances in digitalisation placing greater emphasis on efficiency, vehicle productivity and lifecycle costs. For truck and trailer body builder Serco, these trends are shaping both its view of the market and its innovation priorities for 2027.

Serco CEO Clinton Holcroft believes the next phase of commercial vehicle development will be increasingly influenced by the following interconnected themes: reducing vehicle weight and improving efficiency, the gradual adoption of alternative energy vehicles and the greater use of data and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve vehicle performance and uptime. 

“Transporters ultimately need vehicles that carry the maximum productive payload, are reliable, cost-effective to operate and spend as little time as possible off the road,” said Holcroft. “The technologies are changing, but those fundamental customer requirements remain the same,” said Holcroft.

He said 2026 was proving to be a demanding one for the logistics industry, with sharply higher diesel costs adding further pressure to already competitive operating conditions. “Serco has seen transporters respond by extending the operating life of existing equipment and placing increased emphasis on maintenance, reliability and vehicle utilisation. Fuel pressures intensified towards the latter part of the year with South African diesel prices rising sharply again in October, adding further impetus to the industry’s search for greater operating efficiency,” said Holcroft. 

Despite the difficult environment, Serco achieved marginal year-on-year improvement, recording more than 8% growth in repair sales, while continuing to broaden its dry-freight product offering and customer base.

The company also placed particular emphasis on reducing customer downtime. Its Johannesburg facility was expanded during the year, adding capacity for both after-sales repairs and new-body manufacturing, with further improvements to the facility and layout under review. 

“In a difficult operating environment, keeping existing equipment productive becomes increasingly important,” said Holcroft. “Our focus has therefore not only been on manufacturing new vehicles but also on improving the speed and efficiency of our repair services to help customers reduce downtime.”

Holcroft expects the drive towards lower tare weight and improved aerodynamics to accelerate, regardless of the vehicle’s power source.

The benefit for a conventional fleet is the potential for improved payload and fuel efficiency. For battery-electric vehicles, weight becomes particularly important because body specification needs to balance payload, durability and vehicle range.

Serco has already started applying lightweight construction principles to truck bodies built for electric vehicles (EVs) introduced into the South African market this year. 

“With electric vehicles, every kilogram becomes increasingly important. The challenge for body builders is not simply to make a body lighter. It is to reduce weight intelligently while maintaining the strength, durability and practicality customers expect.”

Serco therefore forecasts continued development in areas including composite materials, high-strength lightweight steels, aluminium construction and aerodynamic body design. The company plans to further develop its EV body range during 2027 while continuing research into materials and designs capable of reducing tare without compromising durability. 

Holcroft believes electric commercial vehicles will become increasingly relevant to selected South African transport applications as vehicle choice expands and the commercial case improves.

However, Holcroft cautions that adoption will not happen overnight. “Electric trucks need to make operational and commercial sense for the fleet. Range, payload, charging infrastructure, vehicle utilisation, support and total cost of ownership – all have to be considered. As those elements improve, we expect more transporters to evaluate where EVs can fit successfully into their operations.”

Serco expects its role to remain centred on helping operators extract maximum value from whichever vehicle platform they select by developing bodies that combine low tare weight, durability, load-carrying capability and practical operating features. 

Another major development Holcroft sees gathering momentum is the convergence of trailers, telematics, sensors and AI.

Trailers are already increasingly capable of generating operational information through technologies such as real-time load monitoring, tyre-pressure monitoring, temperature tracking and door-opening alerts. Serco sees the next opportunity as converting more of this information into actionable insight, including proactive maintenance and fleet optimisation. 

“The opportunity is for the trailer to evolve from simply being an asset that carries freight into an intelligent asset that provides operators with useful information about its condition and operation.”

Serco is currently evaluating new features using telematics and sensors to support proactive trailer maintenance as well as camera technologies aimed at reducing vehicle damage during docking and unloading operations. 

AI could also increasingly influence the engineering process. Serco sees potential for AI-assisted tools to help engineers analyse load patterns, optimise structural designs, reduce material usage and improve stress and fatigue analysis. 

Rather than positioning AI as a replacement for engineering expertise, Holcroft believes its value will lie in augmenting engineering capability and accelerating innovation.

“The exciting opportunity is combining the experience of our engineers with increasingly sophisticated digital tools. If we can design lighter and stronger products, identify maintenance requirements earlier and give fleet operators better information, technology translates into real customer value.”

Looking ahead, Serco expects trading conditions to remain challenging while fleet operators continue to manage high operating costs and ageing equipment. At the same time, the need to replace overextended vehicles should create opportunities for newer, more efficient and reliable equipment.

Against this backdrop, Serco’s priorities for 2027 will include further development of its lightweight and EV-ready body range, continued research into advanced materials, greater integration of telematics and smart technologies, further improvements in repair turnaround times, and development of the skills required for an increasingly digital and electrified transport industry. 

“We don’t believe innovation should be about technology for technology’s sake,” Holcroft concluded. “For our customers, innovation must translate into better payload, lower operating costs, increased uptime, improved safety and longer asset life. That is where we see the greatest opportunity for Serco as the transport industry evolves.”

Clinton Holcroft, CEO of Serco (Pty) Ltd

A year ago, AI assistants sent this business no visitors. Now they do. For transport, logistics and supply chain companies, the way buyers shortlist carriers and freight partners is changing too.

IMS‘s work with Big Talk Entertainment shows how AI search is starting to influence how South African businesses are found. The lessons apply across the sector, from freight operators, couriers and clearing agents to warehousing, cold chain and supply chain software firms.

Between February and July 2026, Big Talk Entertainment recorded 28 website sessions from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Over the same period in 2025, Google Analytics 4 recorded none. The Cape Town entertainment agency worked with Johannesburg-based digital agency IMS to make its website easier for search engines and generative AI tools to find, understand and cite.

The numbers are still small, and IMS is candid about that. “The direction is what matters,” says IMS’s Chief Disruptor, Francois Vorster. “A way of finding customers that did not exist a year ago now does.”

Over the same six months, new visitors from Google search rose 67%, and people typing the website’s address directly into their browser, often a sign that someone remembers a brand, rose 87%.

Why This Matters for Logistics

Big Talk is not a logistics business, but its corporate buyers behave like yours. They research several suppliers before they make contact, and in logistics a poor choice means late deliveries and damaged stock. More of that research now starts with a question put to an AI tool, such as “Which freight forwarders handle cross-border shipments to Zambia?” or “Who offers warehousing near the Durban port?”

“Choosing a logistics, transport or supply chain partner is a high-stakes decision, so buyers research thoroughly before they request a quote, and more of that research now starts in an AI tool and not a Google search,” says Vorster. “We can’t say for certain how much of the improvement came from traditional search work and how much from the AI-focused work. What we can say is that AI tools have become a measurable new source of visitors for a business that had none a year ago.”

What IMS Did

IMS combined traditional search work with making the business easier for AI tools to find and recommend: improving the website’s technical foundations, rewriting pages to answer the questions customers ask, and keeping the business’s details consistent everywhere AI tools look.

For a logistics business, that means clearly explained services, current coverage areas and routes, fleet and capabilities, licences and certifications, and answers to common shipper questions.

“A few years ago, nobody asked ChatGPT to recommend a band for their wedding. Now many people do,” says Deon Schlebusch, Managing Director of Big Talk Entertainment. “We are not walking away from the channels that have always worked for us, but we’d be foolish to ignore a new one that’s starting to send us business leads.”

A Word of Caution

The results come from Big Talk’s own analytics, comparing 1 February to 31 July 2026 with the same period in 2025. Because traditional and AI-focused work ran together, the growth cannot be credited to the AI work alone, and any link between AI recommendations and direct visits cannot be proven from the data. “We would rather show what we can actually measure than overclaim,” says Vorster.

Logistics businesses should also make sure claims about coverage, transit times, licences and safety records are accurate and verifiable, because buyers rely on what AI tools tell them.

What is GEO?

Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO, is the practice of making a business easier for AI tools to find and recommend. Where SEO is about ranking on Google, GEO is about being the answer an AI tool gives.

The full case study is available at https://imsolutions.co.za/news/big-talk-entertainment/

Francois Vorster, IMS Chief Disruptor

Deon Schlebusch, Managing Director of Big Talk Entertainment

South Africa’s green hydrogen ambitions are becoming less about producing another energy source and more about building an industrial base around it.

Speaking at the Africa Green Hydrogen Summit in Cape Town, Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau said government views green hydrogen as part of a broader industrialisation agenda, alongside sustainable aviation fuel, green chemicals, green shipping fuels, advanced manufacturing and new export industries.

For South Africa’s supply-chain industry, that distinction matters.

The opportunity is not simply to produce hydrogen and send it overseas. It is to develop the infrastructure, manufacturing capacity and supporting industries needed to produce, move and use it.

Building an Industry Around Hydrogen

Green hydrogen does not exist in isolation. Producing it at scale requires renewable energy, specialised equipment, infrastructure and facilities capable of handling the resulting products.

That creates potential demand across a much wider industrial network.

South Africa will need companies that can supply equipment and components, develop and maintain production facilities, provide storage and transportation solutions, and support the conversion of hydrogen into products such as green ammonia and sustainable fuels.

The more of that value chain that can be developed locally, the greater the potential economic impact.

This is central to the government’s stated industrialisation approach. The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s green hydrogen strategy positions hydrogen alongside other industries that could help South Africa move further up the value chain and export more value rather than raw resources.

Investment is Beginning to Move

There are already signs that the infrastructure behind the sector is starting to take shape.

Through the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan programme management office at the Industrial Development Corporation, government has identified 24 strategic integrated projects, several of which have already reached the pre-feasibility stage. The projects are backed by €40 million from Germany’s KfW Development Bank.

In August, Climate Fund Managers closed the first R3 billion of the South Africa Green Hydrogen Fund. A further R628 million in grants has also been made available through the European Union’s Global Gateway programme.

Of that funding, R490 million is intended to leverage investment in hydrogen infrastructure, with government projecting that it could mobilise a further R10 billion. Another R138 million is intended to help Transnet green its own operations.

These investments matter because an industrial supply chain cannot develop around projects that remain disconnected from the infrastructure needed to support them.

Six Projects Move the Sector Closer to Implementation

The scale of the opportunity is becoming clearer as government moves its first six priority projects forward.

Announced on 15 September, the first wave covers several parts of the green hydrogen value chain, including sustainable aviation fuel, green ammonia, lower-emissions iron and steel, green methanol and domestic hydrogen demand.

The Phelan Green Group electro-Sustainable Aviation Fuel project in Saldanha Bay has reached a final investment decision after securing an off-take agreement and a $100 million equity commitment. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027, with first exports targeted for the first quarter of 2029.

The other five projects are at different stages of development. The Coega Green Ammonia Project has completed early preparatory work but requires further commercial, technical and financing work before reaching a final investment decision. The Saldanha Hydrogen Direct Reduced Iron Project is at pre-feasibility stage, while the Prieska Power Reserve is at development stage.

The Green e-Fuels Producers Green Methanol Corridor is at pre-feasibility stage and is targeting European demand, while Green Hydrogen Solutions, which is focused primarily on South African demand, has completed front-end engineering design.

The significance for supply chains is that these projects extend beyond hydrogen production itself. Government says the wider green hydrogen economy should support industries including fertiliser, green iron and steel, sustainable fuels, equipment, engineering and related services. The full announcement on South Africa’s first six priority green hydrogen projects provides more detail on their respective stages.

That means a successful hydrogen economy could require an entire network of businesses and infrastructure around it.

Coega Could Provide a Glimpse of What Comes Next

One project that illustrates this approach is the Coega Green Ammonia Project, which government has identified as South Africa’s lighthouse green hydrogen project.

Through the Critical Infrastructure Programme Fund, the dtic is supporting Hive Hydrogen in developing the project. Hive Hydrogen has completed financial due diligence, unlocking R12.5 million of an initial R25 million in project-development funding, with a further R25 million funding application expected at financial close.

The importance of projects such as this extends beyond the production facility itself.

A large-scale green ammonia operation requires connections to energy infrastructure, industrial facilities, storage, transport and ultimately domestic or international customers. Each connection creates another part of the supply chain that needs to function effectively.

The Opportunity Goes Beyond Exports

South Africa has significant potential to become an exporter of green hydrogen-related products, but an export strategy on its own would leave much of the potential value outside the country.

The broader industrialisation approach creates another possibility.

Green hydrogen could support the development of industries that manufacture equipment, process raw materials, produce chemicals and fuels, and provide specialised technical and logistics services.

That could create a more complex industrial ecosystem in which companies supply one another rather than simply extracting resources and shipping them elsewhere.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has also called for greater local procurement, manufacturing, employment and skills transfer, arguing that Africa should participate across the hydrogen value chain as an owner, manufacturer, technology partner and producer. His announcement on the first wave of green hydrogen projects sets out the government’s position on local participation in the sector.

Government says South Africa’s industrial transition pathways point to tens of thousands of additional jobs and billions of rand in economic activity over the years ahead. These are projections rather than outcomes, but they highlight the scale of the ambition.

The Supply Chain Will Determine How Much Value Stays Here

Turning that ambition into an industrial reality will require more than funding individual hydrogen projects.

Renewable energy needs to reach production facilities. Equipment needs to be manufactured or imported and delivered. Hydrogen and its derivatives need to be stored and transported. Ports and export infrastructure need to handle new products. Manufacturers need reliable access to energy and inputs, while customers need a dependable route to market.

That makes coordination critical.

South Africa’s green hydrogen opportunity is therefore also a supply-chain opportunity. The country is not simply deciding whether it can produce green hydrogen. It is beginning to build the network of industries and infrastructure that could determine how much value that hydrogen creates before it leaves the country.

The success of the sector may ultimately be measured not by how much hydrogen South Africa produces, but by how much industrial activity develops around it.