With host: Fransisco Nwamba, Abdullah Moerat (Unitrans: People Development Manager) and Hurbert Jacobs (Unitrans: Driver Trainer)
People are at the heart of every successful logistics operation. In this episode of the Unitrans Podcast, host Francisco Nwamba is joined by Abdullah Moerat, People Development Manager at Unitrans, and Hubert Jacobs, Driver Trainer at Unitrans, to explore how everyday leadership, behaviour and decision-making contribute to safety, reliability and operational excellence across the logistics value chain.
The conversation highlights the critical role that mindset, attitude and personal responsibility play in shaping outcomes on the road and in the workplace. Drawing on their experience in driver development and people leadership, Abdullah and Hubert explain why resilience is built through consistent daily actions rather than isolated moments of excellence. They discuss the importance of mentorship, coaching, self-reflection and continuous learning in helping drivers and frontline teams build confidence, improve judgement and develop safer habits.
The discussion also explores the behaviours that distinguish high-performing professionals, including preparation, punctuality, proactive communication and emotional regulation. The guests emphasise that true safety is not driven by compliance alone but by fostering a people-first culture where individuals choose to do the right thing because they understand its impact on themselves, their colleagues and their families.
Throughout the episode, a powerful theme emerges: progress is made through the everyday choices people make when nobody is watching. By investing in people, developing leadership at all levels and creating environments where individuals can grow and thrive, organisations can build stronger teams, safer operations and more sustainable business outcomes.
0:06
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Unitrans podcast. Today, we’d like to reflect on the people, leadership and decision making that enable effective decision making and reliability across Africa’s logistics ecosystem. Throughout the season, we’ve seen that progress is not just a slogan, but rather the result of everyday actions. Joining me today is People Development Manager, Abdullah Moerat and Driver Trainer, Hubert Jacobs.
0:34
Gentlemen, welcome. Please share with us who you are and how you contribute to making work happen safely and reliably on the ground.
0:43
My name is Hubert Jacobs. I’m the driver trainer for Unitrans. My basic goal is to change behaviour of the drivers. If you can change the attitude, it will result in better drivers on the road, a safer drive, a safe road and safer community. That’s basically my job.
1:02
Morning everyone.
1:04
I’m Abdullah Moerat, the People Development Manager at Unitrans, and I think at my core, I’m here to help people find their true worth, to grow. I’m also a firm believer and part of my job is to ensure that every single driver that leaves our depot comes back home safely, to his family.
1:30
Amazing. I love that.
1:32
I think that’s what I love doing and that’s what I’m here for.
1:37
Well, it’s great to hear. We can literally see and hear your passion with regards to that. We speak a lot about systems, innovation and infrastructure. Where do people make the biggest difference when conditions are tough?
1:50
People always draw on past experiences, and they have the ability to stay calm, think rationally and at the end of the day they will make a decision based on what they feel and normally that would be the good decision to make. That’s how I feel about that.
2:10
I would just like to add that I think the biggest difference is behavioural steadiness.
2:17
So when people stay calm, they communicate effectively, they communicate proactively and clearly. That’s when we really make a difference, how you handle yourself when the book didn’t describe something, when it’s not written somewhere.
2:41
And you know, when it comes to now leadership behaviours, what would you say from a leadership behaviours perspective, what creates trust, alignment and at the same time consistency across teams and operations?
2:55
Quite interesting question and you mentioned consistency. I think that’s vitally important for every manager, every leader within any business to be consistent. To show up every day irrespective if it’s going good or it’s chaotic. When he shows up every day, the same. He’s approachable, he’s consistent in his answers, he’s consistent in the questions he asked. That is exactly when he creates that trust.
3:40
I feel leaders should be predictable. If somebody’s predictable, it means he is consistent. If the scenario changes and he works the same way, every time, predictable, you know what he is going to do, then it’s consistent. It doesn’t change the scenario, different than others and that’s how I would describe.
4:01
On the everyday side of things, I like what you’re talking about when it comes to consistency and people showing up every day. How would you say everyday decisions, often the unseen ones compound to resilience and operational continuity over time?
4:16
Let’s start with operational continuity. Operational excellence and operational continuity is not always a one big decision. Never. It can never be one decision we make that impacts the whole operation. It is that accumulating small decisions rather, a decision to do the safe thing rather than the quick thing.
4:44
If you act safely, every day, do what you’re supposed to do, it accumulates and then that is when you will get that operational excellence, operational efficiency, effectiveness.
4:58
So in your work with frontline teams, which training or coaching practises, whether it’s mentorship, it’s simulations, it’s ride along or peer learning have the best real-world impact on building safer habits and more confident decision making.
5:13
For me, it’s mentoring. If you have a great mentor who’s willing to teach you and guide you but also a great delegate who is willing to learn, then you can achieve great goals.
5:26
Mentoring for me is the utmost, the one that stands out for me. Because for me, 20 years ago, I met a great mentor, and he still mentors me today and I learn every day something new with him. And that’s why I like mentoring.
5:46
I like that. And the fact that 20 years later you still have that ongoing relationship. Just goes to show how important mentorship is.
5:54
We still have a relationship, me working and sometimes we work at the same place and it’s almost like we follow each other. I don’t know really, but he still mentors me in everything that I do, every day.
6:07
Fantastic. So, when you think of truly skilled drivers or frontline teams, what behaviours or habits would stand out as indicators of professionalism, readiness and sound judgement?
6:18
For me, punctuality. If you are punctual, on time, it shows that you respect the person’s time. If you’re late, you wasted his time. And, for me, that is not respecting the person itself. So, punctuality, being on time, that is for me of the utmost importance when it comes to professionalism.
6:41
Maybe if I can add something there.
6:45
Preparation. Preparing yourself for your task. For drivers, that is vitally important. Proactive communication, clear and simple communication. Talk to what is in front of you, not only doing what you are told, but really understanding, questioning, reflecting. And then make the best, safest decision. But without planning, the driver comes here in a rush, he’s not calm, collected. That’s when the mistakes will happen.
7:32
And so we see it’s all a lot about mindset at the same time as well.
7:36
Your behaviour will be determined by your attitude. If you’re in a rush, your attitude is in a rush, your behaviour will be on the road, bad driving, accidents, incidents will follow. But if you calm, collected, you drive, you do your planning, you know you have an hour to get to a certain place, you buy yourself sometime. I know it takes me an hour. I’m going to give me an hour and a half for traffic or something like that. That’s when you are safe.
8:12
So, what kind of mindset would you say one would want to have, or kind of principles that one lives by that would actually help in that situation.
8:22
Like we said, leadership. I’m leading myself, firstly, as a driver. Then secondly, proactive communication from my line manager, my supervisor, my contract. If you have that communication, you can do your planning, and you will reach your destination safe. If you reach your destination safe with that calmness, that is when you will return home safely. It’s all about: we work together to make this trip the perfect trip. Every trip, you must always try to be perfect on the road.
9:03
Whatever you do, if you don’t strive for perfection, you’re planning to lose.
9:10
From what I’m hearing now, I can see that behavioural readiness, emotional regulation and real-world judgement are the true catalyst for safety. But how does a people first approach influence safety and decision making in real operating environments?
9:25
People first approach is where it becomes more a human driven performance. We change it from a duty where it is an instruction to be safe, and we change that behaviour to where you feel that you need to do it. Not you have to do it.
9:50
It’s more about the feeling that you have to do the right thing, not because somebody said so, but rather than because I feel I must do it.
9:59
But we know that these environments, they change and they shift continuously. I’ve heard that you guys speak about consistency over time, but how do you keep team skills sharp and their behavioural readiness where it is supposed to be? Not just at the point of training, but from a consistency perspective.
10:17
With ongoing toolbox talks, regular feedback – constructive feedback – on the job coaching. I feel that it’s not a one-day thing, it’s over time. Every day you need to reflect on what you’ve learned and build on that. Be open about your decision making and where mentors come in and help to better yourself each day.
10:44
I agree. Be honest. Reflecting on your day’s work. You’re driving – what went wrong? What could I have done differently?
10:55
It’s vitally important for drivers to always reflect on his shift. Some drivers drive 15 hours per day. I mean, they’re on the road from 5:00 in the morning until 10 tonight before they go to bed. So, before you go to bed, it’s all about reflecting. Telling myself, if I did that, that could have happened or if I didn’t do that. And tell yourself: “great job!” because you’ve been at work, actively working 15 hours of the day. You made no incidents, no accidents and you going home. Remember that’s the most important thing.
11:40
I can’t emphasise it enough that growing up in an environment where I had a father driving trucks, the nicest thing for me has always been when we got that phone call and my father says “I’m in Worcester” and I know we’re going to fetch him now. Me, my brothers, my sisters, my mother. And we see our dad getting out of the truck and we run to him. Some of us ran to hug him, others ran for the “stokkie lekker”. But you were happy to see him. You didn’t see him for ten days, seven days.
12:27
So, I think if drivers are driven by that, that is when they are safe. They can go home safe.
12:34
What a beautiful story you recounted there. We can again see the passion that you have for this. It’s really great to see. We must thank you so much for your input.
12:44
Well, there you have it. We can see that progress is not driven by grand gestures, but rather it’s driven by everyday leadership. Gentlemen, we’d like to thank you so much for bringing this episode to life through your real insights and experience.
12:59
And we’ve seen so evident that throughout the season and throughout the episode of the discussions that we’ve had over time, that at the centre of logistics work across the continent, people remain at the heart of it all.