It happens every week at the port of Dakar. A trader in Bamako, Kaolack or Touba has 5 tonnes of goods waiting: two hundred cartons, a few pallets, a machine. The cargo is there. Nobody wants to move it.
Heavy trucks look for 30 or 40 tonnes. Small trucks do not run long haul. And when the trader finds a heavy truck leaving half empty, the carrier still says no: at customs, there will be too much trouble.
The carrier is not wrong. But the problem can be fixed, and it is fixed before loading.
Why the carrier refuses even with space on board
One truck, one document. Cargo leaving Dakar for Mali travels under the ECOWAS inter state road transit regime, created by the convention of 29 May 1982. The goods cross Senegal with duties suspended, under a single customs document backed by a guarantee. Everything on the truck is tied to that transit. If one consignment has an invoice that does not match, a wrong weight or a missing certificate, the whole truck waits at the customs office. The carrier pays for the delay on behalf of a customer worth 5 tonnes to them.
More customers, more disputes. Each extra consignment means another consignee in Bamako, another count at delivery, another possible claim. The carrier answers for all the cargo from loading onwards.
More invoices to chase. Collecting from one shipper who pays for the whole truck is easy. Collecting from six small ones, one of whom disappears, is not.
From the carrier's point of view, empty space is lost revenue. A badly prepared small consignment is a risk. Carriers choose the lost revenue.
Why small trucks are not there
Over 1,353 kilometres, a 10 tonne truck carries almost the same fixed costs as a heavy one: a driver, an assistant, the same days on the road, the same waits. It carries a quarter of the load. On a corridor that long it does not make a living, which is why you do not find it. Small importers are not ignored out of malice. They are caught between two business models, neither of which fits them.
What can be fixed at the source
The answer is not to persuade a carrier to take the risk. It is to remove the risk before loading.
One party responsible for the consolidation. The carrier and customs deal with a single organiser who gathers the consignments, holds the file and answers for its consistency. The carrier no longer sees six customers, only one.
No consignment loaded without a complete file. This is the rule that changes everything. For Mali, each consignment reaches the truck with its documents: commercial invoice and packing list, bill of lading, the electronic cargo tracking note required for sea cargo to Mali, and on the Malian side, the importer's registration with the trade directorate, the import intention, an insurance certificate from a Malian insurer and a transit order to a licensed customs broker, as listed on Mali's trade portal. For imports into Senegal, a prior import declaration has been compulsory since 1 May 2024 for goods with an FOB value of 500,000 CFA francs or more. An incomplete consignment waits for the next truck. It does not hold up the others.
Formalities handled in Dakar. For a destination inside Senegal, the simplest route is to clear the goods in Dakar before loading: they then travel free of any formality. For Mali, final clearance happens at the destination office, but everything is prepared in Dakar. Malian cargo goes through the Malian warehouses in Senegal, set up in 1977, which handled more than 11 million tonnes in 2023, and Malian customs keeps an office in Dakar. Nothing should be discovered at the border that could have been checked at the port.
Loading planned for delivery. Each consignment palletised and labelled with its consignee, loaded in reverse delivery order, with a delivery note per consignee. The count at arrival takes ten minutes instead of half a day.
A clear split of the price. The cost of the truck is shared by weight or volume, with a minimum per consignment. Everyone knows the price before departure.
What the small importer gains
They pay for part of a truck instead of a whole one. Their cargo leaves with a carrier who accepts it, because the paperwork is no longer a threat. And it arrives as fast as a full load, since it travels on the same truck.
Consolidation is not a second rate option. It is the only rational way to move a small volume over a long distance, provided someone takes responsibility for organising it.
What we do
We consolidate small consignments from several customers on one truck, with a single file facing the carrier. Every consignment is checked before loading: an incomplete one waits for the next truck rather than holding up the others. The truck is tracked, and each consignee can see where the goods are.
If you have a few tonnes waiting in Dakar, send us the commodity, weight, volume and destination. We will tell you when the next consolidated truck leaves.
Read next: shipping a container to Senegal or Mali from abroad and your goods are waiting at a border post.
Sources: ECOWAS Convention A/P4/82 on inter state road transit, Cotonou, 29 May 1982 (single customs document, suspension of duties, guarantee); Mali trade portal (registration with the trade directorate, import intention, Malian insurance, transit order); Malian Shippers' Council (electronic cargo tracking note); Senegal Customs, prior import declaration generalised on 1 May 2024; Dakar Bamako corridor eRegulations (Malian warehouses in Senegal, Malian customs office in Dakar, 2023 volumes); official rate grid for the Dakar corridor (Dakar to Bamako distance).