Tag: freight forwarding|logistics|transport

With 11 different languages spoken amongst its team, logistics specialist Freightline has been helping its clients ensure language barriers don’t get in the way when shipping goods across Europe and beyond.

The majority of Freightline’s employees are multilingual, with 80% of staff speaking at least two languages including Ukrainian, Spanish, Mandarin and Czech.

Language barriers can be a significant challenge for logistics companies, especially for businesses like Freightline which operate across a variety of different countries.

“Being multilingual makes it easier to break down language barriers to understand our clients, to read documents of all kinds and to find information more quickly,” says Rafal Poplawski, Logistics Co-ordinator at Freightline.

Not being able to understand someone can lead to breakdowns of communication which can have long-term effects including delivery errors and delays – particularly risky for time-critical deliveries.

Speaking the language of its international customers has many benefits for Freightline, including a much simpler and speedier process through bypassing a translator.

“I had a time-critical air charter collection from Portugal and the driver was Polish. By communicating directly with the drivers in their own language, the process was much faster and more convenient than asking for translation,” says Martina Cunderlikova, European Operations Team Leader at Freightline.

Freightline specialises in urgent time-critical deliveries which heavily rely on clear communication between the different parties involved. With smooth processes critical for on-time deliveries, commanding almost a dozen foreign languages gives Freightline a clear advantage for its day-to-day operations.

“Communication with our carriers and clients in Poland is definitely easier because we are multilingual,” adds Kamil Potrec, European Operations Coordinator at Freightline.

 

On 6th-8th October 2021, an international trade fair and conference in the field of logistics and the entire supply chain WOF (World of Freight) Expo took place in Bratislava. The event was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Transport and Construction of the Slovak Republic and the auspices of the Bratislava self-governing region.

WOF EXPO introduced 120 top speakers in 43 expert panel discussions from the world of transport, logistics and E-commerce. If you did not have the opportunity to participate in person, the hybrid event offered flexibility in the form of live streaming. The archive of selected panel discussions from the conference is currently AVAILABLE HERE.

Over the course of three days, the event welcomed visitors from more than 30 countries. The fair brought together supply chain solution providers to increase efficiency in logistics and improve transparency and systematization of processes. Companies such as Cargomind, CEVA Logistics, Packeta Group, GLS Slovakia, FEDEX, LOT Polish Airlines, Turkish Cargo, Budapest Airport, and many others presented themselves at the exhibition.

The importance and uniqueness of the WOF Expo stem not only from the current hot topics in the field of transport and economics but also from the fact that the conference brought international important players together. During the conference, more than 120 experts shared their views on the digitisation of transport, pioneering innovations, as well as the impact of the pandemic situation on industry and the economy.

Attention was also paid to intelligent technologies and current issues of cyber security in the field of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. Other important debates were about the transition to the climate-neutral economy or EU policy topics and Brexit was on the table too. The conclusions and outputs of the conference brought new ideas to address the strategic challenges of the supply chain and transport.

What makes WOF Expo innovative and outstanding?

Networking is a cornerstone of doing business, hence why the WOF Expo programme itself focused on networking and bringing as many business opportunities as possible. Even beforehand the event, participants were able to schedule personal meetings thanks to a digital networking tool. Personal meetings then took place throughout the event in an undisturbed and pleasant environment in a reserved area.

Evening programme

During the first day of the conference, VIP participants had the opportunity to join the gala evening program – WOF Connect & Awards, where the most innovative companies in logistics and supply chain were awarded in nine categories. Congratulations to the winners.

• PORT OF THE FUTURE – PORT OF GDANSK
• SHIPPING LINE EFFICIENCY – MAERSK
• SPEEDY FLOW AIRPORT – BUDAPEST AIRPORT
• AIR CARGO EXCELLENCE – TURKISH CARGO
• LAST MILE EXPERT – GLS
• INNOVATION OF THE YEAR – PEOPLE
• GREEN IMPACT – PEOPLE
• REGIONAL SMART FREIGHT FORWARDER – LANGOWSKI LOGISTICS
• MULTINATIONAL SMART FREIGHT FORWARDER – KUEHNE + NAGEL

The WOF Connect & Awards evening was not only about celebrating, entertainment and networking. It was also about giving. A large number of charitable events did not take place this year due to the pandemic situation. WOF Expo joined forces with the League Against Cancer to make an important gesture for cancer patients on the 6th of October – an auction of diamond brooch took place. And WOF was not the only one willing to make a difference. GLS Slovakia donated €12,000 to support League against cancer projects for cancer patients.

Where will WOF EXPO 2022 be held?

WOF Expo will relocate across the countries of the CEE region yearly. The second year of the expo will take place in Vienna in the form of a congress and also in Prague in the form of a trade fair. In 2023, Bucharest will be waiting for the WOF Expo.

We are looking forward to another successful B2B event and of course, WOF Expo invites you.

 

XPO Logistics has announced that as of today (2nd August 2021) its new slate of directors has become effective with the closing of its spin-off transaction. XPO completed the spin-off of its global logistics segment as GXO Logistics at 00:01 Eastern Time (06.00 CEST).

As previously announced, Brad Jacobs, XPO’s chief executive officer, will continue as chairman. AnnaMaria DeSalva and Michael Jesselson will remain in the roles of vice chairman and lead independent director, respectively, and Adrian Kingshott will continue to serve as director.

XPO has appointed four new board members, replacing directors who resigned from the XPO board to join the GXO board. The new XPO directors are:

Jason Aiken, chief financial officer of General Dynamics Corporation, and former chief financial officer of Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, a General Dynamics subsidiary.

Mary Kissel, executive vice president and senior policy advisor with Stephens Inc., former senior advisor to the US Secretary of State, and formerly with The Wall Street Journal as a member of the Editorial Board and editorial page editor for Asia-Pacific.

Allison Landry, former senior transportation research analyst with Credit Suisse, covering the trucking, railroad, airfreight and logistics industries.

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., chief executive officer of the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), and former senior executive with IAC/Interactive Corp, Viacom’s Paramount Pictures and Blockbuster Entertainment Group, among others.

Brad Jacobs, chairman and chief executive officer of XPO Logistics, said: “We’ve added four outstanding independent directors to the wealth of experience we retained following the spin-off. This is our most diverse board composition yet, with an emphasis on the financial, cultural and market opportunities of our business. Our growth strategy will have powerful support.”

Transport Intelligence’s (Ti), latest report, Global Freight Forwarding 2021, shows the post-Covid-19 global forwarding market is settling in to its recovery phase after dramatic contractions in 2020. However, market dynamics remain skewed with limited capacity available and sky-high freight rates presenting a challenging market for shippers and opportunities for forwarders to secure high margins.

The Global Freight Forwarding market contracted by 8.7% in 2020, recording its worst year since the financial crisis as a result of the pandemic. The sea freight forwarding market contracted by 3.8% in 2020, but air freight forwarding suffered worse with a decline of 12.3%. However, the freight forwarding market is expected to bounce back strongly with growth of 11.6% in 2021 and a CAGR of 5% from 2020-2025 as volumes recover.

The sea freight forwarding market is set to grow at 7.6% in 2021 and at a CAGR of 4.5% from 2020-2025. Growth in 2021 will largely be driven by the bounce back in volumes from 2020, particularly in Q2 2021 vs Q2 2020. Sea freight forwarding growth out to 2025 will be driven by the ongoing recovery in volumes, modal switches from air to sea and new trade agreements generating more trade.

Air freight forwarding is set to grow at 14.9% in 2021 and at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2020-2025. Growth in 2021 is largely driven by a recovery of volumes from 2020 and very high freight rates. Longer-term growth out to 2025 will be driven by a recovery in global trade and strong growth in air freight intensive sectors like high tech, pharmaceuticals and cross-border e-commerce.

The new report also shows that amid all the disruption to the air freight market the top 20 freight forwarders have significantly increased their share of overall volumes, from 65.05% in 2019 to 74.89% in 2020. The top 20 actually increased the air freight volumes they handled in 2020, despite market volumes declining by 12.50%. Coupled with the high air freight rates that persisted through 2020, this led to a very good year for large forwarders.

The sea freight market also saw volumes decline from 2019, with 9.95% fewer containers handled in 2020. Nevertheless, capacity constraints and high freight rates enabled the top 20 forwarders to broadly maintain their revenues, even though they carried 7.49% fewer containers than in 2019.

The new report provides a view of the future of both the air and sea freight forwarding markets and an outlook for volume, price and capacity development for the rest of 2020. It also examines the performance of freight forwarders in detail and how many of the larger players managed to achieve record margins, with the average freight forwarding margin for 2020 increasing to 7.5%.

“A tumultuous 2020 saw major disruptions in supply chains the world over with the ability of forwarders’ to keep goods moving severely tested by shocks to supply and demand, carriers greatly reducing capacity, and congestion at logistics gateways, amongst other forces,” said Nick Bailey, Ti’s Head of Research.

“Although the market saw one of the sharpest contractions in recent memory in real terms, sky high rates resulted in record-breaking top-line performance for many forwarders. The pandemic also accelerated digitisation and digitalisation efforts across the market as speed, agility and responsiveness proved highly valuable capabilities during the crisis.”

The report also examines the developing digital freight forwarding landscape. There is a new market map for the digital landscape and profiles of the major players to show how their capabilities are developing. The latest analysis highlights how they are increasingly competing with established forwarders with a full suite of end-to-end value added services and acquiring key assets to enable this, all underpinned by their technological base.

Global Freight Forwarding 2021 also drills down in to technology further, taking a closer look at the software that underpins freight forwarding services, assessing the strategies pursued by different forwarders to develop their capabilities and providing profiles of the solutions available on the market.

The latest news from the market of consolidation among the top players corroborates Ti’s view that we are likely to see further M&A activity among freight forwarders through 2021. But the report also explains that it is likely we will also see considerable M&A activity involving the digital players and software entrants which are competing to capture the growth of digitalization in the market.

To download Global Freight Forwarding 2021, please visit: https://www.ti-insight.com/product/global-freight-forwarding