We contributed to a discussion on LinkedIn today led by Lucy Smith of Lloyds IFW. Steve Walker, Chairman of SBS Worldwide is their guest editor and kicked off the discussion on choosing the right freight forwarder.
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Freight-forwarders-choosing-right-one-2846198.S.263450705?qid=82f18e33-23c4-4cc9-85de-7308dc9cebb3&trk=group_most_popular-0-b-ttl&goback=%2Enmp_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1%2Egmp_2846198
Our piece is below
Hi Lucy
Thanks for your post. I read Steve's article and I agree that it's really important to find the right freight forwarder and of course as an importer or exporter, to understand your responsibilities from a compliance perspective.
I began my career at a small freight forwarder, an old fashioned import and export clearance agent called Immediate Transportation and went to progressively larger companies in different roles, latterly working at DHL (DHL Global Forwarding). I launched Straightforward Consultancy in early 2010 so have quite an interesting view of the freight forwarding marketplace as we deal with several.
One assumption it would be fair to make is that small = personal service, more expensive and large = less personal, more competitive but it really isn't that simple.
At Straightforward Consultancy, I gain a really good insight into many different forwarders, large and small because we've placed business with those forwarders after a thorough selection process or they're contacting us to offer their services for our existing customer portfolio.
Today, we're workng with several forwarders and managing the customer's freight and Customs models for them, ensuring they remain competitive and compliant and as a result, we're engaged with the engine rooms of the forwarders and there are certainly large forwarders who disprove the big = impersonal theory in the same way that there are small forwarders who have a market leading service/pricing on a certain market or lane.
To take Steve's point on a little further, one thing we have observed is that most small-medium sized customers are not aware of their Customs responsibilities and that they should carry out compliance checks to ensure their chosen forwarder is submitting accurate delcarations to Customs on their behalf. We saw this first hand with a client in our early days where Customs did a random inspection and found errors on their import entries and they were fined £ 500. What we did for them was reassess all their commodity codes and each month we now carry out Customs compliance work for them to ensure they're compliant and are also ready with all supporting documents for the next visit. This has become another service for us and most of our clients take advantage of it.
To summarise, you really need to ask yourself a few basic questions when mulling over the merits of seeking out a new forwarder (not just the ones who call you!). For example, what are your current costs, is the service good, do you feel the pricing is competitive, is the support there when you have problems etc.
The problem most customers seem to face is a lack of time to carry out a review, a lack of market knowledge (is there anything better out there) and a solid process to follow to ensure any selection is a good decision. We've carried out many reviews since 2010 and we've learned which forwarders are competitive and equally, which provide consistent service and strong compliance.
We have a blog which contains our full background, relevant news for clients and useful tips which is work a look! http://straightforwardconsultancy.blogspot.co.uk/
Please do call me if you'd like to talk about your own business.
07934 443492 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 07934 443492 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Kind Regards
Andy Cliff
Straightforward Consultancy Ltd
4, Beckett Drive
Winwick Park
Warrington
Cheshire
WA2 8XJ
Tel : 07934 443492 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 07934 443492 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Email : andy@straightforwardconsultancy.co.uk
Web : www.straightforwardconsultancy.co.uk
Blog : http://straightforwardconsultancy.blogspot.co.uk/
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