Thursday, 4 February 2010
2010 Starts The Same As 2009 Ended
There is currently a lot of debate as well as many challenges surrounding freight rates at the moment. Our competitors are starting the year as you would expect, aggressive to win business at or below cost and then over the year find a way to make profit. It seems 2010 is continuing in the same manner as 2009 with focus from our clients on their costs.
Labels: Freight, Minimum Service Standard, Rate Increases, shipping
Sunday, 5 October 2008
Cartons or Livelihood
An area we encourage in our staff meetings and training is understanding the difference between moving clients cartons around the would Vs moving clients livelihoods.
I recall my early days in this industry, before my greying hair and expanding waistline, not really understanding what a carton going missing or damage meant to the client. The terminology I recall in the office was typically 10 cartons rather than 10 cartons containing 600 shirts needed for an order next week.
I was never encouraged to meet or understand the clients business and therefore I did not truly understand I was not just moving cartons but someones livelihood. I also did not understand insurance does not replace our clients losing an order and perhaps losing their client.
This hit home to me when, probably about 25 years ago, I saw a client in tears because a shipment had been lost in transit and she would lose an important order. Although sad for the client it was a great lesson for me and I would rather we train our staff to do 'more than anyone else to support our clients livelihood' than just move cartons.
Anyway the reason for me sharing this story from my past was no matter how much care is taken, unfortunately disaster can happen and it is very important that clients have adequate insurance in place, as most logistics companies conduct business using trading conditions that limit their legal liability.
To highlight this I can share a summary from a recent UK court case where an importer sought to recover £2,252,460 from their Forwarder for the theft, apparently by employees, of cell phones from the Forwarder's premises. The English High Court held the Forwarder vicariously liable for wilful default and negligence but further ruled that the BIFA Standard Terms and Conditions applied and limited liability to approx £25,000.
I recall my early days in this industry, before my greying hair and expanding waistline, not really understanding what a carton going missing or damage meant to the client. The terminology I recall in the office was typically 10 cartons rather than 10 cartons containing 600 shirts needed for an order next week.
I was never encouraged to meet or understand the clients business and therefore I did not truly understand I was not just moving cartons but someones livelihood. I also did not understand insurance does not replace our clients losing an order and perhaps losing their client.
This hit home to me when, probably about 25 years ago, I saw a client in tears because a shipment had been lost in transit and she would lose an important order. Although sad for the client it was a great lesson for me and I would rather we train our staff to do 'more than anyone else to support our clients livelihood' than just move cartons.
Anyway the reason for me sharing this story from my past was no matter how much care is taken, unfortunately disaster can happen and it is very important that clients have adequate insurance in place, as most logistics companies conduct business using trading conditions that limit their legal liability.
To highlight this I can share a summary from a recent UK court case where an importer sought to recover £2,252,460 from their Forwarder for the theft, apparently by employees, of cell phones from the Forwarder's premises. The English High Court held the Forwarder vicariously liable for wilful default and negligence but further ruled that the BIFA Standard Terms and Conditions applied and limited liability to approx £25,000.
Labels: Freight, Insurance, Service
Thursday, 2 October 2008
YRC Logistics Southampton
I have a day booked at our Southampton facility on Friday 3rd Oct, as we are conducting some internal and client training on our PowerView PO System.
It is good timing as I have just seen a 30 day review on a section of new business they handled for a massive global company.
By offering daily air uplift the client has seen an immediate benefit in terms of their turnaround by 1.5% which has significant cash advantages as well as improve client satisfaction.
That seems for a good reason for an evening at Southampton Marina to celebrate.
It is good timing as I have just seen a 30 day review on a section of new business they handled for a massive global company.
By offering daily air uplift the client has seen an immediate benefit in terms of their turnaround by 1.5% which has significant cash advantages as well as improve client satisfaction.
That seems for a good reason for an evening at Southampton Marina to celebrate.
Labels: Air Freight, Communication, Consultancy, Freight, Service, Staff
Thursday, 25 September 2008
China Business Development Team
After a recent trip to our offices in China, Linda Yang and I are busy on our China Business Development plans. On that point, we are pleased to welcome Ellen Li to our team.
The basic objective for our China Business Development Team is to link our large organisation in Hong Kong and China with our European capabilities through a group of experts capable of understanding every specific need in this market.
More will follow on this as it develops.
The basic objective for our China Business Development Team is to link our large organisation in Hong Kong and China with our European capabilities through a group of experts capable of understanding every specific need in this market.
More will follow on this as it develops.
Labels: China, Communication, Freight, Global Development Managers, Logistics, Staff
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Argentina Project
YRCL Argentina secured a large project movement recently.
If any YRC Logistics EU staff are interested to view details of a recent air charter project they can view via the company intranet.
The project consisted of 20 tons/6 units of over-sized mining equipment from China to Argentina by a chartered flight. The biggest piece was as large as 5.4m x 3.6m x 3.8m.
The flight departed Tianjin, China on July 31st and arrived at Comodoro Rivadavia Airport, Argentina on August 2nd.
If any YRC Logistics EU staff are interested to view details of a recent air charter project they can view via the company intranet.
The project consisted of 20 tons/6 units of over-sized mining equipment from China to Argentina by a chartered flight. The biggest piece was as large as 5.4m x 3.6m x 3.8m.
The flight departed Tianjin, China on July 31st and arrived at Comodoro Rivadavia Airport, Argentina on August 2nd.
Labels: Air Freight, China, Freight, Service, Staff, transportation
Thursday, 28 August 2008
New Sales Join the Team
As part of our aggressive development and expansion plans I am very excited to have 2 new additions to our sales team. We have recently developed a new sales recruitment process and we believe the new selection criterion is very challenging and only the very best will succeed through the various interviews, tests and activities. Only a couple of weeks ago we had a seemingly positive candidate who performed well in the first interview, but their weaknesses were exposed in the second interview & activity. We also have seen some candidates who did not want to return for the second interview as they did not feel comfortable presenting YRC Logistics back to us, which is concerning considering this will be part of there normal job function. In the past I believe we may/would have employed these candidates and it would have been a costly mistake. In short we are continuing to upgrade our skill set and only the very best will be accepted. So it is with great pleasure that 1 person has already made it through this new process and I know that he will contribute to the continued success of YRC Logistics EU.
Mike Metcalfe (London Heathrow)
Mike has 25 years experience in transportation and sales, he recently joined YRC Logistics from one of the largest independent commercial vehicle hire and sales company’s where he successfully used his consultative sales skills to secure large fleet contracts with major transport logistics’ companies in and around LHR.
Previously involved in logistics and transportation as well as extensive experience in the domestic parcel industry, Mike was responsible for heading up the national sales team for Interlink Express Parcels Ltd the first successful franchised national parcel delivery Company working closely with the MD implementing a national sales strategy which led to the company being successfully sold for £50 million. Mike has worked for some key names where he has successfully used his sales experience in providing solutions for a myriad of clients and industry sectors. In his current role Mike’s primary focus is on securing substantial sized clients that will contribute to the continued success of YRC Logistics EU.
Mike Metcalfe (London Heathrow)
Mike has 25 years experience in transportation and sales, he recently joined YRC Logistics from one of the largest independent commercial vehicle hire and sales company’s where he successfully used his consultative sales skills to secure large fleet contracts with major transport logistics’ companies in and around LHR.
Previously involved in logistics and transportation as well as extensive experience in the domestic parcel industry, Mike was responsible for heading up the national sales team for Interlink Express Parcels Ltd the first successful franchised national parcel delivery Company working closely with the MD implementing a national sales strategy which led to the company being successfully sold for £50 million. Mike has worked for some key names where he has successfully used his sales experience in providing solutions for a myriad of clients and industry sectors. In his current role Mike’s primary focus is on securing substantial sized clients that will contribute to the continued success of YRC Logistics EU.
Labels: Freight, Global Development Managers, New business, Sales, Staff
Monday, 18 August 2008
I love Scotland
As a passionate Leeds United fan I have always been grateful to a past era of geniuses that played in the Don Revie period Lorimer, Gray, Bremner etc. I know that may be a dangerous statement as for some reason Leeds are still the most despised club in England.
In any case my love affair with Scotland will continue when I visit our truly world class operation in Glasgow next week. I have just seen the results from one of our largest clients, with stock held in our facility worth of over USD 3 million dollars, we recently transferred onto Oracle and we then performed a full physical inventory check with them. The result was a stock discrepancy of USD 2k, less than 0.07%.
At YRCL we are passionate about providing outstanding client service and in true YRCL tradition, I cannot wait to meet the Scottish team later this week to celebrate with them.
In any case my love affair with Scotland will continue when I visit our truly world class operation in Glasgow next week. I have just seen the results from one of our largest clients, with stock held in our facility worth of over USD 3 million dollars, we recently transferred onto Oracle and we then performed a full physical inventory check with them. The result was a stock discrepancy of USD 2k, less than 0.07%.
At YRCL we are passionate about providing outstanding client service and in true YRCL tradition, I cannot wait to meet the Scottish team later this week to celebrate with them.
Labels: Core Values, Freight, Scotland, Staff, warehouse
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
I am back and refreshed
I am back and refreshed from a 2 week family vacation in sunny Spain and being an avid sports fan I am keen to start watching the Olympics. I did manage to catch the opening ceremony and what an awesome experience that must have been if you were there live. I am actually going to China in September as with our growing China presence we are setting up the next stage in Europe for our China Business Development team. I am also really excited to view YRC Worldwide advertised on tv during the Olympics coverage, they can also be viwed by following http://yrcw.com/press/video/index.html. All the speakers are YRC Worldwide staff and a few are from YRC Logistics EU. I just hope I don't lose them to television contracts!
PS - we are still looking for more China logistics experts to join our fast growing team please contact muhammad.shah@yrclogistics.com or leave a comment for more information.
PS - we are still looking for more China logistics experts to join our fast growing team please contact muhammad.shah@yrclogistics.com or leave a comment for more information.
Labels: China, Freight, Olympics, Staff
Monday, 28 July 2008
Peak Season
Talking to our clients and staff it seems that 2008 peak season might indeed be very flat. While we have to ensure we protect the space required by our clients this may provide an opportunity to reduce costs by consolidation of shipments. Peak season planning is a subject YRCL staff will have high on the agenda during review meetings and I would be very interested in any ideas that could help our clients further.
Labels: Air Freight, Freight, Peak Season, Sea Freight, Surcharges
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Nice end to the day
I have just received a copy of an email from one of our sales managers directed to London Operational staff.
I'll just quote his message, thank our staff and go home happy.
" I just had a conversation with new client of YRCL. The client started trading unexpectedly 3 days before my 2 week holiday, which was not ideal preparation.
The SOP was still not fully completed and as with any new client there is sometimes limited knowledge of all the minor requirements. The client was blown away with the service levels received from both London and Amsterdam.
They acknowledged the somewhat limited knowledge of all their needs as the start was earlier than expected, but I am pleased to say they were blown away by the attention and service received.
Thank you to everyone involved , you are the best. Working in sales can be lonely sometimes but it is times like this make me very proud to work for YRCL."
I'll just quote his message, thank our staff and go home happy.
" I just had a conversation with new client of YRCL. The client started trading unexpectedly 3 days before my 2 week holiday, which was not ideal preparation.
The SOP was still not fully completed and as with any new client there is sometimes limited knowledge of all the minor requirements. The client was blown away with the service levels received from both London and Amsterdam.
They acknowledged the somewhat limited knowledge of all their needs as the start was earlier than expected, but I am pleased to say they were blown away by the attention and service received.
Thank you to everyone involved , you are the best. Working in sales can be lonely sometimes but it is times like this make me very proud to work for YRCL."
Labels: Amsterdam, Freight, Service
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Obsession with cost ignores our quality
In line with a recent blog of mine 'moving freight around the world - it is easy?' I read with great interest a recent IFW article by BIFA's director general, Peter Quantrill headed 'Obsession with cost ignores our quality'. I hope none of us take our clients for granted in terms of delivering value for service, not matter what the industry but I do sense the complexities of transporting freight is not always fully appreciated.
I am sure that everyone in the forwarding and logistics industry has at some time met with a client and explained why a shipment was late or damaged. For example most international shipments are covered by milestones that sound simple, origin booking, carrier selection, collection, origin customs clearance, delivery to carrier, loading, carrier transportation, arrival, unloading, customs clearance and delivery.
The reality is there is great danger behind all of these and proactive management with contingency planning is of course very important. My personal opinion is that many times a problem in the freight movement can be attributed the the beginning and not reading between the lines on what the client required in terms of speed and costs plus any value added areas like pick and pack. I find this subject fascinating and it would be great to get some thoughts or feedback.
I am sure that everyone in the forwarding and logistics industry has at some time met with a client and explained why a shipment was late or damaged. For example most international shipments are covered by milestones that sound simple, origin booking, carrier selection, collection, origin customs clearance, delivery to carrier, loading, carrier transportation, arrival, unloading, customs clearance and delivery.
The reality is there is great danger behind all of these and proactive management with contingency planning is of course very important. My personal opinion is that many times a problem in the freight movement can be attributed the the beginning and not reading between the lines on what the client required in terms of speed and costs plus any value added areas like pick and pack. I find this subject fascinating and it would be great to get some thoughts or feedback.
Monday, 2 June 2008
Industry News
In researching the best way of sharing key industry information without becoming a junk email contributor we have found that our rss newsfeed has become a valuable tool.
I had a great story shared by one of our sales professionals in that a prospect client was having difficulty obtaining information from their supplier on why their shipment from Asia was delayed. By coincidence the prospect was reading a YRCL newsfeed which explained the reasons for the backlogs but importantly advised what YRCL contingency plans are, they have since managed to move their freight out of Asia after using the knowledge they learnt from the News Feed.
For up to date industry news please visit http://www.yrclogistics-rss.info/
I had a great story shared by one of our sales professionals in that a prospect client was having difficulty obtaining information from their supplier on why their shipment from Asia was delayed. By coincidence the prospect was reading a YRCL newsfeed which explained the reasons for the backlogs but importantly advised what YRCL contingency plans are, they have since managed to move their freight out of Asia after using the knowledge they learnt from the News Feed.
For up to date industry news please visit http://www.yrclogistics-rss.info/
Labels: Communication, Freight, Service
Friday, 30 May 2008
Past and Present
I have total respect for those who look to start a logistics company in this day and age, especially because according to Dun & Bradstreet and INC. magazine, 33% of all new businesses fail within the first six months. Fifty percent of new businesses fail within their first two years of operation and 75% fail within the first three years.
Over 20 years ago I recall entering the first export shipment for a start up freight forwarder and 12 years ago I started my career at YRC Logistics, all be it the company was in its first year and under private ownership and I was lucky that the owners of the company at that time were sales driven geniuses, and built a formidable organisation in a very short space of time.
My role when I first started was to develop the staff and services to match so that when the company promised to deliver to the moon 'next day' I had to find a way. My hair went grey over the next 5 years, but luckily we had a great group of young talented staff and it was a really unique place to work and I learnt so much.
A lot has changed for me and for the company over the past 12 years, now under YRC Worldwide ownership and part of a 10 billion revenue global logistics company. I am so excited that we can still offer a small company attitude to service for our clients, but we have massive global capabilities, infrastructure and I also think it is important we can offer staff the security and career development that you would expect from this type of organisation.
Over 20 years ago I recall entering the first export shipment for a start up freight forwarder and 12 years ago I started my career at YRC Logistics, all be it the company was in its first year and under private ownership and I was lucky that the owners of the company at that time were sales driven geniuses, and built a formidable organisation in a very short space of time.
My role when I first started was to develop the staff and services to match so that when the company promised to deliver to the moon 'next day' I had to find a way. My hair went grey over the next 5 years, but luckily we had a great group of young talented staff and it was a really unique place to work and I learnt so much.
A lot has changed for me and for the company over the past 12 years, now under YRC Worldwide ownership and part of a 10 billion revenue global logistics company. I am so excited that we can still offer a small company attitude to service for our clients, but we have massive global capabilities, infrastructure and I also think it is important we can offer staff the security and career development that you would expect from this type of organisation.
Going back to start up companies, I can only imagine how much of a challenge it is today. When there were 3,210 liquidations in England and Wales in the first quarter of 2008. This was an increase of 2.0% on the previous quarter and an increase of 4.0% on the same period a year ago with the increasing costs for technology, security, health & safety, legislation, human resources, training, transportation, global services, communication and the pressure on all companies to procure carrier services at lower rates, margins are low and risks are high and I look back in awe at the way our company was built in those early days. If you have just started a new company or have been through a similar journey to me, I would love to hear your experiences and comments.
Labels: Freight, New businesses
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
My First Post!
Hello and welcome to my first ever post on my new blog, before we created this blog we completed some market research and we could not find one blog created by our competitors, so without meaning to sound presumptuous, I might be the first MD from a freight company to have a blog! But if there are any blogs being written by our competitors, I would be very interested in learning what the links are so that I can read them.
I hope this blog will allow us to communicate effectively with our prospective and existing clients and that they will feel engaged in the conversation as well as learn more about YRC Logistics. I also think that the most valuable benefit this blog will give me is that it will allow you to provide me with feedback and ideas on how we can serve you better.So with that said, that leaves me with one last thing to ask.... What do YOU want to hear about from a managing director of a freight forwarding company and how would you like to benefit by reading the blog?I will be on a trip over the bank holiday weekend and I hope that there will be lots of feedback as I am looking forward to reading them on my return.
I hope this blog will allow us to communicate effectively with our prospective and existing clients and that they will feel engaged in the conversation as well as learn more about YRC Logistics. I also think that the most valuable benefit this blog will give me is that it will allow you to provide me with feedback and ideas on how we can serve you better.So with that said, that leaves me with one last thing to ask.... What do YOU want to hear about from a managing director of a freight forwarding company and how would you like to benefit by reading the blog?I will be on a trip over the bank holiday weekend and I hope that there will be lots of feedback as I am looking forward to reading them on my return.
Labels: Feedback, Freight, Logistics
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