EXPEDITIONS AND LOGISTICS: TERMINOLOGICAL ANTICIPATES, CONSEQUENCES, AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION

Abstract

Purpose . The aim of the work is to study the differences between the concepts of «forwarding» and «logistics», «forwarder» and «logistician». The technique . In the process of research, general theoretical methods and methods of abstraction and comparison, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, the main principles of the general theory of systems and system analysis were used. Results . The article formulates and discusses a terminological contradiction in the understanding by some representatives of the transport services market of the concepts of «forwarding» and «logistics», «forwarder» and «logistician», which leads to their not always correct application. It is established that logistician (logistics department or logistics company) is traditionally an employee of a production (trading) company (an element of its organizational structure or an independent legal entity), which is delegated powers to manage the entire logistics of the enterprise, or most of its elements, ranging from searching and purchases of raw materials for the production of finished products and ending with the production, sale and delivery of finished products to the consumer. When the foreign trade contract with the buyer is concluded and the question is in bringing the finished product (goods) to the consumer, the logistician, as a rule, addresses the services of a freight forwarder, who, in turn, deals with the organization of an appropriate delivery system. A logistician and a freight forwarder are subjects of different markets: the first represents the commodity market, the second – the market of transport services and becomes the agent of the cargo owner after the conclusion of the relevant contract on freight forwarding activities. If a company provides freight forwarding services in accordance with an agreement on freight forwarding and operates within the legal field that is regulated by relevant legislation, then for all formal reasons such a company is engaged in transport and freight forwarding, rather than logistics. It has been established that today it is possible to speak about the logistic approach to the organization of the transport process only in a situation where a production (trading) company represented by its logistician (logistics department or a logistics company) delegates authority for the organization of this process to a multimodal transport operator (MTO). The MTO is a representative of the transport services market (TSM). Scientific novelty . The results obtained in the work allow to bring scientific and theoretical foundations for further analytical differentiation of the concepts of «forwarding» and «logistics», «forwarder» and «logistician». Practical significance . The results of the research will allow representatives of the national transport education, science and practice to more intelligently and consciously approach the professional use of professional terminology in their scientific-theoretical, educational and production activities, without trying to give it a new-fashioned logistic-oriented sense against logic and common sense.