Freight Forwarders Research Articles

Changes in Logistics Activities in Poland as a Result of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The main objective of this article is to identify the direction of change in logistical activities and their critical segments as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in a country that is an important logistical hub of Europe. The specific objectives are to identify changes in logistical activities, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, to determine the dynamics of changes in business revenues and in quantitative parameters for total logistics services and their segments during the pandemic, to establish the relationship between the economic situation and parameters related to logistics services, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the method of purposive selection, Poland, which is well developed in logistics and aspires to be a crucial logistical hub of Europe, was selected for the study. The analysed period covered the years 2015–2021. The material sources were the literature on the subject and data from reports on individual logistics segments. Dynamic indicators with a fixed and variable base, coefficient of variation and Kendall’s tau correlation coefficient were used for analysis and presentation. It was found that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated changes in logistics activities. These changes included digitalisation, the development of the e-commerce market, multi-channel sales and the development of these services, and the introduction of automation and artificial intelligence. In all activities, 2020 was the most challenging year, but there was generally a reduction in revenue growth and, less often, stagnation. Logistics companies gained in the second year of the pandemic (2021) when implemented solutions generated record revenues. Among the winning segments were logistics services in general, especially sea freight forwarding, warehousing services, courier services related to e-commerce, and a lesser extent, freight transport. Losses were incurred in the segment related to passenger transport. COVID-19 became a positive catalyst for change. The logistics industry ultimately benefited from the pandemic. Additionally, due to the pandemic, logistics operations have had greater sustainability, contributing to resource conservation and environmental protection.

Sosialisasi Wawasan Pasar Pengiriman Kargo Internasional 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic that occurred in 2020 had a major impact on the socio-economic life of the community by implementing social distancing programs in several countries. The impact of the world economy occurs with a contraction of -5% in 2020 (UNCTAD, 2021). Nationally, the economic contraction occurred at -2.07% (BPS, 2021a). In general, the national export and import industry (EXIM) has been hard-hit by increasing international transportation prices, scarcity of transportation equipment and imbalance in transport capacity. The impact also continues in early 2021, when the economy starts to pick up, fueling demand for international transportation but does not keep pace with the recovery of transport capacity. The purpose of this webinar is to provide information to exim players about international transportation and effective solutions from hands-on practitioners working in the field of freight forwarding. The material presented here is drawn from the market prospects, transportation reports, global research and KWE internal reports. With these materials, the information provided in the webinar becomes more actual. The response to the webinar was very positive. In general, the exim industry players are helped by the information provided. Several participants also eager to know when the capacity imbalance will be resolved.

Factors of Digital Transformation in the Maritime Transport Sector

This paper aims to present the model of factors which influence the digital transformation in maritime transport sector. The preliminary model is based on a literature review and interviews conducted to identify the relevant factors influencing the digital transformation of stakeholders operating in the maritime transport sector. In order to test the model, the survey was conducted on the sample of Croatian administrative (port authorities, ministry, harbormaster’s offices, etc.) and commercial stakeholders (freight forwarders, agents, terminal operators, etc.) operating in maritime transport sector. The collected data was analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach. The research has shown that organizational, technological, and environmental (TOE) factors affect the digitalization of the organizations in the maritime transport sector. As a result of digitalization, changes in business models are visible: organizations in maritime transport sector generate additional revenue from new sources, provide new services, and introduce new sales channels.

Analysis on the evolution of shipping logistics service supply chain market structure under the application of blockchain technology

With the digital transformation of the shipping industry, the business potential of shipping companies is gradually expanding. In recent years, shipping companies have begun operating freight forwarding businesses powered by the advantages of cost and network. As a result, their business expansion and gradually occupying the market share of agency services. At the same time, the development requirements of digitization are further highlighted, while the problems of opaque information and inaccurate data in the operation of the shipping logistics service supply chain have become more prominent. Thus, the shipping industry has begun to apply Blockchain Technology (BCT) to the shipping logistics. However, the promotion of BCT, an emerging technology in the shipping logistics service market, is not systematic. The members of the supply chain do not have a deep understanding of it, which have led to changes in market demand. We take the shipping logistics service supply chain composed of shipping companies and freight forwarders as the research object in order to investigate the vertical competition between shipping companies and freight forwarders as well as the impact of BCT application on market structure changes. From the perspectives of freight rate competition and the promotion of BCT, the Stackelberg game theory is applied to create a mathematical model that can be used to discuss the evolution of the shipping logistics service market. The results indicate that, the impact of freight rate competition on market evolution is reduced after the application of BCT. Shipping companies should actively promote BCT to reduce the impact of freight competition on the market. Furthermore, freight forwarders can actively participate in the initial stage of application to increase market demand, and the cost of promoting BCT should be reduced in the later stage.

Sistem Informasi Ekspedisi Barang Pada PT. New Power Global Energy Dengan Menggunakan Metode Extreme Programming

PT New Power Global Energy (NPGE) is a company engaged in freight forwarding services. In its businessprocess, New Power Global Energy is not utilizing technology. To manage all information on shipping goods, an information delivery system is needed so that information is easily understood and traced. The system that is built is The Extreme Programming method is a model that is included in the agile approach introduced by Kent Back. According to his explanation, the definition of XP is as follows: "Extreme Programming (XP) is a fast, efficient, low-risk, flexible, predictable, scientific, and fun software development method because system performance assessmentsare needed in a fast time while there are still system needs that are still needed. changes, this model tends to use an Object-Oriented approach. The stages that must be passed include: Planning, Design, Coding, and Testing. Extreme Programming's target is a small to medium-sized team, no need to use a large team expected to help the admin and director in managing information on shipping goods starting from sending, receiving and making reports. This application is designed using the it using the Extreme Programming Methods because the assessment systemperformance is needed in a fast time while there are system requirements that are still changing, and for the system, we use an supporting application which is laravel framework, programming language using JavaScript and PHP and MySQL as an database. The result of design is an system that can process admin performance data quickly, provide performance information MySQL for the database. with management of shipping data features, managing goods delivery status, goods receipt feature, item barcode feature, tracking feature. Keyword: Information System, Expedition, XP

International North–South Transport Corridor: Boosting Russia’s “pivot to the South” and Trans-Eurasian connectivity

The Russian economy will have to adjust its logistics to face the new reality. The operationali­zation of the multimodal International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is an important strategic part of it. This “pivot to the South” by Russia and other Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries is of particular significance in light of the required reconfiguration of supply chains in Eurasia. Russian exporters, importers and freight forwarding companies’ needs in alternative logistical opportunities have increased dramatically. The INSTC development would promote Eurasian intra- and transcontinental connectivity, reduce export costs, develop new production niches, and realize the Caspian region’s transit potential. This study estimates that the aggregate potential INSTC freight traffic via all the routes and modes of transport, including containerized and non-containerized cargoes, will reach 15–25 million­ tonnes by 2030. The container traffic could rise 20x and this will require investments in hard infrastructure and also soft infrastructure improvement. The corridor will contribute to the evolving outline of the trans-Eurasian transport backbone and bring significant benefits for the economies of Russia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Middle East, and South Asia.

Synchromodal transport planning considering heterogeneous and vague preferences of shippers

In synchromodal transport, a freight forwarder usually serves multiple shippers with heterogeneous and vague preferences, such as low-cost, fast, or reliable transport. Ignoring shippers’ preferences will negatively impact the satisfaction of shippers and lead to the loss of them in the longer run. In order to incorporate these preferences, a Synchromodal Transport Planning Problem with Heterogeneous and Vague Preferences (STPP-HVP) is proposed and formulated as a mathematical model. Heterogeneous and Vague Preferences (HVP) are modeled through Multiple Attribute Decision Making approaches that integrate fuzzy set theory. The proposed model has two objectives, i.e., maximizing the number of served requests and minimizing the transportation cost. Preferences of shippers are set as constraints such that the freight forwarder needs to satisfy the preferred levels for each attribute. A heuristic algorithm (Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search) is proposed to find (near) optimal solutions. The case study in the European Rhine–Alpine corridor demonstrates that the proposed model can provide more attractive solutions to shippers compared with optimization which ignores preferences. Under various scenarios, the attributes, such as cost, time, emissions, reliability, and risk of damage, are analyzed and the (near) optimal modes and routes are suggested according to HVP. Moreover, the results show that the conflicts among attributes, conflicts among shippers, and conflicts between the freight forwarder and shippers are resolved by making one actor more satisfied without compromising any other actor’s preferences.

Kualitas Pelayanan Publik Bidang Jasa Pengiriman Pada Pt.Pos Indonesia (Persero) Kota Pematangsiantar

This research was conducted aiming to improve the quality of public services in the field of delivery services at PT. Pos Indonesia (Persero) Pematangsiantar City. Of course, customer satisfaction reflects their assessment of a company. Companies are challenged to build an image and can provide quality and satisfying services. Every company should know what they need to improve. This study aims to determine to what extent the quality of public services in freight forwarding services. Qualitative descriptive method was used to conduct this research. The method of collecting data is by making direct observations at the PT. Pos Indonesia Office in Pematangsiantar City. The results of this study indicate that service delivery and service quality are very influential on customer satisfaction. And they must be able to provide service innovations in order to be able to survive and compete with their competitors.
 Keywords : Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Innovation

Comparison of freight forwarder liability in selected countries of the European Union and selected countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

The continuous flow of movement of goods on the world market forces manufacturers to turn to intermediaries who are able to organize cargo transportation services. At the moment, the most common intermediary is a freight forwarder. This article defines the understanding of the term freight forwarder, its role in the supply chain, as well as the risks associated with transportation. This article analyses the part of forwarding contract which deals with a limitation of the forwarder’s liability. The limitation of the forwarder’s liability allows predicting the amount of compensation to the cargo owner in case of damage or loss of goods. In addition to the previously conducted analysis of the freight forwarder’s liability in the selected countries of the European Union, an analysis of the responsibility of freight forwarders in the selected CIS countries was carried out. Among other things, it was determined which national regulations regulate freight forwarding activities in these countries. The limitations of the liability of freight forwarders proposed by the conditions of the expedition of the national Associations of logistics and forwarding, compiled on the basis of the standard rules of the FIATA organization, are also considered.

스위치 선하증권의 유효요건

Purpose : A Switch B/L refers to a bill that is issued as a substitute for an original B/L but which is not identical in all respects to the bill that it is replacing. In Docket No.2018Da204018, there was a dispute as to the validity of switch B/L which was issued by the freight forwarder at the request of the intermediary without authority from the original B/L’issuer as the carrier. The supreme court of Korea ruled that this B/L can not be regarded as valid B/L under the Korean Law. This article analyses Docket No.2018Da204018 according to the English law, and proposes some recommendations for the carrier, when he issues the switch B/L.
 Research design, data, methodology : This article adopts the legal methodology which utilizes textbooks, journal articles, electronic resources, UK COGSA(1992), and several cases from the English court.
 Results : This article finds that, under the English law, three requirements for an effective switch B/L are a proper requester, a proper issuer, and a legitimacy reason for issuing the switch B/L. Thus, this article concludes that the switch B/L in Docket No.2018da204018 shall not be recognized as a valid B/L, because it clearly lacked the second requirement naming a proper issuer.
 Conclusions : The carrier potentially has greater liability over issuing the switch B/L than the requester. Therefore, when issuing the switch B/L, it is crucial for the carrier to verify the requester, obtain a legitimacy reason for issuing the switch B/L, and to insist upon surrendering the original B/L..

MENAKAR AKAR PENENTU KINERJA KARYAWAN (Sudi Pada Perusahaan Freight Forwarder-PT.Ridho Trans Jaya Semarang)

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of competence, work environment, communication and person organization fit on employee performance at the Freight Forwarder Company-PT. Ridho Trans Jaya Semarang. The data analysis technique used multiple linear regression analysis. The population as well as the sample of this research are all employees of PT. Ridho Trans Semarang, totaling 43 employees. Questionnaires were used to obtain research data. The results of testing the coefficient of total determination showed that 50.4% of the changes in the dependent variable could be explained by independent variables, while the remaining 49.6% was explained by other variables outside the study. The results showed that each variable, namely competence, work environment, communication and person organization fit partially had a significant influence on employee performance. The value of the coefficient of determination adjusted R square is obtained at 76.8% which indicates that 76.8 percent of employee performance variables can be explained by the variables of competence, work environment, communication and person organization fit.

The Analysis of Freight Forwarding Services Using the Business Process Modelling Tools. Study Case in Constanta Port

This paperwork is aiming to describe the business model for a bunkering process as part of the supply chain network from a Company in Constanta port. The authors have conducted a study of modelling the bunkering process for a ship from the company's fleet, which is moored in the port of Constanta, using the Business Process Modelling tools and methodology. The bunkering process with all its stages will be incorporated in the AuraPortal Helium Modeler program and statistically simulated. This entails putting processes through their paces in fictitious scenarios to discover and quantify any factors that might influence how they are carried out in real life. Bottlenecks, overloads, uneven workload distribution, unnecessary time, expenses, and other issues should be revealed by these activities. The authors will do an actual simulation of the bunkering process in the concluding remarks to reflect the process dynamics issues experienced during the full life cycle.

Trade-offs in the landside operations of air cargo hubs: Horizontal cooperation and shipment consolidation policies considering capacitated nodes

Landside operations in air cargo terminals consist of many freight forwarders (FFWs) delivering and picking up cargo at the capacity-constrained loading docks at the airport's ground handlers' (GHs) facilities. To improve the operations of the terminal and take advantage of their geographical proximity a small set of FFWs can build a coalition to consolidate stochastically-arriving shipments and share truck fleet capacity while other FFWs continue bringing cargo to the terminal in a non-cooperative manner. Results from a detailed discrete-event simulation model of the cargo landside operations in Amsterdam Aiport showed that all operational policies had trade-offs in terms of the average shipment cycle time of coalition FFWs, the average shipment cycle time of non-coalition FFWs, and the total distance traveled by the coalition fleet, suggesting that horizontal cooperation in this context was not always beneficial, contrary to what previous studies on horizontal cooperation have found. Since dock capacity constitutes a significant constraint on operations in air cargo hubs, this paper also investigates the effect of dock capacity utilization and horizontal cooperation on the performance of consolidation policies implemented by the coalition. Thus, we built a general model of the air cargo terminal to analyze the effects caused by dock capacity utilization without the added complexity of landside operations at Amsterdam Airport to investigate whether the results hold for more general scenarios. Results from the general simulation model suggest that, in scenarios where dock and truck capacity become serious constraints, the average shipment cycle times of non-coalition FFWs are reduced at the expense of an increase in the cycle times of FFWs who constitute the coalition. A good balance among all the performance measures considered in this study is reached by following a policy that takes advantage of consolidating shipments based on individual visits to GH.

Analisis Keselamatan dan Kesehatan Kerja Bidang Freight Forwader Menggunakan Metode HIRADC

Companies engaged in the freight forwarders or transportation services with activities that pose a risk to the safety and health of workers certainly have the potential to cause danger, starting from the loading-unloading process, the delivery to storage. Therefore, a study on occupational safety and health (K3) is needed. The purpose of this research is to identify occupational risks on freight forwarders and to calculate the level of risk according to the level of likelihood and severity severity. The method uses HIRADC, data collected through observation and questionnaires. Respondents in this study used saturated sampling that is all employees who are at PT. Wardani Srikandi Karya numbered 25 people. The results of the analysis show that there are 81 levels of hazard risk with details of 42% low risk, 54% moderate risk, and 4% high risk level, while the extreme risk level is zero. The conclusion of the research is that freight forwarder companies are dominated by the medium category. The managerial implication that can be recommended is the need for periodic control through elimination, substitution, engineering, administrative and PPE techniques.

Mobile Tracking Membership Application on PT. LP Expedition Denpasar

PT. LP is a company engaged in freight forwarding which currently has 3500 partners spread throughout Indonesia and one of them is in Denpasar City. Customers owned by PT. The prison located in Denpasar City currently has more than 200 people. However, because PT. LP has not utilized technology in its entire business process, causing several activities at PT. LP becomes ineffective and efficient. Customers are often confused when they want to use a pickup service and cannot find out where the package is sent, because there is no facility to track the status of the package. When the customer wants to pick up the packages, the customer must first confirm via WhatsApp to the admin, include the address where the packages are picked up and also if the customer wants to make a cashless payment, the customer must contact the admin to ask for an account number. In addition, whenever PT. LP held a promo, the information did not reach all customers. The purpose of this research is to provide a solution to these problems by building a membership tracking mobile application which will later be able to help PT. LP to simplify and speed up the process of pickup, tracking the packages, and payments. This study uses the waterfall method and chooses Android as the platform used. The results of this study are an Android-based mobile tracking application that has features of packages pickup, tracking of the packages to be picked up, providing information and promo notifications to customers, and payment features.

Оценка возможностей транспортно-экспедиторской компании при проектировании цепи доставки груза

Purpose: To explore the ways to improve the quality of freight forwarding services, to reduce transport constituent in price as well as the possibilities to improve supply chains in modern conditions using quality management methods. To evaluate the possibilities and to select a priority freight forwarding company in accordance with cargo owner requests. To do this, first to analyze the needs of cargo owners for transportation and then to transfer the cargo owner’s requests into technical and technological requirements for being provided services with the help of “quality house” matrix. To analyze the possibilities of integration of expert assessment into quality function development methodology. Methods: Quality function development method, quality house design, pairwise matching method, order scale design. Calculating procedure for concordance value is presented. Results: The necessity to transfer cargo owner requests into technical and technological characteristics is shown in order to align the requirements on delivery chain and being provided services. The general provisions for quality house design are presented for the possibility of using the expert method at the stage of evaluation of competing freight forwarding companies. Practical importance: The possibility of improving services quality in freight forwarding companies in accordance with cargo owner requirement is shown.

Influence of Structural Variation of Container Shipping Industry towards Ocean Freight Forwarders

The industry of container shipping lines (CSLs) has undergone a substantial structural change recently, including the withdrawal of CSLs and reshuffling for strategic alliances. Previous research was limited on the influence of an industrial restructure of CSLs towards the operations of ocean freight forwarder (OFF) companies. This study used the similarity aggregation method (SAM) to complement this gap from a survey of 50 OFFs with varied experiences in Taiwan. The results revealed that OFFs paid more attention to the rights and obligations for cargo claims and observed details for operational dynamics of CSLs. They also had a greater focus on risk management. OFFs perceived the competitive pressure to generate more business that could be found from their rapid responses to the changes of shipper logistical decision-making and requirements. Interestingly, brand reliability and service quality for existing CSLs had no apparent variations.

Analisis Proses Operasional Pengecekan Layak Terbang Cargo Handling

Restrictions on passengers during the Covid-19 pandemic at airports aim to reduce the rate of transmission of Covid. However, this actually increases the growth of freight forwarding which has an impact on increasing cargo. At the cargo terminal there is no x-ray which functions to check cargo and post. Therefore, cargo and post must be checked by the regulated agent outside the line 1 area. Several incidents have been found at the regulated agent which may have an impact on losses. This study aims to determine the procedure for checking outgoing cargo at the regulated agent, to find out the problems that occur in checking outgoing cargo at the regulated agent, and to find out solutions to overcome problems in checking outgoing cargo at the regulated agent. This study uses qualitative research methods with more data collection techniques on participant observation, in-depth interviews and documentation conducted on cargo agent and regulated agent. The results of the study prove that all research objectives, namely procedures for checking outgoing cargo at the regulated agent, problems that occur in checking outgoing cargo at the regulated agent, and solutions to overcome problems in checking cargo outgoing at the regulated agent have been identified. Furthermore, practical conclusions and suggestions will be discussed in more depth in this study.

Freight Forwarding Company Selection Using Hybrid IFAHP-IFTODIM Method

In selecting the best freight forwarding company, the concept of a Decision Support System (DSS) can be used to find the best solution from several alternatives. One of the DSS methods is the Intuitionistic Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (IFAHP) and Intuitionistic Fuzzy Tomada de Decisao Interativa Multicriterio (IFTODIM). This study applied the IFAHP method combined with the IFTODIM method to select the best freight forwarding company at PT Progressio Indonesia. PT Progression Indonesia is a manufacturing and retail company that produces furniture. There are 11 criteria used in the performance assessment of the four alternatives. This research shows that the best freight forwarding company at PT Progressio Indonesia is Kobra Express, with a comprehensive value of 1.000. The second is Herona Express, with a comprehensive value of 0.9437, followed by Indah Logistik Cargo, with a comprehensive value of 0.7005. The last is Guna Dharma Express, with a comprehensive value of 0.0000.

Risk assessment of maritime container shipping blockchain-integrated systems: An analysis of multi-event scenarios

Blockchain applications in maritime logistics services face uncertainties and risks, obstructing a broader and more sustainable adoption. Although the operational risk of blockchain-integrated systems (BISs) is significant, studies in this area are still conceptual and scarce. This research is a mixed-methods risk analysis focusing on (1) modeling the risk situation by a connected network of potential disruptive events in container shipping BISs, and (2) applying a quantitative risk analysis with probabilistic indexes considering the multiplicity of multi-event risk scenarios (MESs). Thirty-two telephone interviews with experts from container terminal operators, shipping companies, and freight forwarders helped establish a risk network with the description of 25 vertices and 54 directed connections. The quantitative analysis of 64 web survey responses provided insights and foresight about different characteristics of each risk and causal connection. The results enable a comprehensive view of the potential failure modes of blockchain applications. This study is the first to explore the potential risk situation in container shipping BISs with inputs from the industry. The applied methodological framework expands the toolkit of risk researchers, analysts, and managers against the fast-paced development of digitalization in maritime logistics and supply chain operations.