SUPPLY chain integration, consolidation, alliances and partnerships. These are the key trends in today’s logistics business, according to experts at last week’s PortCalls Cargo Economics Conference at the Hyatt Regency Manila.
They say that the tough environment calls for logistics providers that offer a one-stop-shop service.
Those that do not have that capability acquire this through partnerships. The enabler for everything, they say, is technology.
DHL Express Phils. Country manager Charles Brewer said service integration normally leads to product development for higher-yield industrial traffic. “Rapid and ‘virtual’ partnering will be key to new supply chain management strategies, as the best integrators work together to attain the biggest prizes,” he noted.
The times also call for providers that offer flexibility and speed, track-and-trace capabilities, collaborative logistics, and reverse logistics.
“Such trends involve the application of technologies, physical integration of joint management processes, streamlined internal processes and modified policies, e-commerce and cost reduction,” said Brewer.
Apart from global alliances and partnerships, active participation of integrators, use of time-definite services, and adoption of supply chain management are among the trends in airfreight forwarding, said Aircargo Forwarders of the Philippines, Inc. president Eduardo de Guzman, II.
“Forwarders are also likely to venture in other revenue-generating services such as domestic forwarding,” he added.
Meanwhile, ASEAN Federation of Freight Forwarder Associations chairman Angelito Colona challenged logistics providers to shift from the traditional unimodal transport to intermodal transport.
Intermodal transport is a system operated by a carrier with more than one mode of transport under the control or ownership of one operator.
He also urged logistics providers to pay attention to new security regulations in place to counter terrorism, as these have a big impact on the supply chain. – Maritess R. Mesias.
