Keeping ocean shipping’s personal touch

Keeping ocean shippingÆs personal touch    As the old saying goes, treat others as you would like to be treated.
   The same could be said for ocean freight transportation ' shippers will go to service providers where they feel that they are treated best.
   This is why, even in the worst of economic times, non-vessel-operating common carriers have continued to attract increasing volumes of freight, often from small to mid-sized shippers, but even some of the biggest players who feel the liner carriers simply don't give their business enough attention and require some competition from these intermediaries.
   To be fair, liner carriers, which still control the bulk of shippers' freight and have billions of dollars tied up in assets, have made significant information technology investments to more efficiently link themselves to their customers. This has no doubt helped speed communication flows of cargo data, reduced transaction costs, and helped shippers comply with new government regulations.
   However, many shippers would argue that these same systems offer little or no support during logistics breakdowns. And when a shipper needs to speak to a person, they're often routed to call centers in locations and staffed with people having no direct connection to the maritime community. This further inflames shippers' overall irritation with liner carrier customer service. As an NVO executive recently put it to American Shipper: The carriers 'looked at IT as a cost-cutting measure,' instead of as a means to truly improve customer service.
   The NVO industry, which is also under intense pressure from shippers to keep up with the latest shipping management technologies ' and granted does not have the asset burden of their liner carrier brethren ' has wisely maintained a prominent human element within its customer service.
   'Systems simply execute tasks more efficiently than people, but it is still the skill and knowledge of NVO industry personnel who can quickly evaluate the world's constantly changing business and customs environments; anticipate, identify and define new challenges; and deliver effective supply chain solutions ' be they IT based or simply procedural,' another executive of a large multinational NVO explained.
   NVOs could garner even more ocean freight in the future if shippers become increasingly fed up with having to deal with the liner carriers themselves. Having an intermediary between the transaction could ease this frustration. In essence, let the NVOs do the arguing for them.
   Some liner carriers may simply shrug their shoulders and say to themselves that this is the way international container transport is headed and shippers should just deal with it.
   Yet when customer service sets sail, those same liner carriers shouldn't complain when more of their freight lands in the arms of NVOs and their services are reduced to a mere commodity ' like the purchase and sale of bulk grains, coal and chemicals.