Chinese company takes advantage of U.S. logistics training

Chinese company takes advantage of U.S. logistics training    DTW, the largest freight forwarder in China, has signed up as the first corporate customer in that country to receive logistics training from the American Society of Transportation and Logistics (AST&L), a professional society that promotes continuing education through logistics certification programs.
   AST&L will open an office in Beijing by Dec. 1, according to Executive Director Laurie Denham.
   AST&L, which is based in Arlington, Va., and affiliated with the National Industrial Transportation League, has offered certification programs to individual Chinese logistics professionals since 2003 in cooperation with the Chinese Communications and Transportation Association, but is now expanding its reach to help companies learn best practices for managing and shipping inventory. The new office will also coordinate cooperative arrangements between Chinese and American companies and universities. AST&L’s chief representative in China will be Chung Tam, president of Frontier Consulting Group.
   China is starved for logistics expertise to reduce the economic drain on goods storage and movement in a country where logistics costs are roughly equivalent to 20 percent of Gross Domestic Product, more than double what they are in the United States. In fact, the term 'logistics' was not even in the Chinese vocabulary until five years ago.
   The government has launched a massive transportation infrastructure spending plan to build highway and rail networks connecting major industrial areas, but completion is still several years away and secondary roads are often unpaved or not wide enough for large trucks commonly found in Europe and the United States. The majority of logistics companies are small family businesses that own a few small trucks or a barebones facility for storage without providing any added value through packaging, assembly or technology-based tracking.
   DTW Group has 192 branches and subsidiaries serving 520 cities. It recently sold a 50 percent share in a joint venture express delivery service to FedEx, its partner, to concentrate on freight distribution and warehousing.
   'Modern logistics requires high-level management skills. Training and education is a critical component of our strategy going forward. This agreement with AST&L will contribute significantly to the future development of DTW,' said Shusheng Wang, AST&L chairman, in a statement.
   In September, AST&L took another step to increase the visibility of the Chinese logistics sector by signing an agreement to jointly organize the first Sino-American Logistics Conference and Exhibition along with The NIT League and the China Council for Promotion of International Trade. The event, to be held in Beijing and Shanghai July 18-21, will focus on promoting American imports and logistics practices for shipping from the United States. U.S. and Chinese industry officials will then take a two-day tour of port and logistics facilities in Shanghai, Denham said.
   Schneider National and the Georgia Tech Logistics Institute, in another nod to the growing importance of China to global supply chains, recently held their fourth annual transportation and logistics leadership symposium in Shanghai.