Báo cáo thực tập tiếng anh GRADUATE INTERNSHIP REPORT FREIGHT FORWARDING ACTIVITIES

1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL *** GRADUATE INTERNSHIP REPORT FREIGHT FORWARDING ACTIVITIES ELS AIR & OCEAN C/O THE VY CO., LTD SUITE 401, NO 131, BUI THI XUAN ST., HAI BA TRUNG DIST., HANOI, VIETNAM Supervisor: Tran Hong Ngan, M.A Student’s full name: Nguyen Kieu Oanh Student’s ID: 11071275 Major: International Business Class: IB2012B Hanoi,March 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Having such an amazing and satisfying experience at The Vy Company over these weeks, I would like to express my gratitude and thanks towards the following people for their support: To the company perspective, if they had not made the decision to select me for the internship, I would not have this opportunity to practice my learning, special thanks to: Mr Nguyen Phi Hung – Director, also my supervisor Mr Cong Phuong Hiep – Deputy Director I would also like to acknowledge Prof Tran Hong Ngan’s involvement and supervision of my internship as well as her valuable advice during doing this report Besides, I would like to thanks to Mrs Nguyen Thi Le Van of Student training and management Department for supporting me such up to date and informational material to complete this report Last but not least, to my dear friends Ms Dang Thanh Thao, Ms Bui Hong Cuc, Ms Le Thi Thuy Hong for their guiding, sharing and supporting Table of Contents Rationale Purpose and Scope of study Structure of the report CHAPTER I: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE VY COMPANY, LIMITED I Basic information II Functions, Duties, Administration and Personal management structure .7 a Functions b Company’s duties c Human resources and Administrative structure CHAPTER II: THE COMPANY’S BUSINESS 10 I General business activities 10 The Vy business’s characteristics .10 Competitive position 10 II Freight Forwarding Activities 11 Freight Forwarding Basic information .11 Span of International Operation 13 Conference Lines .14 Services Offered and Assets .15 Freight forwarding clients: 22 CHAPTER III: INTERSHIP ACTIVITIES 25 I Objectives 25 II Content 25 Scanning order email from the customer 27 Bill of lading tracking 28 Transshipment 28 III Methodology 28 CHAPTER IV: PERSONAL LEARNING AND REFLECTION 30 I Knowledge improvement .30 II Social and communication skills .30 III Time management .31 IV Positive working attitude 31 V Observation and recommendation .32 Observation 32 Recommendations 33 CHAPTER V: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION .35 REFERENCES 36 APPENDIX 37 INTRODUCTION Rationale I had done the internship for about month at The Vy Co., Ltd and I had some experiences that I brought out here in this report During the internship period, I got used to with the real working environment, built new relationships with the co-worker and studied work place communication manors Moreover, through the internship, I can bring what I studied at university program in the real working world Purpose and Scope of study The purpose of the report is to give an in-depth insight of my experiences as an office intern at The Vy over this short but enriching weeks This report is carried out by self-study and collecting materials from The Vy’s stored documents as well as the Internet combining with materials collected from current employees of The Vy Structure of the report The first part of the reports offers an overview of the organization The next part is main logistic activities of The Vy Limited Company This part will be the main content of this report which shows out my understanding about the practical logistic activities The next part is about internship activities with some personal learning and reflection of the internship to me Finally, the report warp-up with a few closing remark with summary and conclusion from the experiences CHAPTER I: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE VY COMPANY, LIMITED I Basic information The Vy Company Co., Ltd is the Hanoi representative office of ELS air & Ocean Limited Company which located in Taipei, Taiwan The Vy Company Co., Ltd was formally established and put into operation according to Business registration certificate No 0102025865 of Department of Planning and Investing Hanoi on 17th April, 2006 Official name: Công ty TNHH Thế Vỹ English name: The Vy Company Limited Name in short: The Vy Co., Ltd Address: Suite 401, No 131, Bui Thi Xuan St.,Hai Ba Trung Dist., Hanoi, Vietnam Phone number: 043 9763 345 - Fax: 043 9763 348 Tax code: 0101918117 Charter capital: 700.000.000 VND (Seven hundred million Vietnam Dong) Capital contributing Mr Nguyen Phi Hung members: Ms Pham Thi Ngoc Van 28.57% 28.57% II Functions, Duties, Administration and Personal management structure a Functions The company’s functions include international services in transportation, logistic, exportation, importation, agency, consulting, etc for domestic and foreign companies in transportation, logistic, exportation and importation sectors In detailed, The Vy’s functions include: - Logistics services import and export goods - Goods on consignment agent - Customs brokerage services, warehousing - Buying and selling personal belongings and family (except sporting guns), metal products, electrical appliances, garments, fabrics, sports equipment, cosmetics (except cosmetics are harmful to health), arts and crafts products, electrical goods, electrical appliances, computers, office machines (except for color printers), paper, plastic resins, fertilizers, household goods, exterior decoration, aluminum products, plastics, food, food, agricultural and fishery products, leather buffalo - cattle primary processing Besides, depending on client’s requirements, The Vy may take care of other services arising in delivery and special services like collecting, relevant services related to logistics activities b Company’s duties - Build plans and implement business services following recent regulations - Ensure preservation and addition capital based on self-financing, reasonable and efficiency usage of capital; fulfill payment obligations of the State Budget - Regularly promote, improve company’s facilities - Joint and associate venture to carrying out delivery, transportation goods by modern vehicles in flows, transport routes rationally and safely; improve transportation, transition, storage in warehouse and yard, delivery; and ensure safe storage of cargoes within the responsibility of The Vy c Human resources and Administrative structure The company is being managed by a direct scheme in which Director Nguyen Phi Hung is the most powerful person, have responsibilities in every activity of The Vy Under his business are 100% staffs having university degrees who take charge of others positions The following diagram is the simple human resources structure of The Vy: In which: - Director: Directly running the company, negotiating, signing contracts, executing deal, resolving problems with clients and being legal representative - Deputy Director: Helping the Director in personnel management, recruitment, finding clients, resolving clients’ problems - Accountant: Monitoring expenditures, accounting business through documentary - Specialist staff: Organizing and implementing professional works in logistics In charge of researching activities, find ding potential clients in both air way and ocean  Personal Evaluating: The simple personnel structure of the company helps reduce cost and easily to manage 10 CHAPTER II: THE COMPANY’S BUSINESS I General business activities The Vy business’s characteristics Seasonal: it is a general characteristic of almost company, which works in this logistic sector Seasonal business activities depend on the seasonality of export/import goods Having not own any ship or container: This is a disadvantage to compare with others because this may cause passive situation for the company, especially in Maritime season Sometimes the company has to struggle to the problem of competition between the vessel providing firms Competitive position Nowadays, along with the open market policies of Vietnam government, there are hundreds of state companies, joint stock companies, joint venture companies, and private companies competing with The Vy in logistics sector Those companies are so variety in scale, type of ownership and functions… This fact forces The Vy to have a clear plan, suitable develop policies to utilize human resources effectively, and promote advantages to survive and develop 24 GOLDEN STAR CO., LTD NO 1166 NGUYEN BINH KHIEM, DONG HAI WARD, HAI AN DISTRICT, HAIPHONG CITY, VIETNAM V.J ONE GARMENT CO., LTD HONG CHAU COMMUNE, DONG HUNG DISTRICT, THAI BINH PROVINCE, VIETNAM 25 CHAPTER III: INTERSHIP ACTIVITIES I Objectives As a student of Bachelor of International business analyzing in today’s business world is very crucial to observe this complex situation It is the fact that you need to go through all fields of knowledge both theoretical and practical The program that we study at university is enough for theoretical then now what we need is the practical I was sent to the practical knowledge as a part to finished my study as an internship program An internship program is what we use our theoretical turn to practical and enhance personal capabilities In this report I had practices all of my knowledge to understand clearly what a logistic firm and to which factor it is suitable for me in the future or not II Content As you can see the following table is my internship schedule: Week Date 18 Tasks performed ~ 01/2016 23 - Finding and understanding about company’s background - Marking photocopies, printing - Reading the customer old email 26 Week Date Tasks performed 25 ~ 30 - Searching about Logistic key words on customer’s email 01/2016 - Arranging bill of lading for ocean - Reading and getting to know about Ocean logistic transaction - Finding information about Logistic process 01 ~ 05 - Scanning old email form partner and customer 02/2016 - Arranging bill of lading for air way - Reading and getting to know about Air way logistic transaction - Understanding about HS code for each product 27 Week Date Tasks performed 15 ~ 20 02/2016 - Scanning order email from the customer - Learning about the main vessel partner of The Vy - Understanding about vessel booking process - Supporting the director to check the available vessel 22 ~ 28 - Scanning order email from the customer 02/2016 - Searching about the trade routes of ELS Air & Ocean - Supporting others activities - Scanning order email from the customer - Analyzing the company’s data for internship report 29/02 05/03 2016 ~ - Scanning order email from the customer - Analyzing the company’s data for internship report Scanning order email from the customer 28 When you read the word scanning email people might think it is somewhat boring However, for me after weeks of scanning email every day, I am now understanding about the way an order was made, how they will deal with each single order of the customer Moreover, through email scanning, I can understand the short term which usually use in Logistic, get to know with the code of containers, shipment code as well as checking others code which appear on the bill Bill of lading tracking I started my internship by beginning tracking the bill of lading What I have to here is reading the bill, tracking to the Bill number and recorded again the customer’s information Almost the information you need in order to understand the transaction will be on the B/L so that before doing everything, reading and understanding the B/L is the short way for you to know about others transaction Transshipment I was formally introduced and learned about others collogues’ respective duties My boss – Mr Hung , who along with Mr Hiep, managed the booking of containers between the ELS service and the other service routes offered in here I was assigned to work directly with Mr Hung, who was responsible for booking outbound containers from mother ships As the above, I had get to know will all the information which appeared on the B/L so that I can easily adapt with the transaction at Transshipment perspective My goals in Transshipment were to practically learn about our flow of operations and the interrelationships between us and other departments, offices, and third parties III Methodology 29 For achieving the specific objectives of this study were gathering from both primary and secondary sources Primary Source:  Direct conversation with the respective officers of the company  Face to face conversation with the staffs  Observation of the office Secondary Sources  Various records of the forwarding line  Various records of the Bill of lading  Different Types of brochures  Website of ELS Company Limited  Different newsletters  Personal files of the employee 30 CHAPTER IV: PERSONAL LEARNING AND REFLECTION I Knowledge improvement After much formal education in various business courses and experience working for different types of positions, I applied what I had learned and done thus far into the course of my daily activities at The Vy From education, I applied computational and analysis skills I had acquired in Accounting and Computer Science to evaluate and arrange the B/L when I started working at The Vy Another course of International Trade Techniques helped me lots during my internship as the theory now turn out to be reliable as being internship at a logistic company II Social and communication skills Adapting to and adjusting well in such a new environment of working life is not only about having the necessary skills and technical capabilities however more one important factor is having good social skills which helped you to adapt to the new environment Moreover, it is about being able to develop and maintain good and harmonized relationships with others at the work place Over months of doing internship, I have known and maintained such a good relationship with my colleagues Even though at The Vy there are not too many people to deal with, I also keep in touch with them after work Sometimes interactions with some people were not so pleasant however, upholding professionalism as an intern who comes to study I force myself to maintain this kind of relation In addition, I have observed and realized the important of being sensitive to people from different field of studying and working Most of the staffs in The Vy are graduate from different major which is not related to Logistic but they did such a good performance at Logistic perspective Misunderstanding or miscommunications sometimes arise because people from different majors had the different evaluation for each problem However, with tact and some sensitive 31 to the language and words we use, these conflicts or misunderstanding can be avoided or minimized Being a new member of this office, I have face up to some communication problems but thanks to the support of others collogues I had find the solution for improve my communication as well as the relationship with others, not only in my office III Time management Beside pick up and maintain these social relationship as well as improve my communication skills, I also come to realize what it takes to analyze in the working world Being able to manage time is one of the essentials key factors as I am take charge to planning my own timeline and checking my calendar to ensure that there will be no conflicts between my personal time and working time As much independence I was received when working, I learnt how to manage my time to prioritize the different tasks so that I could complete them all I studied at International School – Vietnam National University in English teaching major, at university we also see the important role of time management and manage to on deadline however the deadline in this real working world are much more tighter and be to be adhered to be more strictly Therefore, I have to change my habit about time to adapt with this situation At some company with high reputation required it is much heavier responsibility in your time management, which can support and match with others collogues because of working toward a small group However, the experiences and responsibility given to me at The Vy helped me managed my expectation about the real working world to become better IV Positive working attitude Maintaining a positive and optimistic attitude also helped to tide me overtimes whereby I felt frustrated because it seems like in the situation that I reach my “peach” in my learning as well as experiences and there was nothing stimulating 32 anymore By doing the internship, I had learnt that sometimes the workload is similar to the high and low movement of sea tides Therefore the more patient during working you can do, the more effective productivity you can bring out, for me by observation others day by day I can learn many things In addition, a positive work attitude is also help as others can shape the positive vibes and optimism and thus help the whole company’s morale in times when the customer is difficult to handle or demanding many requirement As far as I know, the most transaction The Vy is mainly working through email, sometimes sides are not agree as a result email will come back and ford Therefore, positive thinking and patient during working are the key factors to maintain the relationship with customers Moreover, initiative is also another asset that you should prepare before entering the real working world, as it is no longer live university time where people would serve in front of your face with information from friends or teachers who will help you to edit your assignments For examples, for the whole first weeks what I at the internship office is that reading and arrange all the bill of lading for air and ocean of The Vy Company However, during arranging some documents I think they should change the position as well as the way they arrange therefore, I took up the initiative of me to clarify matters to some of my colleagues’ attention so that we can discuss about that together Being initiative is important as the working world is much less tolerant of mistake and the deadline must be kept strictly Besides, having this is also good way of maintaining my harmonious and happy working relationship with colleagues V Observation and recommendation Observation 33 It can be said that The Vy is now doing such a good job on their business with the turnover sales in 2015 about 377, 250 USD (~ 8.2 billion VND) The Vy is considered as the leading international brand office of ESL Air and Ocean with core business in freight forwarding However, the very nature of business is as such that they need constant improvements to meet the dynamic business environment of today There is undoubtedly scopes for future improvement that can be brought about in the company as follow: • Lack of human resources there for one person have to many task • Mainly working through email therefore leading to misunderstanding • Frequent miscommunications regarding shipment payments with suppliers’ agents • Missing the information notify for customer to fill the ISF ( ISF : Importer Security Filling - Under the new rule, before merchandise arriving by vessel can be imported into the United States, the “Importer Security Filing (ISF) Importer,” or their agent (e.g., licensed customs broker), must electronically submit certain advance cargo information to CBP in the form of an Importer Security Filing This requirement only applies to cargo arriving in the United States by ocean vessel; it does not apply to cargo arriving by other modes of transportation) Recommendations First of all, the organization hierarchy as well as the duty of each person must be revised periodically and employee evaluation should be prioritized during promotion/ bonus assessment It is because each person have to in charged many tasks, however, The Vy is such a small company therefore the recruitment is not necessary Jobs descriptions should be clearly communicated between everybody about who does which part of the work 34 In order to avoid the misunderstanding, the order description has to be clearly and exactly true for each single number Beside that, the person who is in charge of notification has to pay more attention about the time of shipment It is said that we cannot plan for a vessel because it is coming on the ocean so that it depends on the weather However, notification is the company’s duty therefore, we have to as much as we can or we will be punished The punished fee for each container is 1000 USD 35 CHAPTER V: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION In summary, it has been such a really fulfilling internship experience here at The Vy Limited Company Not only have I gain practical understanding as well as knowledge and real – life experiences of logistic activities with real clients, I also adapted and managed to develop relationships with my colleagues and improved my social skills Besides, many independence-working activities were given to me despite the fact that I am an newbie internship who did not know anything about this logistic perspectives With the support of my company supervisor as well as others colleagues, I myself had step into the real working business by interact with the real clients and real logistic transaction Sometimes, I feel that I am actually being one of this company staffs rather than being a months internship because of the trust they put on me and the working responsibilities that they delegate to me I myself firmly pleased that the company does not have any typical narrowthinking such as an intern should be governed and treated as the old staffs supported in which they will what company’s staffs said right away During the entire first week, what I did was printing, collecting document, arrange the bill of lading I never think that these tasks are non-senses because they helped me a lot in understanding the activities at work place Before I stared doing internship, I never expected that it will be finished in such a great way like that, I was satisfied for meeting such friendly and helpful colleagues I believe that the knowledge and experiences, that I gained through this internship period at The Vy Co., Ltd, will be my first supporter to be used upon my graduation and opened up another opportunities for me on Logistic as well as Import/Export business 36 REFERENCES Công ty THHH Vỹ Doanh, n.d, Report : “Giao nhận vận chuyển Container, [Online] Available at: http://vietnamforwarder.com/ProductsDetail.aspx?pid=118 [Accessed 02 March 2016] US Government, 2009, Regulation : “ Importer Security Filling “10 +2””, [Online] Available at : http://www.cbp.gov/border-security/ports-entry/cargosecurity/importer-security-filing-102 [Accessed 02 March 2016] ELS Air & Ocean, Services report: “Sea/ Ocean Freight”, [Online] Available at: http://eslairocean.com/services/sea-ocean-freight [Accessed 02 March 2016] ELS Air & Ocean Co., Ltd, 2015, Report: “E.S.L Air & Ocean/ The Vy Co., Ltd Sale turnover Report 2015” [Accessed 04 March 2016] World shipping council, 2010, Report: “ Trade Statistics”, [Online] Available at: http://www.worldshipping.org/about-the-industry/global-trade/trade-statistics [Accessed 03 March 2016] World shipping council, 2013, Report: “ Reade Routes”, [Online] Available at: http://www.worldshipping.org/about-the-industry/global-trade/trade-routes [Accessed 03 March 2016] OOCL, N.d, OOCL Resources Center, [Online] Available at: http://www.oocl.com/eng/resourcecenter/blterms/Pages/default.aspx [Accessed 03 March 2016] ELS Air & Ocean C/O Thy Vy Co.,Ltd, 2015, Storage document: “ Recorded Bill of Lading for Air & Ocean” [Accessed 02 March 2016] 37 APPENDIX I The fowling question was used to interview The Vy’s staffs during the report: What is the main transaction of The Vy? To what extend you think Freight forwarding has some difficulties? What are the difficulties after received an order? Can you overcome all the difficulties that you have mentioned? What are the solution for each? In your opinion, can those method improve The Vy’s activities in Freight Forwarding perspectives and make the competitive advantages? II The following tables were used to evaluate the result Table of trade routes in 2013 38 Top 20 Exporter of Containerized Cargo 2009 and 2010 [...]...11 II Freight Forwarding Activities 1 Freight Forwarding Basic information a Definition Freight forwarding is a service used by companies that deal in international or multi-national import and export While his freight forwarder does not actually move the freight itself, it acts as an intermediary between the client and various transportation... what a freight forwarder actually does A freight forwarder does not actually move your freight itself The freight forwarder acts as an intermediary between a shipper and various transportation services such as ocean shipping on cargo ships, trucking, expedited shipping by air freight, and moving goods by rail A freight forwarding service utilizes established relationships with carriers, from air freighters... legalities A freight forwarding service handles the considerable logistics of this task for the client, relieving what would otherwise be a formidable burden Freight forwarding services guarantee that products will get to the proper destination by an agreed upon date, and in good condition The freight forwarding service utilizes established relationships with carriers of all kinds, from air freighters... forwarder’s bid, the freight is readied for shipping The freight forwarding service then undertakes the responsibility of arranging the transport from point of origin to destination b Functions of Freight Forwarder 12 There is a lot that goes into arranging your international shipping While the freight forwarder handles the details of your international shipping, it is important to know what a freight forwarder... http://www.cbp.gov/border-security/ports-entry/cargosecurity/importer-security-filing-102 [Accessed 02 March 2016] 3 ELS Air & Ocean, Services report: “Sea/ Ocean Freight , [Online] Available at: http://eslairocean.com/services/sea-ocean -freight [Accessed 02 March 2016] 4 ELS Air & Ocean Co., Ltd, 2015, Report: “E.S.L Air & Ocean/ The Vy Co., Ltd Sale turnover Report 2015” [Accessed 04 March 2016] 5 World shipping council, 2010, Report: “ Trade Statistics”, [Online] Available at: http://www.worldshipping.org/about-the-industry/global-trade/trade-statistics... the customer 02/2016 - Searching about the trade routes of ELS Air & Ocean - Supporting others activities 5 - Scanning order email from the customer - Analyzing the company’s data for internship report 29/02 05/03 6 2016 ~ - Scanning order email from the customer - Analyzing the company’s data for internship report 1 Scanning order email from the customer 28 When you read the word scanning email people... with carriers of all kinds, from air freighters and trucking companies, to rail freighters and ocean liners Freight forwarding services negotiate the best possible price to move the product along the most economical route by working out various bids and choosing the one that best balances speed, cost and reliability A freight forwarding service generally provides one or more estimates to the client along... good freight forwarding service can save you untold time and potential headaches while providing reliable transportation of products at competitive rates 13  A freight forwarder is an asset to almost any company dealing in international transportation of goods, and is especially helpful when inhouse resources are not versed in international shipping procedures There are many advantages to using a freight. .. fulfilling internship experience here at The Vy Limited Company Not only have I gain practical understanding as well as knowledge and real – life experiences of logistic activities with real clients, I do also adapted and managed to develop relationships with my colleagues and improved my social skills Besides, many independence-working activities were given to me despite the fact that I am an newbie internship. .. part to finished my study as an internship program An internship program is what we use our theoretical turn to practical and enhance personal capabilities In this report I had practices all of my knowledge to understand clearly what a logistic firm do and to which factor it is suitable for me in the future or not II Content As you can see the following table is my internship schedule: Week Date 18