RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO

- MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION MINISTRY OF EDUCATION & TRAINING VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY STUDENT NAME: NGUYEN LE HOANG DISSERTATION GLOBAL STUDIES AND MARITIME AFFAIRS RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO., LTD HAI PHONG – 2015 MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION MINISTRY OF EDUCATION & TRAINING VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY STUDENT NAME: NGUYEN LE HOANG CLASS: GMA 02 DISSERTATION GLOBAL STUDIES AND MARITIME AFFAIRS RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO., LTD Supervisor: Doan Trong Hieu Division: Economics of International Trade Faculty: Economics HAI PHONG – 2015 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD PREFACE Nowadays, in the context of development, industrialization and globalization are happening strongly and fast in all over the world, which create many potential chances for developing countries such as Vietnam In relations between countries and countries, economic issues are always the most important factors to be discussed Foreign trade is a sustainable way for Vietnam to develop since we join the WTO There are no other choice is to boost exports, give priority to the export and import operations to create a competitive advantage for them Foreseeing the importance of training and high-quality workforce recruitment in the foreign trade sector, many companies have taken the initiative to contact cooperation with universities, help creating conditions for students practice and working in the real environment combined with the knowledge about foreign trade techniques they were taught at school Vietnam Maritime University is one of these universities which already applied this model successfully Thanks to the help from the International School of Education (ISE), ISE students has been given chances to practice in import and export business, logistics and transportation companies to be able to apply the knowledge learned into real business During the practice times, I had a chance to practice at Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD (TASA TRANSPORT), one Member Company of DUYEN HAI MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT JSC (TASA DUYEN HAI) Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD is a company which specialized in road transportation, freight forwarding process, import and export through Haiphong port and the other ports in surrounding area In this time, I was allow to know not only about freight forwarding services, how does it operate but also know many things in real life that I never know before Now, I would like to present my dissertation about recommendations to improve the LCL freight forwarding services at Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD I also want to give my thanks to the general director and all the staff of Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD who allowed me to practice at the company I declare that this report is my own unaided work It has not been submitted before If violated, I am solely responsible for and bear the punishments of the Institution and University Student Name and Signature Nguyen Le Hoang i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page i RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD ACKNOWLEGEMENT Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof Doan Trong Hieu for the continuous support of my dissertation, for his patience, motivation, and immense knowledge His guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my study i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page ii RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface i Acknowledgement ii List of abbreviation v List of table vi INTRODUCTION 1 The importance of the topic Research structure Research Object Research Scope Research Method CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of freight forwarding services 1.2 Freight forwarder 1.3 Forwarder responsibility and rights 1.4 Forwarder liability 1.5 LCL freight forwarding process 1.5.1 The definition of LCL cargo 1.5.2 Consolidator 1.5.3 General LCL forwarding process 1.6 Legal basis framework 11 CHAPTER 2: THE SITUATION OF LCL FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO., LTD 12 2.1 Introduction about company 12 2.1.1 Introduction about Duyen Hai Multimodal Transport JSC (TASA Duyen Hai) 12 2.1.2 History 13 2.1.3 Functions 13 2.1.4 Organization 14 i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page iii RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD 2.1.5 Member Companies 14 2.1.6 Personnel 16 2.1.7 Introduction about Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., ltd 17 2.2 The situation of LCL cargo freight forwarding services at Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., ltd 19 2.2.1 The LCL cargoes freight forwarding process 19 2.2.2 The LCL business result at Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., ltd Company 29 CHAPTER 3: EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 30 3.1 Goals and directions 30 3.2 Evaluation about LCL forwarding activities at TASA 30 3.3 Recommendations 32 CONCLUSION 38 i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page iv RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LCL Less than container load CFS Container Freight Station D/O Delivery Order B/L Bill of Lading C/O Certificate of origin EIR Equipment Interchange Receipt i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page v RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The number of staffs TASA TRANSPORT Company Table 2: Standard of Containers Table 3: LCL cargo forwarding business result (2011-2014) i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page vi RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD INTRODUCTION The importance of the topic In the context of globalization in all over the world, economic integration between countries with each other is increasing strongly Economic integration rises up quickly also bring the chance to increase the export activities and import activities more than ever before With the development of foreign trading, forwarding services also expands and both in quality and quantities and take an important role in cargo transportation The forwarding services can me see to be link to connect sellers and buyers, manufacturers and customers In Vietnam, although foreign trading activities only happens in some decades recently, they also play an important part to the development of the economy and open more relationships in many fields between Vietnam and other countries Forwarding process is not only a continuous economic process but also a big part of trading, increase the efficiency of foreign trading Understand the importance of freight forwarding services; I would like to choose the topic: “Recommendations to improve LCL freight forwarding services at Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., ltd” to write in this dissertation Research Structures Introduction Chapter 1: Methodology Chapter 2: The situation of LCL forwarding services at Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD Chapter 3: Evaluation and recommendations Conclusions Research Object Besides learning about Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., ltd, the research object of this dissertation is to clarify the cargo forwarding activities, the reality or current status of LCL cargoes activities at Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., ltd From these activities to point out the advantages and disadvantages, the difficulties, strength and limitations of the company with LCL cargoes activities, and in the last part solutions and recommendations to solve will be proposed Research Scope-subject Research Subject: the freight forwarding services for importing and exporting LCL cargoes at Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., ltd Research Scope: The reality and current status of operative LCL cargoes activities at Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., ltd Research Method i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD Analysis: Data of the research is collected by many ways In this research, the most commons ways to collect numbers and evaluate the operations are interviewing the forwarder staffs and comparisons numbers from annual reports By these ways, comments and evaluations about the operations of the company can be proposed  Interviewing the staff forwarders directly  Comparisons statistics from annual reports  Observation from practical cases or in daily works i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD collected… to carry out necessary documents and upload to the management system of the company Step 6: Establish house bill of lading As having information from Bill of Lading, the staff will start make House Bill of Lading for each consignor In some short route, Bill of lading must be done soon to send documents in time for the agent There are two types B/L used The first one is B/L surrendered and the second one is B/L original With the B/L surrendered, consignees only need photo of house B/L sent by TASA and B/L also more popular than the second type B/L original Sending documents between the types of B/L is also different, with B/L Surrendered just send vouchers via mail or fax by agents, the recipient also can receives goods B/L original will be sent first to the shipper, then use Express Mail Service to send to the consignee Step 7: Request to receive master bill of lading, finish manifest, debit/credit note The staff will gather information from detailed documents sent to the shipping firm to request Master B/L Manifest is a summary of the shipment will go It includes setting the date, vessel name, flight number and date of the ship, the Master B/L, the carrier, shipper name, consignee name, notify party name, number of events, number kg, number of blocks, name goods, shipping marks The purpose of Manifest is to inform in a summary way about the cargoes inside the container Based on this, the agent can capture information quickly and planned delivery to the recipient After making House B/L to guests, as cargo manifest, freight manifest, will make debit / credit notes After finishing the documents, the forwarder will check again and then send them to the agent Sending documents not only inform the agent about the shipment, fees, but also help to arrange, divide cargoes correctly for each consignee named on the House B/L that TASA Transport Company sent Step 8: Send reports to business department and accounting department - Sending the report to the sale is to confirm price, commissions, and other costs, which will then send a report to the accounting department Price is the price that provides by sale - In the report, the staffs inform fully information, such as number of House B/L, name of consignor, consignee, number of packages, actual volume, THC cost, proceeds from shippers… -After completing a detailed report, staff will summarize evidence from the number of visitors of each sale in a week, sending back to check and confirm the sale i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 25 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD Without receiving any adjustment of sale, staff will print documents detailed report in two copies, one for the leader, and another for the accounting department to conduct accounting Step 9: Tracking cargo route, send loading confirmation to the customer In case TASA collect too many or too little cargoes, because the amount of cargoes change every week, if there are too many cargoes that can not fit in one container, the company will contact with other forwarding companies have open container This type of cargoes is called co-load, and the shipper is called co-loader On the other hand, TASA Company also receive co-load from other companies when they have too many cargoes After reaching agreement about the price, staff documents will establish House B/L for the co-loader like other customers Import process: Exchange B/L and take D/O at the shipping agents Conduct custom declaration process Transport cargoes and unloading cargoes Inform the consignee to take the cargoes at CFS Return the empty container and financial transaction i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 26 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD Different from export process, LCL import process is not so complex compared to the LCL export process For import LCL cargoes, TASA Company will contact with shipping company to have the notice of arrival The forwarders also receive the original documents (before the ship arrives) include:         Original Bill of Lading Commercial Invoice Packing list Original contract Certificate of Origin (C/O) Certificate of Quality (C/Q) Certificate of weight and quality Phytosanitary certificate When the forwarder come to the shipping agents, the staffs of the shipping agent will check the information of the documents Then they will give forwarding staff a debit note to sign his name, write the phone number and the tax code After that, the forwarding staff will bring the debit note to the cashier at whom he has to pay some fees such as: Terminal Handling Charge fee, Container imbalance charge, D/O fee… After paying all the fees, the forwarder will receive VAT invoice (or receipts) and comeback to the first staff to the D/O After checking all the documents, the forwarding staff takes the D/O and prepares necessary documents for customs declaration As the export process, there are three types of line: -If the declaration is classified to green line: The forwarding staffs just need declaration with signature and seal, and then submit it to the customs officer to stamp -If the declaration is classified to yellow line: The staffs need to bring set of documents to the customs office That set of documents includes:  Letter of introduction  Importing customs declaration: 02 originals  Value declaration form: 02 originals  Delivery Order: 01 original (provided by the shipping line)  Commercial contract for purchase of goods or equivalent papers: 01 copy  Commercial invoice: original, copy  Manifest: 01 originals and copy i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 27 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD  Bill of lading: 01 copy with the seal of shipping line After checking the validity of paper records, the customs officer will confirm it in checking paper documentation and stamp the clearance seal on the electronic declaration -If the declaration is classified to red line: The forwarding staffs need to bring copies of electronic declarations, the value declarations with signature, seal and set of necessary paper (just like above) to the Customs office The declarations will be processed by inspecting the cargoes in the container Goods will be clearance if the numbers on paper are true to the data of the actual inspection After the customs declaration, the forwarders staffs go to the port or warehouse to locate, unload and transport the cargoes to the CFS At the port, the company’s forwarding staffs submit the documents to the staffs in the port office and pay the lifting payment, handling cost Then they will receive the delivery note (or stock issue) and equipment interchange receipt (EIR) for the container Next, the forwarding staffs contact with the truck, warehouse When the truck arrives, the forwarding staffs present the D/O and bill to the storekeepers and conduct loading cargoes and sealed When finish loading, the staff establish the trucking bill Then, cargoes will be transported through the allowance of customs In many cases, if the consignees have warehouse, cargoes will be directly transported to this place, or the cargoes will be transported to the TASA’s CFS Then the buyers will be notified and go to the CFS to take their cargoes Lastly, the TASA’s forwarders return the empty container The driver takes the empty containers to the location (it is often the port or depot) which is written in the borrowing container note The representatives of the shipping line at the port will confirm the returning the empty containers with the returning container note 2.2.2 LCL Business result at Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD Beside FCL cargo, LCL forwarding activities also bring huge profit to the company Table 3: LCL cargo forwarding business result (2011-2014) i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 28 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD Year 2011 2012 2013 2014 Revenue (R) 7,021,139,780 8,454,229,337 10,385,561,840 12,815,756,081 Cost 3,895,252,277 4,885,759,383 5,854,966,334 6,658,841,052 Profit (P) 3,125,887,503 3,568,469,954 4,530,595,506 6,156,915,029 44.5% 42.% 43.6% 48% Percentage (P/R) (Source: Accounting Department) The table provides the information about the revenue and profit of LCL freight forwarding activities from 2011 to 2014 at the company As can be seen from the table, both the revenue and profit of LCL activities at Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD are constantly increasing After the economic crisis, freight forwarding services gradually recover as long as the domestic import and export activities in Vietnam Not only are both revenue and profit rising quickly but their costs also controlled more and more efficiently, which show that the forwarding activities are developing in the right way The revenue, from 2011 to 2014, increase from 7,021,139,780 VND to 12,815,756,081 VND This number show that the LCL forwarding activities increase quickly as FCL forwarding activities The profit, in 2014, reaches the number 6,156,915,029 VND, as twice as the number in 2011 i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 29 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD CHAPTER 3: EVALUATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 3.1 Goals and directions: Import and export has been strength in the development of our country’s economic today The domestic manufacturing increases the exported products, which make the transportation and forwarding fields also increase In order to remain and develop constantly increase, the board of director must have a specific plan and adapt quickly with the market, realize the advantages and disadvantages, take the chances and expand the business activities Besides that, building a good relationship with partners, customers, carriers, shipping agents and foreign transport company… is also an important factor contributing to the development and improvement annual profit for companies On the other hand, company also needs to focus on strategic solutions and extend services to attract new customers and retain existing customers, meet the increasing demands of customers To this, the company needs the effort of the whole member of the company and at the same time, each individual member must be aware of their roles and responsibilities 3.2 Evaluation about the LCL forwarding activities at Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD has business activities in many fields, and LCL freight forwarding service is one of the most profit activities The strategies which the company applied for LCL freight forwarding services are conformity with the company situation and adapt with the situation of international market nowadays With a tight organizational structure, qualified and experienced leadership has contributed significantly to the effective operation of the company International situation: The economic crisis in 2008 has caused greatly damage to all over the world, all over the company Many companies, groups, has been bankrupted or disbanded Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD also suffers a great loss this period In the recent years, the economy all over the world has recovered Many companies in the world change from China, Japan new regions in Asia, such as South East Asia to find new market Realize that chance, the board director of the Company has signed many contracts with international partners, especially in forwarding fields More and more multinational companies are investing country in our country and this is great and potential customers for the provision of forwarding activities In October 5, 2015, TPP (Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement) was signed and allowed With the reduction of many types of taxes, increase trading, increase investments, it is a huge change for Vietnam companies (include forwarding companies such as Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD) to expand the markets, seeking new customers and sign more contracts i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 30 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD Domestic situation: The economic crisis in 2008 also created huge damage to Vietnam companies Export and import activities go down dramatically The company found it difficult to consolidate cargoes for exporting When the economy was recovered, many forwarding companies were also established Until now, there are many forwarding companies found in Hai Phong The number of company’s competitors rise up quickly in the recent years Business Area: The directly customers of the company is companies in the Northern Vietnam In Hai Phong, customers are companies which come from local industrial zoned, such as Dinh Vu industrial zoned, Nomura, Trang Due, Vsip… Business route: The Company has established or contacted with many shipping route for LCL cargoes The destination of each route is different: Bangkok, Singapore, Ningbo, Incheon, and Nagoya… Based on the variety of shipping route, the company can easy to access and introduces their products, services to customs that has LCL cargoes Business relationship: As long as the recovery of the economy, the number of investors, multi-nation company has increased fast After a period of operating time, the company has established good cooperation and trustful relationship with partners in South East Asian countries and create good image to them For the shipping company, in the recent years, with the development of the amount of LCL cargoes, company has signed many contracts with many shipping companies, such as NamSung, YangMing, Heung A, and KMTC… with competitive prices This is a big advantage for the company compared to others competitors Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD always remains the relationship with customers and never stops seeking new customers using their services Besides that, the LCL forwarding cargoes and consolidation operation well in the recent years thanks to these factors, such as the qualified young staffs Almost the staffs of the companies graduate from universities and college With a young and energetic staffs, who always enthusiasm at work, the disputes and risks at work are resolved quickly and efficiently After many years business in forwarding fields, the company has a lot of experience from the settlement of risk The criteria of the company is always put the benefit of the customers to the forefront The company always has a good image from their customers, contributing to increase the benefit and company’s reputation On the contrary, company also have to face with some problem that need resolved quickly As the economic grow, there are many forwarding companies and transport companies found More competitors have tried to attract customer to use their services Besides that, the number of forwarder who specialized in LCL cargoes in the company still small, compared to the number of FCL forwarders So, it’s difficult to serve when there are huge amount of customers want to use their services The other problems that forwarder staffs have to face most are errors in i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 31 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD custom declaration, and time for waiting customs allowance In some case, the company must pay all the fees for waiting custom’s allowance Freight forwarding companies are the connection between the consignors and shipping company In some cases, when the forwarder finishes booking with shipping company, the consignor suddenly cancels the contract because they find better shipping companies, or suddenly change the date, the amount of cargoes The image and reputation of company was damaged greatly The company still not has a specific marketing plan for LCL cargoes The company still focuses more on FCL cargoes The attitude of forwarder staff: the forwarder is lack of responsibilities, goes to work late, not pay attention in working, with an unstable staffs, the quality of services can’t be improved However, although there are some problem remained, the company still uses their advantage to achieve success in LCL forwarding cargoes The evidence is that the benefits and annual profit from LCL cargoes increase steadily That is the reason why company need to have a specific plan to overcome the difficulties on the business operation 3.3 Recommendations Recommendations to improve the LCL forwarding services The purpose of the recommendations is to limit the fault happen in the process that cost more money and waste more time In shipping fields, costs and time are the most important factor - - - - i In order to meet the requirements of the freight forwarding service such as perform the process accurately and safely in time with the lowest cost, the company should build some indicators: reasonable completion time of the works Have good relationship with Haiphong customs One of the big advantages of the company is located next to the Dinh Vu customs buildings It will save lots of time and cost if any customs problems happen Reduce the errors in checking documents, the forwarder must checking carefully all the indicators in the documents Reduce the waiting time in the documents department and freight forwarding department Apply electronic systems in working, such as the e-customs declaration ECUS-VNACCS/ VSIS or monitoring the process of cargoes transportations NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 32 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD - Have quick solution customer's complaints when errors happens, supply the most beneficial solutions; protect the rights of customers Recommendations to minimize all the fees The purpose of this solution is to minimize all the costs, fees in order to enhance the company’s profit or to spend for other investments In order to this, the company may have to apply some solutions: - In staff recruitment, select skillful staffs, experienced staffs, select right people for each kind of work Limit the investments for training new staffs - Apply electronic systems in management and working, by this way, the number of staff can be limited, reduced the money spent for human working Decrease the money spent for administrative organization activities, such as: Buying equipments with discounts, on sales, refuse unnecessary services for - company - Negotiate with customers about incurred expenses, unexpected paid… in LCL freight forwarding process to control the costs more efficiently Use the available facilities, warehouses, vehicles… to transports and storage cargoes, avoids paying more fees Control the facilities; avoid low-efficiency using, or using in wrong purposes - Revocation debts from customers, helping companies to have more capitals in trading Limit the borrowing money from outside the company Have a long-term plan and short-term plan in spending the company’s capital Recommendations to expand, seeking new markets The purpose of this solution is to increase the profit of company by findings more new customers in new markets i - In order to expand in new markets, the first thing TASA need to is conduct the surveys, market research By this way, the company can analyze the advantages and disadvantages, threats and opportunities in the new market to have a specific strategy - The second thing need to when expand a new market is to understand and aware of the laws and regulations Each country has different laws, NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 33 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD regulation The company needs to understand carefully in order not to happen any problems - Have specific research about competitors in the market Analyze their strength and weaknesses, in order to avoid or promote On the other ways, - company may apply the good points in working of other competitors Until now, the company has expanded the market to the US, Europe, Japan, South East Asia, Australia… However, there are still many potential markets that the company need to expand like Middle East, Africa, and South - America… In some markets that company has regular customers, the company needs to have agents or offices to contact with the customers, help them to reduce the fees whenever they want to use company’s services With some tradition markets like Hong Kong, Korea… the company need to aware the current demands and the ability to develop in the following years, in order to have plans to develop these market Recommendations to improve the quality services The purposes of this solution: Nowadays, there are many forwarding companies established The more forwarding companies established, the more choices customers have So, in order to survive, maintain with regular customers, attract new and potential customers, improving the quality services is the best way to advertise On the other ways, customers also satisfied with the best quality services that company can provide - - - The company needs to meet the demands of customers, maintain the relationship, and keep in touch with customers to receive the reply of customers after using company’s services Whenever a new company has demands to import or export their cargoes, company need to approach, establish the relationship, express interest in cooperate in long-term plan Give them competitive plans to sign the contract as soon as possible In the forwarding process, the forwarders need to carry out all the works in time, also checking carefully the cargoes conditions and cargoes quality If the customers have any complaints or questions, the consultation must be replied at once, with good attitudes i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 34 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD - Have competitive prices with regular customers With customers who use company’s services in long-terms or regular customer, the company may apply a better price for customers - Organize conferences between company and customers to advertise the image, the new services to customers This is also a chance listen the requirement from customers to adjust properly In addition, company can supply the information about the export and import partners Recommendations to limit the effect of the seasonality The purpose of the recommendations: One of the most important factors that affect to the LCL forwarding activities is seasonality Reduce the effect of seasonality; adjust the amount of cargoes to remain the stability is necessary for Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD - - The seasonality comes from the seasonality of exports and imports If the company wants to reduce the effect, the company can sign long-term forwarding contracts, as well as building faith with customers In the periods that have few customers, the company may reduce the prices, or company may have discounts in some big events By this way, the company can maintain and expand relationship with customers Potential - customers can be attracted by competitive prices Improve the quality services but maintain the prices Quality services are the most important factors to the customer’s choices The more customers choose, the less seasonality affect Recommendations for customers’ management capabilities of business department When booking with shipping company, company must have precautions for redundancy or shortage cargoes when packaging Forwarders must follow closely to adapt if the customers cancel the contract or not Besides that, the company needs to promote relationship with international forwarding system to ensure the amount of cargoes for the company Improve and enhance the quality of customs service, training for employees: The company can organize a group of senior staff with experience to guide and exchange experience with new employees, especially staff who responsible for customs declaration Moreover, company should send staffs to attend at i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 35 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD professional training centers annually For the leaders of each department, company can send to go abroad to exchange and study at some international forwarding companies, this solution help to improve foreign language and achieve the international forwarding process Have a plan to develop and improve the human resources: The company still does not have the appropriate remuneration policies for employees, so that employees still not have permanent attachment to the company, which lead to unstable human resources Once the human resources are not stable, the company has no basic to develop a strategy Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD should add some more incentives for employees; build reward regime and reasonable criticism to encourage morale of employees In addition, company should have a more reasonable policy on the regulation of sales as well as support them when business risk occurs This action will stimulate the ability to work for the employees In addition, companies need to more closely manage the working time of employees by installing a system of fingerprint time attendance instead of using identification card, avoid going to work late or leaving office early Besides these incentives, company must have fines for bad attitude-employees Only by this way, the employees will be stimulated and raised awareness, responsibility and attitude at work Solutions for business orientation of the company Companies should promote development of full service segment for retail route established, to create the featured the company compared to other forwarding companies by improving and enhancing service quality collectors LCL Make good impression to custom that use company’s service This is also confirmed by the company's reputation in the market and whenever customers need to transport LCL cargoes, their first selection will be Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD Besides that, “Door to door” service also brings high profit to the company To enhance the profit, the company must search for partners; agents have ability to make “Door to door” service in a foreign head with competitive prices, serving the needs for customers Rationalize the allocation of human resources at all stages, particularly improving the quality of customs services department, greatly reducing the cost and time of goods i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 36 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD Establish a relationship with the agent system, carriers and forwarders In the booking process and negotiating prices with shipping companies, it is necessary to maintain the relationship with shipping companies to have the most reasonable prices, fast booking and have high priority in peak season and better service Having a good relationship with other forwarding companies will help company have the advantage in consolidation and exchange cargoes when it is redundancy or shortage cargoes A strong and sustainability forwarding company are evaluated by the agent system of that company in different country and regions to ensure the cargoes smooth flow and transport fastest to the consignee So that Duyen Hai Road Transport Co., LTD should establish at least one agent in each country or each destination port i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 37 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD CONCLUSION In the current period, the foreign trade between our country and other countries around the world is growing Realize the increasing demand of the market, the foundations of forwarding companies has contributed to overcome the difficulties that export and import companies have to face with in their business activities LCL cargoes forwarding services is a complex process and have many steps So that the forwarder not only have good qualification but also flexible, handle situation arise quickly and efficiently TASA Company has a lot of experience through a long time in logistics fields in Hai Phong However, the company still faces with some problems and drawbacks So that the company have to consider and work out appropriate solutions to overcome these difficulties and obstacles are encountered while promoting the inherent potential of the company, have the ability to compete with other forwarding companies in Hai Phong, ensure the brand, the position in the market and increase the reputation particular with customers i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 38 RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO.,LTD REFERENCES Article:”Unification of the Law of International Freight Forwarding” – Jan Ramberg Article:”Freight forwarders speak: the Perception of Route Competition via Seaports in the European Communities Research Project” - J Bird, G Bland Maritime Policy & Management, 1988 Book:” Freight Forwarding and Multi Modal Transport Contracts” – David Glass Book:” Port choice and freight forwarders” - Jose L Tongzon i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page 39 ... Page RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO. ,LTD o Sales Contract: copy o Business license of the company o Invoices between the. .. take D/O at the shipping agents i NGUYỄN LÊ HOÀNG – GMA 02 Page RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO. ,LTD At first, the company... RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SERVICES FOR LCL CARGOES AT DUYEN HAI ROAD TRANSPORT CO. ,LTD PREFACE Nowadays, in the context of development, industrialization and globalization