CHAPTER 3: SOME POWERFUL SOLUTIONS FOR TRANSPORTATION
3.3. Some solutions to develop freight forwarding services
Market expansion goals
With today's fiercely competitive forwarding market, in order to survive and thrive, the company needs to expand the forwarding market. This is one of the effective measures for the company to achieve its profit goals and strengthen its position.
Market expansion plan
At the present time, the company reaches out to many international markets, operating mainly in the Chinese market (which is a large market, quite similar in culture and habits to Vietnam, the region in Southeast Asia). However, there are still a number of potential markets that the company has not fully explored such as the Americas, Europe, Africa, South America (such as Mexico, ...)
Market expansion is a rather complicated job because each market has different characteristics in terms of economy, politics, culture - society, law, customs and traditions.
This has a great impact on the business environment, social consumer psychology, and greatly affects the company's market penetration and expansion. Therefore, in order to expand the market, the company must carry out the following tasks:
Strengthen market research:
• First of all, the company needs to learn about the customs and laws in that market, what is different from the markets in which the company has been operating. Do these differences cause difficulties or obstacles for the work of entering the market and performing freight forwarding work there.
For example, the US market - the market that the company is strategically expanding in the coming years. This is a very demanding market, not only about the
needs of the people but especially the provisions of US law. It can be said that the US 87
legal system is very complex and strict. Moreover, each state has its own regulations that are different, so even if you succeed in one contract, you cannot apply those experiences to the next contracts.
• Besides, it is very important to study the forwarding demand of that market. To know if it is a promising market for long-term development, the company must find out what the demand and quantity demanded of the company's services in that market are at, and how it can develop. Because maybe a market is in the form of potential but in the future promises to be very developed, if discovered early to penetrate to create a firm foothold, the company will gain a lot of profits. Currently, China is an important market of the company, the volume of goods delivered in this market accounts for a large proportion.
The company is still continuing and digging deeper in this market. As for the US and European markets, which are considered to be very promising markets, the company has been gradually establishing relationships to create a solid basis for future business activities.
• When entering a new market, it is also necessary to research who the company's competitors are. Find out how competitive the market is, what strengths and weaknesses your competitors have. From there, the company comes up with appropriate strategies to be able to compete in the new market.
When the above information is complete and accurate, the company can penetrate the market with low cost and high efficiency. In addition, with traditional markets, the company must grasp the current needs and the ability to grow in the coming years. To what extent can the company meet that need now and how likely will it be to meet that need in the future. The services that the company provides in the market have met the needs of customers, should the company expand the range of services, if so, in what direction to maximize the market demand as well as the ability responsiveness of the company. In order to obtain the above information, the company should have qualified staff to study and exchange experiences with other domestic and foreign companies, participate in professional training courses.
Market penetration
• Self penetration
The company conducts itself to find and expand its customers on the basis of certain understanding of the customer situation and the market. The company's sales department staff will have to visit customers, convince them to use the company's services, and leaders must regularly attend seminars, meetings, and meetings. enterprises, thereby creating good relationships with foreign companies, thereby signing forwarding and entrustment contracts. To do so requires the leadership apparatus to plan the right penetration strategy, the company's staff must have high professional expertise, marketing knowledge, communication and persuasion art. customer. When entering the market on its own, the company retains the maximum initiative but also has to accept risks because the efforts spent may not immediately yield results.
• Penetration through intermediaries
The most common form of joint venture is with foreign companies, which are already familiar with the markets the company is trying to penetrate. When conducting joint ventures and associates, although the company will have to share profits and be in a weaker position, the company can take advantage of the capital and relationships of partners. The company will not have to spend time researching the market, groping step by step, but can immediately increase market share while minimizing risks.
3.3.2. Solution 2: Improve service quality
For import and export freight forwarding by sea, the services that the company is providing are transportation of bulk cargo, full container cargo, consolidation service, delivery from warehouse to warehouse door. The company needs to pay more attention to the consolidation service because this is a type of service that brings benefits to many parties: the carrier benefits by saving time in delivery and distribution of odd shipments, without fear of loss collect freight from retail owners because there is a forwarder to take care of it, shippers save costs because they don't have to rent a whole container, forwarders get a lot of revenue because the freight for retail goods is usually larger than
the freight. full container goods. Performing this service for a forwarding company is very easy and convenient, as long as the company sets up delivery and packing stations, and is careful and responsible in delivery.
The company must establish relationships and sign contracts with domestic and foreign shipping lines, airlines, and railway lines to take the initiative in means and seats during the season, closely coordinate transshipment points, branch agents must monitor and promptly notify the schedule and departure time of means of transport, select the appropriate carrier so that when the goods arrive at the transshipment point, they can be timely connected, save seats, keep the space so that the goods do not drop. In addition, the company should also focus on the expertise and experience of professional staff to build a reputation in the market because we know that to develop this service, the reputation of the company is extremely important. important.
In the process of contract performance, employees of all departments must coordinate skillfully to bring goods to customers quickly, conveniently and at the cheapest cost. In particular, field staff should be assigned as soon as the sale closes the booking with the customer, not until the goods arrive, like the current process to help customers check that with this type of goods, the following procedures are needed. What documents are required, whether the documents are prepared or not, to reduce the case that it is not until customs are discovered that mistakes are made, which will incur a lot of time and processing costs. Sales staff regularly check to see if the customer has signed and sent the contract, has prepared the necessary documents for customs clearance when the goods arrive to avoid customers forgetting. This is also a way to make customers feel safe and secure when delivering their shipments to Bach Viet.
Sales staff often care about the needs of customers, from which they can offer the most optimal implementation plans for customers. Having preferential policies with loyal customers, always looking for new customers, periodically organizing seminars between the company and customers with the purpose of promoting new brands and services to customers, sharing Share and listen to customer opinions. After-sales customer care:
regularly chat and share about life, work, difficulties and joys with customers. This is the
best form of service advertising and the most cost-effective, from which customers can spread the word about the company's services.
3.3.3. Solution 3: Improve the quality of human resources
Firstly, Bach Viet must regularly create opportunities for employees to participate in foreign trade training courses organized by Customs. In addition, the old employee has a lot of experience, so he/she should give enthusiastic instructions to the new employee so that the new employee can quickly adapt to the company, grasp the process and characteristics of the company.
Secondly, recruiting the right employees for the right jobs, limiting the cost and time spent on training new employees. Employees need to recruit more experienced personnel in the after-sales department (Pricing, Cus, Operation), especially customer care because currently the number of hard workers in these departments is only 1 to 2.
people per department, not enough to meet the needs that the sales department requires. In addition, additional personnel for the accounting department is also needed. The company is constantly being urged by customers because the accounting staff is constantly issuing invoices slowly due to too much processing work. IT staff also need to be recruited because currently only one person is in charge of this.
Thirdly, due to the seasonality of logistics activities, in the peak period, the company can recruit more part-time employees to support the main staff to handle the outstanding work, especially the after-sales department. row. For example, it is possible to recruit more personnel in the customer service department to make contracts, check bills of lading…., the accounting department to assist in checking expenses, making
debentures, issuing invoices, etc. Ops department at the offices to take orders, process documents….
3.3.4. Solution 4: Reduce costs and increase capital
Firstly, Bach Viet needs to find a way to reduce business costs first. Currently, the company's service price is made up of many parts such as shipping costs, packing fees, palletizing fees, warehouse rental, customs fees, ... and many other fees. There are also
many unreasonable fees that need to be adjusted. Because the company currently does not have its own warehouse, it has to rent a warehouse, so Bach Viet needs to negotiate with the warehouse to reduce the closing fee. Besides, customs expenditure is an indispensable part, so it is necessary to limit it to a minimum. The costs incurred higher than normal is due to the wrongdoing by the document staff in preparing documents and customs declaration, which makes it difficult for the forwarder to carry out the delivery. Therefore, the preparation of documents must be careful and not cause errors. Because when making customs declarations for items such as construction materials are heavy and dangerous goods, project goods need to be on schedule, so it is necessary to prepare a good set of documents.
Secondly, strengthen the management and control of debt, do not let too long limit capital. For a principle contract, it is always necessary to provide strict terms on the payment term, debt limit and if there is a breach of the contract, what is the penalty. The company should carefully learn about customers (their business and ability to pay), classify customers before deciding how many days to owe them. For each type of customer, the company should apply different debt policies. For example, it can be divided into customer groups: with reputable and long-term customers, the company can extend more debts and limits, this is also a way to retain customers with the company. For small and new customers, the company should apply an advance of about 80% of the amount customers need to pay to avoid the risk of customers breaking, not paying or having long debts, affecting the company's capital. company. For customers who have a history of slow payment or have a large amount of overdue debt, the company should reduce the debt limit and debt term, regularly urging. Although the company has an automatic debt management feature on the system that is very quick and smart, it still needs personnel (it may be the sales staff in charge of that customer combined with the debt accountant) according to closely monitor customer debts, urge them to pay on time.
The above measures help the company to closely control debts, reduce risks and arising of bad debts, and use capital for other business activities to boost the company's revenue.
CONCLUSION
Vietnam Logistics market is currently a thriving market with fierce competition in Vietnam. Bach Viet Co., Ltd. is quite successful in the field of freight forwarding, in which sea transportation is the main activity of the company. Over the course of 16 years of establishment so far the company has achieved a lot of success. as well as experience many failures. Since then, the company has gathered valuable experiences and learned valuable lessons for the company to develop into what it is today.
When competition in the industry is becoming more and more fierce and intense, it is required that domestic forwarding companies in general and Bach Viet in particular have plans to deal with this. Recognizing this, Bach Viet company is also trying to transform, change the quality of service to bring the most satisfaction to customers.
Especially in freight forwarding for import and export by sea is the strength of the company. Import and export revenue by sea has increased steadily over the years and has a high growth rate. However, besides that, Bach Viet still faces many difficulties in delivery, especially in terms of customs declaration as well as maintaining internal stability because new employees are often not attached to the company.
With the knowledge that was equipped at the University along with some knowledge that I have learned during my internship and working time at Bach Viet company, I have delved into the research of ocean freight forwarding activities. of the company, but boldly offered some solutions with the desire to contribute to promoting international freight forwarding activities by sea at the company. But due to my limited knowledge and experience, this article of mine certainly has many shortcomings. I hope to have the guidance and help, suggestions of teachers to help improve this article.
REFERENCES
1. Bộ Công thương, 2019, Báo cáo Logistics Việt Nam 2019.
2. Báo cáo tài chính công ty TNHH Vận Tải Bách Việt 2018, 2019, 2020.
3. Đoàn Thị Hồng Vân (2013), “Quản trị xuất nhập khẩu”, NXB tổng hợp thành phố Hồ Chí Minh
4.“Giao nhận vận tải là gì?” https://www.container-transportation.com/giao-nhan-van- tai.html
5. Micheal Hugos, 2010. Tinh hoa quản trị chuỗi cung ứng. NXB Tổng hợp thành phố Hồ Chí Minh.
6. Nguyễn Văn Tiến, 2010. Giáo trình thanh toán quốc tế và tài trợ ngoại thương. NXB Thống kê
7. Phạm Mạnh Hiền (2012), “Nghiệp vụ giao nhận vận tải và bảo hiểm trong ngoại thương”, NXB Lao động – xã hội
8. TS. Nguyễn Đình Phan (2017), “Giáo trình quản trị chất lượng” , NXB Đại học Kinh tế Quốc dân.
9. Quốc Hội (2005), Luật Thương Mại.
10. Website của Tổng cục thống kê http://www.moit.gov.vn
10. Website của Liên đoàn các Hiệp hội Giao nhận Vận tải Quốc tế https://fiata.com/
11. Website của Trung Tâm WTO và Hội Nhập https://trungtamwto.vn/
12. Website của Công ty TNHH Bách Viêt http://www.bachvietshipping.vn/web/home.aspx