Yes your choice is limited, choosing a shipping company for transportation of your goods against the most competitive pricing is now limited to only 3 options or flavors. History repeating, well we did experience a 21-year monopoly with the V.O.C. on the Dutch spice trade between the Far East and Europe, back in the day of 1602 and do think we are reliving it in 2017…
Since its first introduction in 1952 by the Malcolm Mclean, containerization led to a significant reduction in the cost of freight transportation by eliminating the need for repeated handling of individual pieces of cargo, and also improved reliability, reduced cargo theft, and cut inventory costs by shortening transit time. Some at present also aim on the faster “silk rail route”, between the Far East and Europe.
As the advantages to McLean’s container system became apparent, the competition quickly developed and adopted. They built bigger ships, larger gantry cranes and more sophisticated containers. But how far did the shipping industry go? Well we have gone to a point that rates were unsustainable, cost driven and to be honest unreasonable within the entire supply chain of the shipping industry itself.
We are now seeing the teaming up of several shipping lines via acquisitions/mergers and the exchange of capacity via so called shipping alliances. In short only a handful of suppliers who dictate the landscape or better put rule the oceans, so 3 flavors with the same sailings and transits represented in the 2M Alliance, Ocean Alliance and THE Alliance. But this teaming up isn’t only happening on the ocean…
It was recently reported by JOC.com that five of the world’s largest terminal operators and the biggest European port are seeking approval from US maritime regulators to discuss what could mirror these 3 alliances. If approved the agreement between maritime heavyweights such as Hutchinson, APM, DP World, Shanghai International Port Group and Rotterdam port would be the 1st terminal alliance.
What does all this merging do for you? Well at least the lines are earning money again. Because of the collapse of Hanjin and the re-shuffle of the alliances, we can scrap the credo from Julius Cesar “divide and conquer”, this instead of the vessel capacity which should have been taken out in the first place. But there are even more innovative ways to make more money…
It will sound a little bit like “Uber”, but with a twist. With the launch of avantida.com you not only reduce Co2 emissions, waiting times at depots or terminals and unnecessary mileage. Not even close! While you reduce equipment turn around time, eliminate extra handling cost of containers at depot or terminal, you or your transporter pay an additional fee? And yes, on top of the reduction for the ocean carrier.
Do you still have someone to guide you through this logistical minefield? Who has the power to resist these economies of scale, having the knowledge and expertise while being in direct contact of every part of the supply chain? Yes, we still have the freight forwarders with 3 German companies in the global lead: DHL, K+N and DB Schenker, but also the digital portals and local heroes are catching up!
We hope to have given you some insight with this comprehensive menu of logistics services, we in turn can give you assistance either digitized on a global and even local level, for more information you can contact us.