“The number one rule of creating and maintaining a great cargo business is to deliver what you promise.
      “Relationships are important, of course, but any business that consistently fails to produce results won’t be around too long.
      “And on those rare occasions when the results aren’t there, you need to be transparent and honest with your customers.
      “Furthermore, you need to be quick in your responses to opportunities and customer requests.
      “The time to market is so short that sales and service channels must be coordinated rapidly.
      “Any special arrangements and processes have to be prepared and ready to go on short notice.”

Agility Faces Change

      “One surprising trend is the willingness of some shippers, via their RFQs, to make decisions based only on the least expensive solution and change forwarders more frequently. For me, long-term partnerships are still the way to create the most productive supply chain and ultimately create the most value for all.
      “Another surprise is the rate and the range of the explosion of e-commerce.
      “The traditional retail channels are changing rapidly, and I believe this can have a positive effect on air freight.”
      “To maximize the potential, our industry needs to be agile enough to respond to the challenge with innovative solutions that meet the needs of the evolving market.”

       
Why Freight Forwarders Matter

      “In our customer/forwarder/airline model, none of the three parties are more important than any other, and the model isn’t viable unless all three work together and respect each other’s role.
      “As international shipping grows more and more complex, it’s vital to have experts involved that can coordinate all the details for customers—specialists that know all the nuances of documentation and regulation.
      “In addition to playing that role for customers, of course, forwarders’ consolidations allow customers to benefit from attractive rates they could never obtain themselves.”

Collaboration Is Key

      “From the airline perspective, I really appreciate the collaboration of forwarders and their 24/7 service mentality.
      “I know how we work together every day on countless shipment issues of which customers are not aware—because we solve it together before it becomes a problem.”

The Next Generation

      “We’re competing with every other industry for talented and ambitious people, so we need to take steps to make air cargo an attractive choice.
      “The top people entering the workforce these days, or those looking to make a career move, want the responsibility to create change and the power to make important decisions.
      “The days are over of joining a company or an industry when you’re young and working at it full-time until retirement.
      “Many new talents want the option to choose which temporary assignments they will accept and to ‘rent themselves’ to several customers at the same time. I think our industry needs to be open to this attitude to attract the most creative thinkers.”

Keep The Change

      “In my opinion, airfreight will transition to a new way of selling services. In place of the current design of products with fixed features will be a base service with an ‘a la carte’ menu of add-ons.
      “This will be directed by new shippers for whom the present product offering is too rigid—those who want to combine elements in ways not possible now.
      “Starting from the base product, extras will be available like expedited routings, pickup and delivery, enhanced monitoring with on-board devices, elevated security protection, etc., etc.
      “The airlines’ challenge will be designing their offering, then delivering it operationally so that each customer will get exactly the services they book.
      “Talk, talk, talk with customers and be available for them when they need you.
      “Right now we are further developing our product menu of Special Products like TC, PER, luxury articles, cars.
      “It’s always the customer and then it’s the customer, and of course the customer,” Jacques smiles.
      “You just have to listen to what they say, hear it, and work to fill the need.
      “Don’t be afraid of mistakes, either,” says Jacques.
      “Just keep everyone in the loop and deliver the news, good or bad, before someone else does.
      “Pick up the phone, pay a visit, and be up front at all times—that must be the baseline policy.
      “Also, when things work be sure and give credit where credit is due,” Jacques insists.

On The Table

      “It’s about what UA brings to the table for shippers.
      “We always have a solution!” Jacques said.
      “Our people are dedicated and care about their business
      “Of great benefit is United’s extensive network, where we can offer direct service between all major European cities and the USA.
      “Look, we understand fully that our service must not only meet, but exceed the need.
      “Also, that United Cargo must deliver as promised and be very transparent up and down the line for everyone.
      “Our customer experience is geared to work as near to perfect harmony as possible, with situations including delivering to market against the most strenuous deadlines, no excuses.”

Not Always About Rates

      “More and more shippers are only looking for the cheapest solution via their RFQs, and they change forwarders sometimes at the drop of the hat.
      “We know that, and seeing the market for what it is, we believe that partnerships in the supply chain—with open and frank understandings and shared responsibility—stand to create more value to everyone up and down the line over the long haul.”

Looking Ahead

      “As we all know, e-commerce is exploding everywhere in the world as consumers everywhere are engaging in online business.
      “The traditional retail channels will continue to change rapidly and this will have a positive effect on airfreight.
      “But from my vantage point, after more than two decades in the air cargo business, the forwarders remain our key partnership and bottom line customer.
      “Forwarders are critical for many reasons as outlined and remain vital to our business, buying space at competitive rates by consolidating freight, which is also attractive for their shippers.
      “Air forwarders are the service arms of our business, with the customer-centric 24/7/365 mentality.
      “Forwarders solve many issues that shippers never see.
      “I think of freight forwarders every day as the natural course of my business activity.
      “A forwarder can be likened to my local daily newspaper delivery person that appears everyday at my home in the Netherlands.
      “Although I know in the world today home delivery of newspapers is passé, I can draw a direct line between what I do for a living and my newspaper delivery.
      “People start complaining when the newspaper does not arrive on time.
      “But what customers don’t know is how other factors like newspaper press schedules, the weather, labor, road traffic, and other challenges impact their daily newspaper delivery.
      “Likewise logistics, albeit very many more times complex, offer a similarity, with forwarders coordinating between the airlines and shippers to achieve a positive end result.
      “In logistics, just like in newspaper delivery at home, things may not always go as planned, but down the line when everyone knows what to expect, interruption becomes an incident, not the rule.”

What Can Air Cargo Do Better?

      “Creating responsibility in the job and empowering people to make decisions is a rule air cargo should live by.
      “Air cargo in the 21st century will continue to develop even more as an ‘a-la -carte menu’ of fixed products, services, and features.
      “Air Cargo needs to create responsibility in the job and empower people to make decisions.
      “Also, I believe that currently in some quarters air cargo product offerings are too rigid.
      “The challenge is to be flexible operationally so that the customer gets and pays for exactly what is booked.
      “All of this takes talent and imagination and long-term determination to do whatever it takes to be a dependable, expansive air cargo resource.
      “And that,” Fast Jacques assures, “is United Cargo baseline business everyday.”
Geoffrey