Welcome to the September edition of the BCR Global Market Update for sea freight services. The Hanjin crisis has increased confidence by carriers of sea freight services to levy increases across all trades and this will continue to impact on various costs throughout the supply chain. Hanjin creditors will take the opportunity to seize containers and use them as leverage in order to pay and clear outstanding debts. This will no doubt cause havoc as escalating costs are announced and passed down the supply chain.

Read on to learn more on the extremely dynamic import market conditions for sea freight services to Australia for major lanes including North East Asia, South East Asia, the United States and Europe. Plus, learn more on the Hanjin bankruptcy and how it is impacting on the market and increasing rates.

Creating more market opportunities begins with identifying potential markets, customers and their unmet needs. Once market opportunities are identified, a strong supply chain service network is required to deliver products flawlessly. New methods are being innovated and introduced rapidly in the field of supply chain management that improve efficiency and productivity. For fast growth, businesses must be able to identify and implement these supply chain methods before their competitors do.

To assist in creating more market opportunities, 3PL providers in Australia offer services to assist with perfect order fulfilment and economic delivery, while offering access to modern information technology (IT) and a proven global network. Leading business managers in Australia know that in-house management of these services can be expensive and require additional time and energy. Alternatively, collaborating with an efficient 3PL provider in Australia allows business managers to focus on their core competency and spend more time and energy creating more market opportunities.

Read on to know how the services provided by a 3PL provider can assist you to create more market opportunities.

Freight forwarding is vital to an increasing number of businesses in Australia. To achieve the desired result from you freight forwarding requires choosing the best freight forwarder for your business and efficient management of your freight forwarder. Common challenges encountered by shippers when working with their provider include inefficient information flow, delay in operational activities, frequent price fluctuations, sub-standard output and poor relationships with the freight forwarder. The good news is that you can eliminate these challenges and manage your freight forwarder more effectively by using a few tactics. These tactics include defining and communicating objectives from the start, signing yearly contracts, periodic performance evaluation and outsourcing under a single umbrella.

Read on to learn 4 tactics that can assist you to manage your freight forwarder more effectively and how improved freight forwarder management will assist you to achieve your business goals.

Successful 3PL outsourcing is not only about getting your work done, but also about creating a fruitful relationship with your provider of 3PL Melbourne. Whether you are experienced using the services of a 3PL provider, or just starting to consider outsourcing, building a strong relationship with your 3PL provider is essential to ensure success from outsourcing logistics. A strong relationship plays an important role while you continually work with your 3PL provider. It does not matter if you are focused on increasing the amount of work your 3PL provider completes for your business, aligning them to your strategic goals, gaining an increased commitment, or getting their best resources to work for you, the relationship with you have with your 3PL provider plays a very important part. Building this relationship takes time and positive experiences from both sides contribute to building the relationship. It involves doing many things correctly, such as having a mutually agreed contract (not one-sided), periodic evaluation, co-planning the future, creating open channels for communication, and management commitment. Building a long-term relationship requires trust, understanding, transparency and support from both parties and in return, provides benefits that include better throughput, hassle-free operations, happy customers and ultimately, an overall win-win for both sides.

Read on to learn 5 tactics that will assist you in developing a fruitful relationship with a 3PL Melbourne and how you can implement these into your business.

Many freight forwarders provide air freight quotes that are not complete, comprehensive and clear. Receiving an invoice after your air freight shipment with extra charges that you did not know about is frustrating.
It is important as a Freight Forwarding or Logistics Manager to understand what your air freight shipment will cost so you can plan. Basic information such as freight rate, transit time and static charges are usually included. But some freight forwarding companies leave out additional charges that might be incurred either because they are not aware of them or sometimes on purpose.
Reasons to hide these additional potential charges could be either to reduce the risk perception or increase profit for the air freight forwarder.

These untold facts, if not dealt with proactively, have an impact on your air freight shipment and can be the core reason for cargo delays. In order to deliver your cargo on time and under the projected landed cost, it is important to have knowledge about these facts. Many times, a lack of awareness or over-trust makes business owners and logistics managers forget to ask about these facts. It is important to be informed and seek clarification from your freight forwarder to avoid surprises with your shipment.

Read on to learn 5 facts that can assist you to make a better air freight decision.

As a Freight Forwarding or Logistics Manager, staying up to date on the ever-changing market conditions can be challenging. It is important to stay informed on changes so that you can plan your cargo movements with your freight forwarder and know in advance when rates will be changing. To assist importers and exporters, BCR, a 3PL provider and international freight forwarder publishes this monthly global market update.

Read on to learn about the import sea freight market conditions to Australia for major lanes including North East Asia, South East Asia, the United States and Europe.

Order fulfilment rate helps to drive the performance of a supply chain. Higher order fulfilment rates contribute to higher levels of customer satisfaction and the possibility of achieving higher business growth. To fulfill an order perfectly requires delivering the right product, in the right quantity, at the right time, in the right condition, to the right customer with the right documentation. Fulfilling a small amount of orders perfectly is achievable. However, in peak season or with a large volume of orders, achieving and maintaining a perfect order fulfilment rate consistently can be a nightmare. For some small to medium sized companies, perfect order fulfilment can be an even more challenging task as the company may not have a dedicated resource to focus on their supply chain.

To keep products consistently flowing through your supply chain, and within the defined turnaround time (TAT) requires a well-defined infrastructure, a skilled workforce, standardised processes, efficient storage methods, the correct inventory level and a robust shipping network. To build all these requires years of focus, effort and hard work. The energy and focus required to build these can distract you from focusing on your core competence, thus compromising your business growth. A simpler option is to outsource to an experienced and professional provider of 3PL in Brisbane or a nationwide 3PL provider that readily brings your business these capabilities. Increasingly, business owners in Brisbane are fulfilling their orders perfectly with an experienced and efficient provider of 3PL in Brisbane.

Read on to learn how a provider of 3PL Brisbane can assist you to fulfil your orders perfectly.

Over the past few decades, the 3PL warehousing industry has faced revolutionary changes. To improve customer satisfaction, improve productivity and reduce overall logistics costs, technologies such as automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), bar codes, warehouse management systems (WMS), cloud computing, business intelligence, efficient storage systems and automated processes have been introduced. These innovations have brought a revolution in how warehousing is managed.

With global changes and technological advancements, the face of warehousing is continuously changing and will continue to change at an even faster speed than what we have seen so far. 3PL warehousing customers as well as 3PL providers will need to keep pace with the changes to ensure not just relevance, but survival. Collaboratively, 3PL customers and 3PL providers will benefit by ensuring that their businesses are geared-up for a future where change is the only constant. As 3PL warehousing is a core business for 3PL providers, they will take the lead and deploy the latest warehousing technology and operations to support their customers’ supply chains.  

Read on to learn where 3PL warehousing might go in the next 10 years. Prepare to embrace the future.

Freight forwarding plays a vital role in determining the landed cost and delivery timeline for any product. Leading businesses are able to establish the right balance between the costs and product availability. The freight cost makes up a considerable part of the landed cost and assists when deciding the market price for your product. Economical freight costs can assist in developing a lower landed cost and hence a better market position against your competition and improved profitability. There are some smart strategies that importers and exporters can use that include using the most appropriate transportation medium, collaborating with an established freight forwarder, signing long-term freight forwarder contracts, efficient packing, stuffing and complete-accurate-timely (CAT) documentation to make the freight forwarding operation for your products economic and immaculate.

Read on to learn 5 smart strategies you can use today to ensure operational excellence and economical freight forwarding operations.

In today’s competitive business environment, setting up a productive warehouse can provide your business with a competitive edge. Setting up a warehouse requires a large capital investment, a skilled work force and management skills to deliver continually improving outcomes. From setting up to managing a productive warehouse, importers, exporters and manufactures face many challenges including determining proper layout, suitable infrastructure, efficient processes, the optimised inventory level and a work force aligned with your supply chain strategies. Mismanagement of any process or improper infrastructure will affect the output of a warehouse and create bottlenecks in your supply chain. Businesses in Australia need expert warehousing solutions including efficient work force management to remain competitive. Managing an efficient and effective warehouse can be very costly as well as stressful for an in-house team. Another option to consider is outsourcing to a 3PL provider. 3PL service providers in Australia have setup multiuser warehouses in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Townsville, Cairns, Adelaide and Perth. These warehouses are capable of fulfilling your warehousing needs with economic monthly payments and can transform what could be a stressful warehousing experience into a very pleasant 3PL warehousing experience.

Read on to learn how a 3PL in Sydney can assist you to troubleshoot your warehousing challenges and deliver an optimised warehousing experience.