Understanding of freight forwarding industry

Freight forwarder, also known as freight forwarder, is called forwarder in English. It transports the designated goods to the designated destination according to the owner's requirements by accepting entrustment, booking space and coordinating. It is a bridge between the owner and the transportation company.

Every industry has its own specific law of development. After several years of work, we have a certain understanding of the development of this industry:

1) The market tends to be saturated and the competition is fierce.

With China's entry into WTO, the import and export trade has developed rapidly in recent years, so freight forwarders have mushroomed everywhere in coastal cities. There are about 65,438+0-20,000 registered freight forwarders in Qingdao, which shows the fierce competition.

2) Being at the lower level of the industrial chain, the scale of enterprises is mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, and the profit effect is not good.

Due to the particularity of this industry, it needs to constantly attract customers to maintain its own survival, and there is not much autonomy, so it has always been at the low end of the industrial chain. Once the division of labor is broken, it is easy to be abandoned by shipping companies or shippers. Moreover, because there are not many complicated departments in this industry, it is generally sales-customer service-booking-charging-checkout, so usually a few people can set up a company, so most companies have few employees.

3) The industry threshold is low and the quality of employees is uneven.

As mentioned above, because the company is mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, the capital investment is not much, and the recruitment requirements for employees are correspondingly low, it is inevitable that there will be some mistakes and unprofessionals in the business and operation process, which will affect the development of this industry and people's objective evaluation of it.

4) The service industry is complex and stressful.

Because this industry belongs to the intermediary service industry, employees are required to take customers as God and win customers with service. In addition, many related industries involved in the work, such as shipping companies, booking agents, shippers, customs brokers, fleets, stations, etc., basically need freight forwarders as communication media to coordinate their work, so things are more complicated, and sometimes unexpected things happen on weekends or at night, which requires freight forwarders to coordinate and solve, and there is almost no complete rest time, so the work pressure is great.

5) The market management is chaotic and the relevant laws and regulations are not perfect.

At present, there is no uniform price standard in freight forwarding industry, so the charging standards of different freight forwarders are also very different, which leads to unfair competition among industries to achieve their own goals, such as price reduction, discount and commission refund. However, China's laws and administrative regulations are not clearly defined, and relevant departments have no special supervision and supervision, which is also a reason for market confusion.

According to the above development, we can see that the freight forwarding industry is fiercely competitive and the employees are under great pressure. "If you want to die quickly, you should be a freight forwarder as soon as possible" has become a portrayal of this industry. Judging from the current development situation in recent years, the future development prospect of the industry is becoming clearer and clearer, and enterprises should also formulate corresponding countermeasures according to their own conditions.

1) The company operates on a large scale to improve its core competitiveness and integrate resources.

With the follow-up effect of the economic crisis, more freight forwarders will fight for prices and services for customers, and some small and medium-sized enterprises without core competitiveness will not be able to maintain normal operations, and bankruptcy is inevitable. Based on this, some large freight forwarding companies will designate relevant large-scale operations, increase capital investment, continue to develop their main business, expand business channels, improve their competitiveness, obtain better superior resources, and complete the optimal combination, thus completing the occupation of effective market share.

2) Improve the quality of employees, enhance service awareness and improve the personnel training mechanism.

The enrollment expansion of colleges and universities has enabled more people to obtain higher education opportunities, and correspondingly, their personal qualities have also improved. Forwarding is a service-oriented industry. Therefore, only by improving the cultural quality of employees and having better self-study ability can we continuously improve ourselves, thus improving the service quality and allowing more customers to accept the company's cultural concept, so as to have more opportunities for cooperation. The core competition in the future is talent. Freight forwarders should also standardize the talent flow mechanism, improve the talent management system, form an effective incentive physique, increase employee training, give employees more room for development and promotion, combine personal value with corporate profits, and improve employees' loyalty and enthusiasm.

3) Innovating business model and strengthening network management.

Now is the Internet age, and the development of every industry is inseparable from the Internet, and the development prospect also depends on the effect of its own network development and promotion. Through the promotion of network marketing, more enterprises can understand the company's situation, expand their popularity, establish a perfect network operation process, make the operation process electronic, simple and efficient, and effectively supervise and manage all links, thus improving work efficiency and reducing costs.

4) Strengthen the coordination and mutual assistance among industries and cultivate new profit growth points.

Each company has its own advantage route, based on the principle of mutual assistance and mutual benefit, improve the cooperation between companies, cultivate good cooperative relations, and maximize resource sharing. In addition, we will creatively choose a new development direction according to the existing resources and economic growth mode, extend more services related to the freight forwarding industry, diversify the company's services, seize the curiosity of customers, provide more humanized and professional services, and cultivate new customer groups.

The future is bright and the road is tortuous. In this way, the current situation of the industry is fierce and the prospects are promising. The development of the industry needs everyone's efforts, and personal development needs your own patience. Only by down-to-earth study and continuous improvement and enrichment can we go further and higher in the turbulent social tide.