April 25, 2024 What's News The text write and uses here if the customer wants to know minute estimate. We answer soon we confirm.   title : Home Forwarding     Home Forwarding U.S. forwarders are expanding past their 'core competence' to offer non-traditional global options Aaron Karp an an air freight forwarder survive if it only provides standard "warehouse-to-warehouse" domestic services? Perhaps - but not for long. At least that's what traditional forwarders in the United States believe. Many are diversifying their businesses to compete in the modern air cargo market, expanding into the international marketplace, upgrading technology and offering "special" services that sometimes even include delivering to and setting up furniture and high-tech equipment in residential homes. "Forwarders have to have a lot of creativity to stay on top of the market," says U.S. Airforwarders Association Executive Director Brandon Fried. "It's all about increasing the value proposition that forwarders can offer the customer." On the domestic side in the United States, forwarders are increasingly expanding into home delivery and offering non-traditional services such as warehousing and "picking and packing" shipments. For the smaller and mid-sized operators, it's a version of the special services targeted at vertical markets such as electronics or perishables that more multinational forwarders are building to bring specific expertise to shippers. "It's a bit of a niche business, but more and more customers are demanding special services," says John Keleman, vice president of special services for forwarder Pilot Air Freight. Pilot formally established a special services division in 2004, shipping a wide range of cargo - such as medical equipment, office equipment, household furniture and electronics requiring set up - that "falls outside of our core air freight services … and requires something other than a dock-to-dock delivery," says Keleman. "Most of the major forwarders now provide both home delivery as well as special services. … As a business, you have to keep growing, look at areas outside your core competence. This is the future." New York-based forwarder Associated Global Systems recently expanded its residential shipping to include delivering products of "any weight and size" to "any residential address" in the U.S. AGS says the offering is "ideal for companies who sell and ship products directly to consumers, require a single carrier for transportation and final mile delivery, and the flexibility to meet any residential customer's needs." Indeed, flexibility appears to be the key for smaller forwarders looking to keep pace with mammoth and rapidly consolidating global logistics operators. Traditional forwarders in the U.S. are seeking to offer a wide range of freight delivery and logistics services while still maintaining a non-asset, subcontractor-based business model. "All it takes is a little time and effort and you can develop a book of willing vendors" that can be contracted to provide a range of services, says Fried. Global Reach But merely expanding the range of service offerings is not enough. U.S. forwarders are also moving into international markets, forming partnerships with forwarders and logistics operators in other nations to manage global shipments. "Willing or not, forwarders have to go global right now," says Fried. "Domestic U.S. forwarders are now going global because their customers are going global." Pennsylvania-based Pilot is trying to shed its image as a domestic U.S. forwarder. The company has aggressively expanded international operations in recent years, with a strong focus on the Asia-Pacific region. International air freight now makes up about 20 percent of Pilot's overall revenue. International service "is what the customer requires," says Brian Gillen, Pilot's vice president - international. He notes shippers are looking for one forwarder to handle international shipments from start to finish rather than having a forwarder guide the shipment from China to Los Angeles while another takes over to get the cargo from L.A. to its end destination in the U.S. "Handing the cargo off" from one forwarder to another leads to "delays" and "finger-pointing," says Gillen. "We're the responsible party from start to finish. We own the shipping process and that's what our customers are hiring us for." Gillen says Pilot will continue to push hard on the international front, particularly in Asia, and recently hired a full-time representative in Shanghai. "I don't mean to sound draconian, but it will be difficult for purely domestic forwarders to survive long-term unless they're just purely a niche player," says Gillen. "Ultimately, we'd like international to be one-half of the total revenue of the company. That's not going to happen overnight, but certainly within three to five years is realistic." China Connect Though it now has a representative in Shanghai, Pilot does not plan to open overseas offices. Instead, it provides trans-Pacific services by partnering with local operators in Asia. Pilot and the local player sign an agreement and establish a communications network - mostly via the Internet - so shipments can be arranged and carried out. International partnerships are "the most effective way" for U.S. forwarders to go global, says Fried. "You join in a group of others such as yourself. That way you don't have to go through the expense and trouble of opening foreign offices." Many of the agreements call for reciprocal services in the United States and Asia. "We marry (international and domestic) services," says Gillen. Once the cargo clears customs, "it moves from being an international to a domestic shipment. Those modes blend together and the shipment doesn't actually have to stop. It looks like one shipment to the customer." About 60 percent of Pilot's international focus is on Asia, with China at the center of things. "A lot of our resources right now are in China," says Gillen. "We're making the investment to develop these relationships (with Chinese partners). Operationally, there's a lot of communication." The new Pilot representative in Shanghai reports directly to Gillen. "We're trying to make the Pilot name more well known in the region," he says. "We're not ignoring the (U.S.) domestic market at all, but we're focusing on the enormous growth in the international market."