Logistics

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) estimates from its work in verifying Bills of Lading that over 95% of all improperly issued Bills of Lading are issued by – yeah you guessed it – Non-Vessel Owning Common Carriers (NVOCCs)..

The IMB identifed that there is a prevalence of issuance of incorrect NVOCC bills of lading by the NVOCC which is then presented to banks and other stakeholders in the trading and finance chain, with the aim of defrauding the trade finance system, possibly for the purposes of multiple financing, money laundering, etc..

The IMB has developed a business solution to mitigate the effects of this problem..

Freight forwarders are an integral part of the supply chain and global trade, involved in handling goods using all modes of transport (sea, road, rail and air)..

However, many people are still unaware of Who is a Freight Forwarder and their role in the whole chain.. There is no one simple and quick explanation as to who is a freight forwarder and what they do..

In the most succinct and layman terms, a Freight Forwarder is a multi-function agent/operator who undertakes to handle the movement of goods from point to point on behalf of the cargo owner..

The essence of freight forwarding is to ensure that the cargo is picked up from the seller and delivered to the buyer at the required place, at the right price, and in the same condition that it is picked up from origin using the most suitable resources and routing possible..

Freight Forwarders however sometimes face situations which holds them liable merely due to them representing customers or handling shipments on behalf of customers..

Here is a real life example from Singapore..

The world of shipping and logistics never rests.. It is one project after another.. And when it comes to one of the world's most expensive sports, the F1 races, logistics efforts and requirements goes up several notches equalling the sounds of the reverberating engines..

This article details the efforts and processes followed by Renault's F1 logistics team to get their machines to the racetrack, in time, in good shape and condition..

For many logisticians, this could be as thrilling (if not more) than the race itself..

We talked with FreightHub co-founder Michael Wax about What his company is doing to establish itself as an active partner to shippers, and what the ideal forwarder-shipper relationship should look like.

Logistics companies can deploy the best technology and still fail if their personnel lack training and experience. Anyone whose been around the industry a while remembers Deutsche Post-DHL’s €345 million New Forwarding Environment (NFE) IT program disaster. And while DPDHL seems to have pulled through, mistakes like that can sink smaller firms. On the other hand, we’re well into an era where it’s impossible not to adapt and adopt new technology, which makes expert advice all the more important.

Will blockchain revolutionize the shipping and logistics industry, allowing it to move past inefficient legacy technologies by handing companies the keys to high-tech solutions, at an affordable cost? That’s ShipChain CEO John Monarch’s vision, and over the past year, his company’s platform has emerged as one of the foremost contenders in this burgeoning market.

New technology has opened users up to cybercrime, thanks to security loopholes, lack of training, or sometimes both. We chatted with PhishTrain Co-Founder Jake Sylvestre about how managers should think about security, and what steps they can take to protect their clients, their reputations, and ultimately, their bottom line.

Brian Laung Aoaeh and Lisa Morales-Hellebo, co-founders of The New York Supply Chain Meetup LLC, operate under the mantra “the past ran on supply chains. The present runs on supply chains. The future will run on supply chains. The world is a supply chain.”

In their efforts to realize this vision, Brian and Lisa have joined with other supply chain professionals to curate and organize events that seek, find, encourage, and include a wide range of views and ideas on the most significant problems related to global supply chain networks.

Welcome to The New York Supply Chain Meetup..

With so many new companies launching blockchain-based shipping products, it’s clear that maritime trade will look very different in a few years.. What’s less clear is what that change will look like..

In this article we examine what barriers still exist to widespread blockchain implementation, and what companies are doing to overcome them..

We talk to startups like CargoX and established players like Agility, Maersk, IBM, Evergreen etc. to understand how shipping is changing, and where it’s going..

Article outlining how to calculate CBM of cylindrical object like a pipe or roll.. This is an update on my previous post about calculation of CBM..

One of the most common questions I get asked often is "how to calculate CBM", specially by those clients who get charged per Freight Ton or Revenue Ton.. What is CBM and Freight/Revenue Ton..??