Stay local to go global

Stay local to go global

By Elisabeth Cosmatos, CEO, Cosmatos Group

?To endure, global brands must deliver consistently on the reputations that first inspired demand, but even worldwide businesses know that local tastes vary.

?Tempting though container shipping finds it to spend its bumper profits on expansion, the giants of the sector would therefore be wise to consider whether the project cargo sector has any more appetite for global flavors.

?Clearly, logistics wisdom far beyond scale economies is needed to build a global shipping brand and, since the early 1980s, container shipping has grown a strong presence in project cargo by using flatracks to provide special and scheduled deliveries. Cosmatos is a buyer of this capacity, taking advantage of its favorable sea freight rates and predictability, and adding the value of its special load handling and last mile logistics expertise.

?My purpose is therefore not to criticize, but to highlight how the uniformity of service and top-down scale economies which make the box compelling also limits the potential of special load logistics as a candidate for over-ambitious growth.

?Just five shipping companies account for around 65 per cent of the world’s container carrying capacity.

?By contrast, project cargo logistics is a specialized activity that relies on experience built from the ground up. Nevertheless, its professionals are entrusted with multi-million dollar and often one-off out of gauge loads which may have taken years to manufacture. Very much part of shipping’s digital revolution on load calculations, stowage planning and documentation, it remains a business whose relationships demand care and attention 24/7 - and not from chatbots or call centers. ?

?In marketing their project cargo services, liner companies sometimes actually confirm the limitations of the ‘one-stop-shop’ approach by suggesting that selecting their project cargo services will mean shippers won’t have to deal with multiple ‘sub-tier’ organizations.

?Another way of expressing this is that the specialized capabilities on which services rely are not directly controlled by the vendor. Furthermore, the term ‘sub-tier’ implies miscellaneous activities carried out by interchangeable subcontractors, whereas the services concerned are the core expertise of project cargo transport.

?Based in Thessaloniki, Greece, over the last quarter of a century Cosmatos has built on its local knowledge, contacts and relationships to develop a worldwide project cargo logistics business. While there is often good reason for equating transport brand giants with ‘safe hands’, the fact is that the local truckers, crane operators, surveyors, inspectors, etc. we deal with routinely take instruction far less frequently from the ‘one-stop’ merchants.

?At the purely pragmatic level, regular service buyers will expect priority. They can also expect information exchanges with partners to be frequent and even proactive - on road permit updates, civil works, alternative routings, equipment mismatches, strikes, for example.

?We feel that it is also fair to comment that, while scale economies can lead to lower prices, they can sometimes instead come at the expense of subcontractors. Here, too, subcontractors are likely to give priority to better paying work.

?I have personal experience from 2023 of a new customer visiting us from the other side of the world to go through shipping arrangements, after a previous experience with a major carrier led to a port delay which lasted months and was never satisfactorily explained. And even if it had been, explaining a problem is a long way from resolving it.

?Where project cargo is concerned, experience shows that troubleshooting local logistics issues demands boots on the ground.

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Neill Thompson

???????????? ???????????????? & ?????????????????? ??????????????????: Supporting organisations with the management & strategic improvement of supply chains

1 年

Elisabeth, your article touches on a critical and oft forgotten part of making complex things work, and that is PEOPLE. For your basic carton travelling from A to B there is already decades of automated processes which take of these movements by the millions, perhaps like a 40HC, FAK, point-to-point on a liner service. But this does not work for projects for a number of reasons. Your article highlights that there was, is and will always be a need for THE HUMAN TOUCH. No automation or AI or IT system can bring the results your clients need. Not all clients are the same, but those who value boots on the ground, will always return to teams who offer such value added services. Best of luck with the next 50 years.

well done Ελισ?βετ

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aggeliki tsolakidou

Head of financial department at Alexandroupolis Port Authority SA

1 年

Congrats Elisabeth Cosmatos ????????

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Sam Zhou

Specialized in providing end to end solution ,especially OOG and Heavylift goods.

1 年

Whichever container lines or general BB/RORO ,they are only provide project service CY to CY short trip .Certainly,some lines already started extend their service end to end to match clients demand ,but it’s not their advantage and not match the existed situation what they are meeting .Traditional and t Years shipping experience and management decided they are hard to expand the last stop service .it not only rely on experience and knowledge,also the cost to manage resources and control risks .project forwarder have her advantage to do that .The key point of Logitsics is cost and time ,which impress client is the service .

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