Author: Bhumi Madhu

An estimated 60% volumes in Logistics and Supply Chain activities in the country are managed by 3PL and 4 PL players.

A third-party 3PL logistics provider provides outsourced logistics services to companies. These services can make up part or sometimes all of their Logistics and supply chain management activities.

The 3PL activities include: Inventory storage and management, Picking and packing, Freight forwarding, Shipping/distribution, Customs brokerage, Contract management, IT solutions, Cross-docking etc.

A fourth-party 4PL logistics provider essentially takes third-party logistics a step further by managing resources, technology, infrastructure, and even manage external 3PLs to design, build and provide supply chain solutions for businesses.

4PL services typically encompass 3PL services as well as:

Analytics including transportation spend, analysis, capacity utilization, and carrier performance Logistics strategy, Freight sourcing strategies, Network analysis and design, Consultancy, Business planning, Change management, Project management, Control tower and network management services, coordinating a wide supplier base across many modes and geographies, Inventory planning and management, Inbound, outbound and reverse logistics management

To avail services of these players in the market make a lot of sense to Shippers, because they bring in the necessary expertise and help in close co-ordination and adherence to timelines and controlling costs.

However most of the players offering these services are Asset light and do not have captive Vehicle inventory and outsource it to service providers / transporters. Often it is observed that there is always a challenge when the vehicles are required to be placed thereby putting pressure on the delivery timelines.

An association with Digital platform like VALUESHIPR www. valueshipr.com helps 3PL & 4PL Logistics players to directly integrate with the Transporters, streamline, integrate and adhere to high service standards at optimum costs, in their business dealings.

Moving goods or relocation can be quite overwhelming or draining experience for people involved. Whether it is shifting current home or office or shifting machinery into new premises across cities, states or even internationally, requires great energy levels, oversight, thought and care.

At VALUESHIPR, jointly with our partners, we get involved in the process of planning out the entire activity to ensure that the activity is handled with care and at reasonable costs. Even for an expats coming into India or going out of the country the whole process needs specialised skills and the experience quiet daunting.

Suggested below are some steps, preparation that you need to follow for smooth and stress-free transition:

Plan Ahead-

Planning ahead of your move is absolutely essential. Needless to say, the most savvy mover does so months before the arranged date. Atleast 2 months before the planned date, start with informing Banks, Post offices, Chartered Accountants, Club Memberships, Credit Card companies, schools, tutions etc.

One month before the move, arrange for a pre-move survey. You may be moving into a larger property,but you will save a lot of time and effort if you scale down your material goods before you have to pack them up. Inspection will reveal a lot of redundant items. Any items you can’t bear to lose but aren’t currently being used, can be boxed up early.

Get packing materials (quality packing materials!) early on. Pack gradually to reduce stress. Label your boxes by room, colour code to make it easier, and of course, mark fragile items as such, with a “This side up” label.

Further, back up your personal computer, collect school records, collect international driver’s licence ( if needed), Purchase additional items that you wish to send in the shipment, sell car ( if needed), sell plants, furniture appliances or give it away. Visit doctor / dentist and obtain medical / dental records. Cancel magazine or newspaper subscriptions. Check If any dry Cleaning of clothes needed, Inform the telephone company and electricity / gas/ water authorities. Reduce/dispose of all frozen/perishable foods. Write a plan of action down and make sure everyone moving with you is aware and onboard.

Packing up the kitchen and unpacking the bedroom first

Packing kitchens is a tough act when trying to move home. There is heavy stuff, breakable things and lots of sharp items amongst other things. Pack before any other room, but leave out the kettle, toaster and anything that you will need on the day. Tea / coffee breaks are essential. Your fridge should have been emptied and switched off at least 24 hours before and throughly cleaned before moving.

Original packaging would be the best, if not, pack and protect all appliances as best you can. Bubble wrap all breakables, making sure glasses and cups are filled (newspaper will do). Always stack plates with a layer of protection between each, again enough newspaper to allow cushioning is fine.
Essentially bubble wrap the fine china. No sharp ends left unsheathed, no boxes packed improperly. Also mark heavy boxes as heavy.

Bedrooms are one of the most important rooms to unpack first because you will be using this before any other room is ready. Make sure the bed is where it should be, thereafter the kitchen, dining room, drawing room and bathroom can be sorted.

Some tips on Unpacking

Group pots and pans handles together. Use new boxes, especially for valuable and heavy items.
Pack in order of necessity eg; Vases before appliances, bookcases before beds. Have a bag of ‘on the day’ necessities ready. Teabags, Tissues, spare clothes; whatever you need while in transit. Make sure you label electronic appliances connections where it was unplugged from.

“FRAGILE”, “HEAVY”, “THIS SIDE UP”. At least one of these on every COLOUR CODED box (Red = Kitchen, Green = Bedroom, etc.). “ESSENTIAL” on the boxes that will assist in the moving in process. Cleaning items, detergents , towels etc. Things you need, you take for granted.

Plan your move for the middle for the week. In general, it costs more to move at weekends and it’s when most choose to do so, making a move date competitive. However, more planning is needed as help is harder to find during typical working hours. Rush hour can cause delays, therefore entry and exit in a city needs to be carefully thought through. But for low cost moving, Monday through Thursday is often best

Happy Moving

International or cross border trade has its beginnings in ancient times, whereby people began exploring distant lands in search of goods to barter or conquer new geographies. Besides moving by foot or horses, sea was one of the popular options used by people to traverse distant places.
However there were plenty of unforseen risks like bad weather, collision or attacks by sea pirates or robbers and the fatalities used to be very high. These perils ushered in one of the oldest forms of Insurance viz; Marine Insurance or now loosely called transit insurance which not only protected the Ship but also the cargo being transported.

Broadly there are three types of Marine insurance

Most of these policies have flexible underwriting process and are open policies, which can be customised.

Key Highlights:

Covers Available :

Marine Insurance policy Exclusions:

On the VALUESHIPR (www.valueshipr.com) platform, we encourage all our Shipper or Cargo owners to avail of Marine Insurance during transportation of their goods. The premium in comparison to the Value of goods is very marginal. VALUESHIPR had deep relationships with Insurance providers which enables you to get Marine Insurance cover in a fraction of minutes, with few clicks. ( Register on www.valueshipr.com)Availing of Marine insurance brings safety, confidence and healthy business environment besides, peace of mind for all Shippers.

Whether based in Mumbai, Delhi, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Ahmedabad, Surat, Indore, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi and many other towns, it would have been a tad difficult finding and requesting rates from individual transporters or freight forwarders, beyond all time consuming.

Just register and post your goods or cargo details on VALUESHIPR, you will be amazed to get competitive rates from dozens of transporters through a real-time online RFQ procedure. This helps you get a transparent and comparative freight quote. Now that’s not all

Understanding the five benefits that make transportation or shipping through VALUESHIPR the smartest, or safest way.

Verified and validated transporters:
Whether you’re shipping a piece of furniture, a car, finished goods, or something a little more unusual, like odd dimension heavy goods, safety of your goods are of paramount concern to you. It is well known that the transportation market in India is fragmented, unstructured and driven by brokers and therefore there is a very unhealthy level of trust prevalent. We have aggregated our transport associates after carrying out verification and validation of the truck owners and also pertinent to mention that they have been tested on multiple routes on assignments. Therefore you can be more at peace when you transport your goods with ValueShipr

Best Transportation Rates:
We are a neutral marketplace and therefore the Freight Bids that you receive is transparent and allows you to compare the Freight cost. Also you stand to benefit due to the large pool of transporters in the geo-fenced location or the ‘return’ truck headed to your destination sought by you giving you a highly competitive rate. The Platform allows you to place a SPOT, CONTRACT and TO PAY mode of transaction for your goods transportation and is one of its kind. Payments can me made in a very hassle free manner using the payment gateway, UPI or direct Bank Transfer. Also the payments that you make is not released to the transporter until there is a confirmation that your shipment has been safely delivered.

Efficiency & Optimization:
Beyond Load to Truck matching, geo-location, there are multiple intervention points where advanced technologies like Machine Learnings and AI have been used for route optimization, appropriate usage of volumetric space, expected delivery times ensuring high degree of compliance for the throughput.

Logistics Team Support:
An able professional Logistics operations team is continually monitoring and is standing by to help in the unlikely event that if anything goes wrong. The team involves in on any issues and offers hands-on assistance to resolve all kinds of transportation or shipping issues. The Valueshipr GPS- IOT Tracking systems helps in getting a all round visibility of the shipment for Shippers. eg; If a truck breakdown occurs, you’ll have access to our expansive network of alternate transportation and help and get your shipment delivered at no additional costs.

Insurance:
Most carriers already carry some level of insurance, but for your own peace of mind, purchasing additional cargo transit insurance is highly recommended. Booking through VALUESHIPR, you can get your Marine / transit Insurance at very low-cost, all with few clicks during the booking process.
To get started, just create your first booking visit www.valueshipr.com . You can sit back, watch the quotes roll in, take an informed decision, and ship your goods with peace of mind.

Well you guessed it right, the first modern truck was indeed pioneered and invented in the late 19th century in the seat of innovation then, Germany by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz in 1895-96. These gentlemen thereafter also went forward and innovated the first motorcycle and the first taxi. The first pickup truck invented by these gentlemen was an internal combustion two cylinder four horsepower engine and a belt drive, with two forward gears and and one reverse powered by gasoline. It is pertinent to know the ancestor of all these innovation was the steam powered wagons invented in 1769 by Nickolas- Joseph Cugnot.

Diesel driven trucks though invented in 1897, became much accepted after the 1930s in Europe and 1970s in the Americas.

It is estimated, the word “truck” might come from a back-formation of “truckle”, meaning “small wheel” or “pulley”, from Middle English trokell, in turn from Latin trochlea.

The essential components of a truck are ‘the engine’, ‘the Frame’, ‘the Drive train’ and ‘the Cabin’. Diesel engines with turbo chargers and coolers have become the engines of choice. Compressed natural gas engines have also made significant inroads in the developed countries especially owing to low cost, near zero emissions and their environmental impact. The latest breakthrough in trucking is the “driverless truck” introduction and testing being done by some trendsetting companies. This could again alter the entire ecosystem in a very significant manner in the days to come. Globally the highest limits on the length of the truck carriage/outback for fixed is 82 Feet and for a road train (with puller formation) is 176 feet and the weight carrying limits could be 62.5 Tons to 172 tons respectively. In India it is 55 feet on fixed basis regulations.

Since trucks are bigger and heavier than most of the vehicles and their drivers generally ply them on the roads for more hours per day, they cause more wear and tear of the paved roads. The life of the paved roads is measured by the number of vehicle axles that pass over them for a defined period. The Load Equivalency factor that is used to determine the damage caused by the pass of a vehicle axle is proportional to the 4th power of weight. So a 10 ton axle truck causes 10,000 times more damage as compared to a 1 ton axle truck. Hence the Trucks are subjected to higher taxes and highway tolls in comparison to say cars.

The top 5 Truck manufacturers in the world are :
1) Daimler AG – German
2) Volvo group – Swedish
3) Dongfeng Motor – Chinese
4) Volkswagon group – German
5) Tata Group – India.

Some of the earliest trucks that were introduced on the Indian Roads were the Dodge Fargo P6 series. These Trucks were the ” Kew ” design Trucks from the Dodge Factory in Kew, Surrey. Hence the name ‘ Kew Dodge ‘.The Kew trucks used Perkins engines in the UK and it was prudent to use the Perkins P6 Diesels here in India due to the hot tropical climate. The Trucks were manufactured by Premier Auto at their Kurla plat around 1947 and were badged ‘Fargo’ ‘Dodge’, and ‘DeSoto’, with Fargo being the brand for trucks sold by Plymouth dealers. Around the same time Hindustan Motors (Birla) another company introduced the Bedford trucks and Ashok Motors began the assembly of Leyland trucks, and with the company eventually concentrating on the business of making trucks, it was renamed as Ashok Leyland. After Tata Motors or erstwhile TELCO and Ashok Leyland commenced CV manufacturing in mid 1950s, customer preference soon shifted towards them and sale of CVs made by PAL and Hindustan Motors (which were initially sold under “Bedford” brand and later as “Hindustan”) dropped significantly and eventually shut down in 1979.

Much later one of the most defining moments was the introduction of the Tata 2213, a 22 tonne GVW multi axle (3 axle) heavy commercial vehicle, still acknowledged as the game changer in the industry. Today various configurations of trucks on the Indian roads range from from the light to heavy categories viz; pick-ups, LCVs, single axle and multi axle variations of trucks across weight carrying configurations, refrigerated trucks, trailers, pullers with hydra axles.

Some of the Indian manufacturers who have significant units in operations in India are Tata, Ashok Leyland, Eicher, MAN, Bharat Benz, AMW, Hino, Volvo, Mahindra and Force motors.
Manufacturers are also gearing up on new technologies like telematics and electric vehicles. The new paradigm that’s also seeping in steadily, organizing, building efficiencies is the advent of technology platform like valueshipr, which offers Shippers an array of Trucks and transportation choices. 60% of India’s transportation requirements are met by Road movement. India has close to 1.6 Cr transporters and about 45mn trucks plying and vying for 1325+ btkm volume of load in India.

So the next time we see this massive beast swooping down on the roads and disappearing from sight, take a moment to wallow on this small snippet of history.

For your goods and Cargo transportation requirements, book truck online by downloading the VALUESHIPR APP or visit www.valueshipr .com / call 8655012255.

STRIKES paralyse a growing economy like INDIA. This doesn’t augur well for India to reach its targeted GDP growth.

Logisticians must practice a set of Do’s and don’ts in this challenging period:

We sincerely hope your transportation is safe and secure!

Click on the link to find out more: http://www.valueshipr.com/

Click the link to register & search for transporters for free: https://rc-cargo.valueshipr.com/login;redirect=dashboard

Trucks have played a very important role in helping connect and transport goods across countries and aids geographies develop and become prosperous. One cannot deny that this movement has helped habitation, regional development and distribution of income and resources and possibly bridge the divide between urban and rural.

Road and rail transport carries, over more than 70% of inland freight volume. For example in India over 52% shipments happen by road and 34% by rail. Over 7000btkm ( billon tonne kilometer) of goods are transported each year by road in the EU, USA, CIS, China and Japan alone.

Road freight transport directly creates a lot of jobs – 6.5 million in the EU and nearly 9 million in
the USA and over 20 million in India. This does not include jobs in truck-related industries, such as vehicle manufacturing, repairs, retail, leasing, or insurance, nor the millions of other jobs that depend on trucks to supply and distribute goods.

What needs to be noted is the optimal efficiency for trucking companies, is not how many trucks you have, not how many drivers you employ or branches you have, not how much warehouse space you have, but how effectively you are using those assets.

Often in long haul movement, truck owners have a sort of thumb rule earning for the month number, say Rs.85K or Rs.115K a month for example, while this may be broadly an assumption in the right direction, however this approach may be flawed in hindsight due to several components of cost not being acknowledged in the consideration, besides it doesn’t stand the test of scale as well.

Here are some basic steps, how trucking companies / fleets can increase productivity.

1. Measure, measure, measure !

   As we all know, objectives are delivered only when Key performance indicators are measured. “Most small and medium size transporters don’t have the ability to determine what the productivity number is for break-even or for making a certain profit, and how that relates to a specific truck and what its contribution needs to be.

   Therefore it is important that Truckers and transport companies derive a total revenue number based on – Infrastructure and resource employed cost + cost of interest (finance)+ operational running cost + insurance cost + asset wear and tear (depreciation) . Post determining this revenue number, this number could be apportioned on the asset and a per day revenue objective could be obtained.

   Don’t include fuel surcharges in your productivity numbers. That changes as the price of fuel fluctuates and has nothing to do with your productivity. Fleet owners should use the fuel surcharge as a deduction against their fuel expenses, so they can get a better feel for whether the surcharge is doing its job of absorbing increases in fuel costs.

2. Register with a TMS or a Marketplace Aggregation cum execution platform

   In order to properly track and measure, you need a good transportation management system. Maybe VALUESHIPR www.valueshipr.com is one place you could check out. It offers its simple and user friendly transportation management platform almost ‘free’. The most important thing is efficiently using whatever the features and the capabilities that these systems offer. Ensure there there is no resistance from the users in your organization, in adoption.

   ValueShipr organises three basic areas: Sales, planning, and driver management. Fundamentally most transport companies do not have an active Sales team and depends on their relationship and broker agent network to garner business. This method at times impedes growth and a platform such as ValueShipr helps overcome this deficiency by getting visibility to newer customers and better Sales control to enhance business. We have observed that users who have adopted and used the ValueShipr platform have reported enhanced productivity in revenues and business from each of their trucks and trailers registered with the platform.

   In addition the data used for decision making is current, live and real-time, with electronic logs and other information coming directly from the truck.

3. Focus on per-truck productivity

   TThe fastest way to improve your bottom line or profitability, is to either put parked trucks into operation or increase the productivity of individual trucks. The average monthly utilisation (revenue earned) of trucks or trailers is about 13-14 days.

   This is chiefly attributed due to lack of business visibility,shortage of drivers, empty return loads etc.

   Trucks need to be run extra shifts, round the clock or more days though the use of extra drivers or part-time drivers.

   While that may not be possible for a small- to mid-size company in an line haul operation, companies that operate in a 250- to 500 km radius could have other drivers operating some of their trucks on Saturdays or at night.

4. Drive change from the top down
   The revenue objectives set out by the company needs to percolate to people in the operations department and the drivers need to understand what the number is that’s expected for each truck in order to make a certain level of profit. This communication will help make them realise the importance of their role.

   It has been observed often employees are trained to be customer sensitive, however the organisational objectives like revenue expectation are seldom shared.

   Having productivity-based incentives for both operations and drivers but with customer sensitivity can create the much needed impact in increasing productivity.

5. Make sure you have the right people in the right positions

   Once you have a measurement system in place, it is important that you choose the right people in the right position with adequate attention to skill sets and soft skills.

6. Driver – Pilot Management

   This resource is the most vital cog in your business model, the person who makes it happen for you. Post identifying this resource ensure the following is imparted: right training, customer handling, important of rest, safety and compliance, regular health check ups.

   This aspect of your business has to be dealt with utmost maturity and professionally to ensure that you get the right output. Among other items viz; adequate compensation, resting places, health checkups, incentives and other welfare measures need to be offered.

   Therefore it is apt to say that transport owners need to start with the recognition, that it’s a culture change and it only happens from the top down. Everyone has to understand what’s expected of them, and you have to measure results and establish rewards and accountability.”

If you want to REGISTER or even have a chat over a cup of coffee,
We would love to engage with you, call us on 8655012255 or visit www.valueshipr.com

Hence this waft of some improving conditions has come in as a well deserved succor to the ailing ecosystem. One of the largest liners in the World recently shared numbers of increase in freight rates by 4.4% and increase in revenues and volumes by 10% last quarter. Some of the visible trends / triggers that would drive the industry are as follows.

Improving Strong Demand
Post the demise of one of the largest Ocean Liners, there has been a spike in demand and it has created a supply – demand imbalance. The large scale scrapping of vessels and no real new vessel ordering has also impacted this aspect of imbalance. It is estimated that the demand for containers would increase to around 4 – 5% for the year.

Better rates / yields across lanes:
There has been a perceptible improvement in the shipping rates of single containers along the Asia – Europe and Asia – US (West coast) routes, over 2016 rates.

Asia – Europe rates for a single container is seeing a increase of almost 80-100% and and Asia – US (West Coast) is seeing an increase of almost 45-65% over 2016. This trend will continue due to the supply-demand imbalance. ( Source –Braemar ACM Shipbroking / WSJ May 2017)

Carrier Consolidation:
Some level of carrier consolidation will continue in 2017 and we may see the entry of a new carrier into the transpacific trade. Consolidations and Mergers will continue for sustainability, utilisation and economies of scale. Major mergers like CMA CGM’s acquisition of Singapore’s APL, Cosco and China Shipping’s CSCL merger, acquisition of Hamburg Sud by Maersk etc are trends setting and redefining the space.

The new alliance structure would be 2M (Maersk, MSC); G6 (OOCL, Hapag-Lloyd, NYK, Hyundai, MOL, Hamburg Sud); KYHE (“K” Line, Yang Ming, Evergreen, Hanjin); and 05 (CMA CGM, CSCL, UASC, APL, Cosco)

Redefining Distribution
Some of the Global majors are trying to reshape and redefine itself and adapt itself into a Global Supply Chain player by integrating its transport and logistics units, move more ships in and out of ports, carry more inland cargo, digitalise supply chain on platforms for scale, collaborations and transparency etc. Newer trends in Large majors (Shipping and freight forwarding) aligning with platform ecosystems in Americas, Europe and Asia to quickly provide a integrated solution to consumers and also draw in new businesses are being observed.

India trends::

E commerce
With eCommerce business in India rapidly scaling up, newer global players are making a beeline for the consumers in India with product niches and service standards. The government is also trying to establish a conducive and fair platform for e commerce players to effect trade harmoniously. Service standards set up by these players in gratification of the consumer demand are turning a new leaf each day with better, faster and simpler logistics. Logistics players have had to rapidly re-adjust to the paradigm change demanded by these e commerce players and embrace technology to enhance efficiencies.

GST
Effective July 1st, 2017, the GST is all set out to be rolled out. This will bring about a uniform tax structure as India becomes one big market, there will be fewer and larger warehouses. Second, it will lead to a larger number of bigger trucks on road as there is greater adoption of the hub-and-spoke model. Third, these changes will lead to greater economies of scale for transport operators and lead to more companies outsourcing their logistics operations. Standard tax rates will allow corporations to move away from the practice of building a warehouse in different states to adhere to each state’s tax code. A big packaged consumer goods company could thus make do with one large mother warehouse at critical points in the country and employ logistics companies to manage distribution and supply chains. The new tax will result in greater adoption of a hub-and-spoke model in segments such as warehousing, cold chain, container freight stations and inland container depots