6 Key Questions To Ask When You’re Choosing the Right Logistics Service Provider in the Philippines

Picking out the perfect logistics service provider for your business is hard especially when you’re choosing from a sea of companies in the Philippines. You have to be meticulous because it is more than just business; it is a partnership between two different corporations who possess distinct ideals and principles. In order to get that partnership going smoothly, here are 6 important questions to ask your logistics services provider:

1) What is the company’s history?

As stated by Harvard Business Publishing, an intricate understanding of the past is one of the most powerful tools we have for shaping the future. The history of a company is an important factor in knowing their identity, purpose and goals. Once you have those in place, you are one step closer to getting to know them on a much deeper level. How long the company has been operating and how extensive their network is are just some of the most important things to consider.

2) What is the company’s central philosophy?

A business philosophy is a set of beliefs and principles that a company strives to work toward. A company’s vision, mission and goals are more than just a list of mandates; they give life to a company’s central purpose. Your company’s ‘philosophy’ also serves as a code of conduct for decision-making processes.

3) What kind logistics services do you propose for my business?

An accurate view of your logistic needs should always be met by your business partner. Research is a key when it comes to expecting your demands. From the initial stage such as supplying to the final stage like warehousing, a remarkable provider would know the process inside out. An extensive knowledge of your needed services is a reflection of the provider’s accountability.

4) How do you deal with operational disruptions?

Unexpected challenges are always experienced in any workplace but how it is handled is very significant. Thinking on your feet in times of unforeseen events is a way to know whether the logistics provider can provide efficient solutions and if they’ll make a good partner. Don’t hesitate to ask them if they have cargo insurance in case of theft, damage or loss.

5) Is your company technologically deft?

Technology plays a huge role in logistics. First, it increases the operational efficiency of various functional areas. Second, processing and analysis are done swiftly. Third, it facilitates system automation. Everything is faster and more efficient with technology. All of these result to cutting of costs, too.

6) Is your company an affiliate in professional associations and accreditations?

Validation from other associations is a sign of commitment to the craft. One of the country’s freight organizations, the Cold Chain Association of the Philippines (CCAP), specializes in the supply chain of chilled/frozen food products and other temperature controlled product storage. They promote and raise standards of the local cold chain industry by providing forums, training seminars and active sharing of ideas among its members. Joining associations establishes formal linkages making the company accredited.

If your probable third-party logistics provider has a foolproof answer to all of these questions, then you can now commence with your business matters. Building trust is the core factor not only in choosing a logistics service provider here in the Philippines but also in starting a relationship with your possible business partner.

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Currency, Trade and Sea Freight in the Philippines: How Did They All Start?

Ever wondered how the trading system in the Philippines started? Is there a big difference in the evolution of Philippine numismatics? The development of the Philippine currency is not something that usually comes up in a conversation but once you have scratched the surface of this occurrence in Philippine history, you might be surprised by how opulent the story is. Sea freight in the Philippines, too, is a part of the country’s rich history.

Pre-Hispanic Era

The earliest form of trade was through barter. The early Filipinos exchanged goods or services without the use of money which caused some inefficiencies. As detailed by Choose Philippines, the system’s heavy reliance on the discretion of the two parties led to its demise. It was then replaced by gold. Well before the Spaniards colonized the Philippines, gold was the early form of currency. Barter rings and gold coins or Piloncitos were recognized as the first coinage of the country.

Image Source: bit.ly/2bx7CHb

Acquisition of products came from neighboring countries such as China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Siam and India through the Port of Cebu (Pantalan Of Sugbo). This was as one of the earliest forms of sea freight in the Philippines. Cebu (which was then called Zubu), was already considered as a “bustling trading center” which was vital for its economic growth. This led to Cebu being dubbed as the “Queen City of the South”.

From other parts of the Philippines, the Port of Manila (Seludong or Sleurung) was also an important form of sea freight in Philippine for it was a part of Ancient Tondo. Tundu (as Tondo, Manila was called during that time) was a thriving Indianized kingdom in the 9th Century. Diplomatic ties with China during the Ming Dynasty were also prominent and the city had a strong alliance with Brunei. Tondo back then was a prosperous city.

Image Source: oocities.org

Spanish Era

When the Spaniards colonized the Philippines, the trading industry in the Philippines flourished which initiated the Galleon trade (Kalakalang Galyon ng Maynila at Acapulco). This made the Philippines known as a trade center for oriental goods. Trades from Acapulco and Mexico to Manila transpired. The form of currency then were through “cobs”, “macuquinas”, “pillar dollars” and “counter stamped coins.” These were in silver.

In the 18th century, because of the Ayuntamiento of Manila, it was declared that barillas (crude bronze or copper coin worth about a centavo) should be used due to shortage of coins. In 1852, peso fuertes, were issued, making it the first banknote of the Philippines.

The discovery of the route from Acapulco-Manila Galleon trading was a pivotal event that ignited modern and Liberal ideas. According to Philippine-History, Basco’s Reforms enabled a self-sustaining trading system that helped the economic growth of the Philippines.

Image Source: coolbuster.net

Image Source: http://bit.ly/2bNBLEe

Image Source: bworldonline.com

Screenshot from youtube.com

The Aftermath

A lot has changed ever since the Colonial period. The Philippine currency experienced several tweaks. Coins turned into paper bills and paper bills changed its size and color. Trading is much more than a simple ‘exchange of goods’. Gone are the days when you would barter your fish with chicken. Sea freight since then opened the doors to the Philippines’ globalization!

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Logistics Services getting Richer by the Minute

If your functional image of logistics services in the Philippines is two guys inside a moving truck on the North Luzon Expressway, one of them driving while the other rakes in much-needed sleep, rushing at 90KPH and, to you, it seems like “just another day on the road”, well, there’s a big secret that you just don’t get at the mean time.

They could be the people making a lot of online businesses richer by the minute.

And why not! In the US, the trend of E-Commerce sales has continually grown since 2014 and can only get bigger in the years to come. This is spelling a lot of opportunity for people with big ideas but only have internet connection. Although not all endeavors in the internet industry involves trucking and delivering specific goods (like mobile applications, games, and various internet-based services), it is still amazing how much people will pay just to get something that they can’t get their hands on where they are.

Take eBay. A lot of users have made a living from using the platform to initially establish their business and this involves selling “junk” that they have to people who want them elsewhere. Since 1995, this has been the business machinery that, today, makes eBay earn as much as 19M daily.

You may be asking “what does have to do with logistics?”

Well, almost everything apparently, and logistics being the heart of the business of eBay is especially true for the infamous and well-trusted Lazada. Especially for Lazada PH, a lot of users find that not only does the retailer offer a lot of items for up to 70% off on their retail price but they also deliver on time, some of them receiving their packages just after a day or two! Sure, there are some issues with scams and fake products, but all those are from fakers who use wrongly spelled varieties of Lazada’s URL.

To prove how important logistics is, let’s take Lazada again. It has seen it’s worse performance just halfway through 2016 in the guise of, and you guessed it, and inefficient logistics partner. According to a LinkedIn user Apple Allison’s very detailed experience, she had a very good experience with the brand’s “Effortless Shopping”, as catch phrased by Lazada themselves. She however struggled so much with how long one of their orders came and how difficult it was to get the logisticians to cooperate. The well-known logistic service provider in the Philippines event went so far as to suggest they just go ahead and pick up their product from the warehouse.

As much as trying to do business online is concerned, when selling actual items that you’re supposed to ship, reliability is what must define the logistic service in the Philippines that will deliver your cupcakes, hardware, handicrafts, or whatever that is that’s going to be the next thing that breaks the internet market.

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Brief Timeline History: Sea freight Forwarding

The world was surrounded with a huge amount of bodies of water. Before the invention of technologies, people was not able to go through neighboring countries without being stopped by the unstoppable bodies of water that could swallow them up but for some reasons people was still able to advance on their natives ways and resulted to innovations that changes how living works.

Innovations that conquered the world little by little extending to the birth of business. As for business concerns, people had come grown to developing new technologies each day. They’ve developed such inventiveness that even transporting good through the sea is made possible. Created wonderful watercraft ready to carry large sum of loads. And given way to make freight forwarding a reliable way of delivering goods.

Sea transport, people’s way of carrying goods from one place to another by means of a vessel. Upon the idea of the sea transport, ship transport has been the familiar name, this transport could either be by a boat, ship, sailboat or barge to any distance may it be through oceans, lakes, canals, and along rivers. In simplest terms, it is any material that could be moved through the sea.

Shipping containers have been around for quite some time but when you go 60 years back, such machinery has not been possible and this luxury of having goods transported through the sea was just a dream of the visionary.

I think it’s about time that we delve into the goodness and greatness of the before and rise of shipping containers. On what was the means before such has been invented and how it finally came to be.

Before the rise of Shipping Containers

It was of known facts that people has been able to transport not just themselves but food and other goods as well just ask the Egyptians, Greeks, Roman and more recently the British. Though they may be able to ship goods themselves, it was clearly not under any standards resulting to slow and ineffective process.

Break bulk cargo has been the popular choice at that time where they store the goods in a warehouse and load them by hand onto the ship once it is ready for transport. And the ships could only carry 200,000 pieces of cargo.

It was until early 1900’s that the issue of lack of standardization has been greatly seen which slowed the flow of business for quite some time. This method has been so slow that transferring cargo from ships to train became a cry for help. For centuries, this method was the only way to transport goods. Imagine how tiring and slow it must have been.

The name Malcolm Mclean

Malcolm Mclean born on 14th November, 1913, an American businessman. On 1935, he co-founded Mclean Trucking Co. together with his sister Clara Mclean and his brother Jim Mclean. The trucking services included delivery of empty tobacco barrels.

In 1950, a successful Mclean with 1750 trucks and 37 transport terminal has experienced dilemmas in his business. Then came the fining of overloading cargoes. From then on, it hit him, an idea that spark into a vision that could change transporting goods for ages.

He idealized of constructing a standard sized trailer and then be loaded to boats exceeding the loading capacity of the trucks he once used. From such brilliant idea, he abandoned most of his trucks and focused on transporting goods through the sea.

From then on his trucks has been the way of transporting goods in short, intrastate deliveries. Hence being able to diminish levying fees which were introduced in the time.

Birth of Intermodalism

On the 26th of April 1956, Ideal X has sailed the seas from New Jersey to Houston. Due to having features of lockable containers and offers 25% discount on cargo transport that greatly affect how goods should be transported.

It was since 1960 when intermodal shipping container has been the favorable choice of sea freight. It was solely base in these two (2) reasons:

One was due to the vision of Mclean that helped eliminate dockside break bulk unloading bottlenecks.

Another was the introduction of standardization of container sizes giving way to mass production of container-handling equipment and a large sum of investment on ships.

From then more innovation has been made possible. The biggest container ship that ever sailed the seas was constructed for Maersk (Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller) which can hold up to 18,270 TEUs (9,135 boxes).

Advantages of Shipping Container

Containers have been so much help it could give you these advantages than inland transport: standardization, flexibility, costs, velocity, warehousing, security, and safety.

From such innovation, business expansion was made possible and reaching offshore deliveries is now easy breezy. Being able to widen your reach could mean to more potential customer could see the business leading to more opportunities and success.

Brief timeline history: Sea freight forwarding was brought to you by Metro Combined, the leading land, sea, and air freight forwarder here in the Philippines.

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Traffic Congestion: A Threat to Economic Growth

Everyone who has been on the streets of Manila will surely understand the struggles one must need to go through in order to get to a destination. Looking around your immediate location will make you understand that this issue is not just a result of poor urban planning or lack of discipline; many other matters also make every day traveling feel like a torture. This is not just a problem for commuters and motorists, but also a hazard in the economic growth of the Philippines.

The condition of the public roadways in the Philippines has been a constant threat to businesses in providing quality services. This is not just limited to freight forwarding businesses, delivery services, and couriers. To start off, setting deadlines with the clients can end up in conflict if the traffic congestion isn’t put into consideration. Every minute that is lost while stuck in traffic can also mean added production cost in form of gasoline. The extended hours on the road also means extended hours exposed to possible accidents on the road. These are the reason why it is necessary to plan ahead and consider the threats that may occur while on the road to avoid additional expenses. 

So how is the traffic congestion hurting us as a nation? To put it simply, the traffic congestion is hindering even the littlest of the citizens in fulfilling their occupational obligations. It is both physical and mentally straining which may also hurt their individual affect work performance. Collectively, that could hurt us as an economy. This could mean a decline in the business performance and may discourage foreign investors. Without these Investors, there won’t be enough jobs to provide to the continuously growing population of the country. 

If you will try to identify the main cause of the traffic in the Philippines, you will realize that I will take enormous efforts to resolve it. The government hasn’t been lying down either in trying to address the issue of traffic congestion in the country. They are constantly searching for solutions that will make it bearable for everyone to travel and to enforce order. These are: 

Number coding scheme

Image Source: abs-cbn

The Unified vehicular Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP) or Number Coding is a traffic decongestion scheme which bans private and public utility vehicles from plying the roads on weekday peak-hours. For more information about this, visit MMDA – Things you need to know about the number coding scheme

Truck ban ordinance on main roads

Cargo trucks mostly used in a trucking services are motorized vehicles intended to carry cargos having a gross capacity weight of more than 4, 500 kilos. Refer to MMDA – Truck ban ordinance for further information.

Bus segregation scheme

Image Source: manila.coconut.co

Bus segregation scheme tends to limit the location the buses can stop to load and unload passengers. Visit Rappler - INFOGRAPHIC: How to find the right bus on EDSA for a visualize simplification.

Road widening projects

Road widening projects have taken effect to accommodate more vehicles on the road. This was under Republic act no. 917, for a broad explanation of this law just visit Official Gazette – Republic Act No. 917.

The traffic congestion in the country is a problem that is hurting us as a nation and needs to get addressed to keep us moving forward. It is not just an issue that freight forwarders or delivery services should learn to adapt to. With these numerous schemes being implemented and only minimal observable improvement, maybe it's time we start addressing the issue from a different point of view. Market localization and decentralization, anyone?

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Brief Timeline History: Warehousing

Today’s youth have been lacking time to look back on our rich history. Why won’t we begin with a timeline of the history of warehousing. Warehouse services are quite an essential when starting in an industry where you supply stocks and goods. Did you know that warehousing started in Ostia, Rome. Warehouses are mostly commercial buildings that acts as storage for goods. Warehouses are valued most by importers or exporters, manufacturers, etc. who needs a large area for storing huge amount of product inventory. By history, they mostly have built-in areas for the unloading and loading of goods and one of the busiest areas of the business. 

Early Rome

Ruined Warehouses in Ostia, Rome.
Image source: Wikipedia

Some of the documents found stated that the warehousing industry started in a large neighborhood called Ostia. Way way back in the fifth century, major shipping ports has a nearby warehouse for easy storage and forwarding large amount of goods. On those times, European explorers have created a route designated for such occasions made it possible for easier storage and movements of goods. 

Though at that time warehousing are still primitive and yet to be improved, this shows effective storage for it could provide secured storage and distribution of inventory.

The Industrial Revolution

Watts Warehouse in Manchester
Image Source: Wikipedia

This was on the 18th and 19th centuries, were people took on progression as an essential tool in development. They’ve started making machineries that could make forwarding a lot faster than what was present on that day and made warehouses, a business necessity. Through this, supply chain, a sequence of process responsible for the production and distribution of a commodity, has been a good source of income and made way for the business to start booming. 

Industrial revolution was more noted in the north western England of Manchester where they took warehouse designing more lavishly decorated. All the five types of developed warehouse was mostly seen on Manchester. 

At those times, most products needs time maturation in order to be sellable and this made warehouses more popular than they already were.

Twentieth Century Progression

Twentieth Railway
Image source: Dominion

The twentieth century gave way for the construction of rail warehouses wherein travelling through neighboring countries or state could be easily done. This popularized in North America’s extensive railway channels. Through such innovations, doing business with countries nearby has been possible and made faster and easy. 

With this transportation, new warehouses were built on ideal locations known to have good commerce and become a center for business.

Mid Twentieth Century

This has been the era of modern warehouses wherein they have been dependable on heavy machineries such as cranes and forklift used in moving large amount of goods in a short period of time and made way to mass production of goods. From this huge demand for warehouses, new warehouses were being built from time to time. To this day, they have been an essential to the ever growing supply chain of goods and products. 

Upon seeing the progress of warehouse services shows signs of growth in the business industry. From the start of warehouse establishment at ancient Rome to the modernized supply chain of the twentieth century have clearly evolve the industry’s look of business world. 

Upon the opening of new opportunities for warehouse services, choosing for the right warehouse services could be a tough decision. But through research and article reading, one can make the right choices for the business growth.

This warehousing history was brought to you by Metro Combined.

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Cargo Vessels Used in Freight Forwarding: Tanker

From my previous article about ‘Cargo Vessels Used in Freight Forwarding: Dry Cargo Vessel’, here is the continuation of the cargo vessels used in forwarding.

In the early ages, transporting goods to neighboring states or countries can only be done through the sea with a trusted shipping company in the Philippines by your side unless the area is connected with enough landmass to walk or pass by on without hassle. To make trades with another country, one must convey sea freight forwarding through ships or vessels yet could not afford to transport in bulks. But as the years passed by, magnificent innovation have ruled the world. Being a freight forwarder  in the Philippines will not be a hassle anymore. The society now has modernized means of transportation resulting to secured and delivered goods.

In a sea freight business, most of the products to be delivered are heavy duty, some are liquefied and most of the time temperature-conscious. One must consider the needs of the products to be delivered to result to effective forwarding.

A liquid vessel or mostly known as the tanker (or tank ship or tankship) is a merchant vessel designed to transport liquid gasses in bulk. These vessels range its size capacity to several hundred tons depending upon the amount of freight to be delivered. Major types of tankship where oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and gas carrier. Fun fact about tankers, any type of tanker used to refuel other ships is called an oiler.

Oil Tanker

An oil tanker or petroleum tanker was built for bulk transport of oil. There are two basic types of oil tankers:

Crude Tankers	Oil Tankers
- Are tankers that weigh large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries.	- Are tankers responsible for moving refined product from refineries to points near consuming markets and much smaller than crude tankers.
- These tankers have difficulty in docking due to their supersize so instead, it was unloaded at offshore pumping stations/ terminals.	- These tankers carry petroleum, diesel, asphalt, jet fuel, tar and lubricating oil. They also carry petroleum bulk products such as palm oil.

These tankers classification varies from their size as well as their occupation. Their size ranges from inland or coastal tankers of a few thousand metric tons of deadweight (DWT) to the mammoth ultra-large crude carriers(ULCCs) of 550,000 DWT.

Source: Wikipedia

The Zoroaster tanker is the world’s first tanker named after the Persian prophet Zarathustra. It was operated on 1878 and built with steel (Bessemer variance) while its oil holds were built with iron.

Chemical Tanker

A chemical tanker is a tanker ship solely built to forward industrial chemicals and clean petroleum products in bulk, these ships also carry other types of sensitive cargo that requires heavy cleaning of tanks, these are palm oil, vegetable oils, tallow, caustic soda, and methanol.

These tankers have identifying specialize coatings to determine the type of cargo the tank is carrying, such as aggressive acid cargoes: sulfuric and phosphoric acid and easier cargoes such as vegetable oil could be carried in epoxy coated tanks. Through its coatings, determining the level of cleaning should be taken effect from the coatings of the vessels. The coatings have such huge influence in this type of tanker.

Gas Carriers

Gas carrier or gas tanker is designed to forward liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), liquefied natural gas (LNG) or liquefied chemical gasses in bulk. It has a design feature of having spherical tanks for cargoes with strict temperature which is under high pressure and often at low temperatures. These carriers require specialist terminals and handling equipment in loading and unloading of the freight.

Source: Wikipedia

LGNs are usually larger than LPGs, Q-Max being the largest type of liquefied gas vessel. Q-Max name was a combination of names, ‘Q’ being Qatar and max as the maximum size of ship able to dock at the LNG terminals in Qatar. It size measures to 345 m (1,132 ft) being the length, beam sizing to 53.8 m (177 ft) and height of 34.7 m (114 ft) with an LNG capacity of 266,000 cubic meters (9,400,000 cu ft), equal to 161,994,000 cubic meters (5.7208×109 cu ft) of natural gas. Making Q-Max as the largest LNG carriers in the world.

This article is brought to you by Metro Combined, the leading land, air, and sea freight forwarder in the Philippines founded since 1997.

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