Freight forwarding companies: offering more services is the only way to go

Members of the supply chain expect logistic service providers to keep developing and offering new services. Bálint Varga, the head of Gebrüder Weiss Transport and Logistics Kft.’s sales and marketing division told our magazine that demand for export is on the rise and medium-sized companies are opening to international markets with their pro.line and direct.line services. Hungary is an important regional hub for many multinational logistic companies. The warehousing market is coming to life at the moment, but in the Budapest region there is still so much free capacity that this trend doesn’t really manifest in prices. On the contrary, there is a lack of proper warehouses in other regions. Demand is growing for B2C tasks and service providers need to offer ready-made solutions.

Gebrüder Weiss’ experience is that the introduction of the Electronic Public Road Trade Control System (EKÁER) early last year didn’t result in any significant change in transport organisation. The company’s recently introduced pro.line home product is basically a B2C service: as collective transporters they deliver products bigger than 31.5kg to the homes of private individuals too. This can be very useful when someone buys something online: consumers place the order from their home but don’t have a car to collect the large item purchased. Gebrüder Weiss now offers this service to customers via online shops too. It is very important to note, though, that Gebrüder Weiss isn’t directly commissioned with the job by the person who makes the purchase, but by the company from which the private individual ordered the product, e.g. mall.cz or mall.hu. At the end of last year the company switched to a new CRM system and this year they are going to start using new customer complaint management software.

Besides the big multinational players, there are still many small and medium-sized logistic service providers in the Hungarian market. Raben Trans European Hungary Kft. is of the opinion that spending on logistics stagnated in the last few years, but the last 1-2 years brought a little increase in the number of jobs for logistic companies – told managing director Csaba Árvai. In his view the introduction of the E-road toll and the EKÁER system drove many companies out of the Hungarian market. The rapid development of e-commerce is a new trend that Raben Trans Europe Hungary Kft. tries to serve, building logistic chains from the suppliers to the consumers. The company has great experience and knowledge in managing ADR transports and they are also ready to work with products that need special treatment in their own tax warehouse, e.g. alcoholic or tobacco products of great value. They have a special team that does repackaging, labelling and tax registration. Raben Hungary also feels that there is a growing need for professional customer services.

Thanks to an ever-bigger goods turnover, the company starts daily transports to several regions of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and the Baltic states. Partners want the company to serve them not only in Dunaharaszti, Győr and Debrecen but also in other Hungarian cities. Plans also include modernising and expanding their Dunaharaszti facilities. According to Zsolt Csiszár, sales director of FM Logistic Hungary Kft., the freight forwarding market is characterised by strong competition, price reduction resulting from lower motor fuel prices and partners wanting logistic companies charging them less for transports. FM Logistic Hungary keeps monitoring changes in the market and in legislation, so that they can react to them swiftly, for instance it is enough to mention the current situation, when after a one-year period shops can once again be open on Sundays. The company has also developed various EKÁER administration solutions for partners – the system means extra work and extra cost for both service providers and partners.

FM Logistic is the logistic partner of several food industry companies, from Europe to Asia to Brazil. The company’s business strategy focuses on warehousing, domestic and international freight forwarding and co-packing services. They offer complex, personalised solutions to ensure the optimisation of the supply chain. FM Logistic places great emphasis on innovation and sustainability. They also have a new-generation website, www.fmlogistic.com, which can be accessed on all types of IT devices.