BENELUX\\\ Think local, act multimodal


‘Think global, act local’ is one of those phrases that businesses oſten like to use, but IJS Global has arguably done more to make that a reality than most others – certainly in the


forwarding and logistics


sector. The company set up its


global headquarters at Schiphol in February 2012, it has also created five offices in each of the Netherlands main geographic


Frontieres charity. Amsterdam, naturally, is the main air export gateway and Rotterdam the principal seafreight centre. But IJS does favour Maastricht for inbound airfreight, trucked in from other European hubs. It can receive freight 24 hours a day and security for high value imports from Asia tends to be better. “I wouldn’t say security is a big issue anywhere in the Netherlands, but


“Training people to handle all the different modes is more difficult, but I think it’s important” - Koopman


regions. “Each office is multimodal but services its specific region,” explains Netherlands country director, Edwin Koopman. “We’ve trained all the staff up, so that they’re conversant with all modes, and we don’t have separate divisions for, say, airfreight, seafreight or logistics.” The five regional offices are


the main cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, naturally, plus Maastricht in the south, Oldenzaal in the east and Heerenveen in the north. The facilities vary in size - 5,500sq m in Amsterdam and 2,500sq m each in Oldenzaal and Maastricht, but they all carry out the same cross-docking and logistics functions. Some, like Amsterdam, also have specialised facilities like temperature controlled storage – IJS does a lot of picking, packing and freight for the Medecins sans


IJS handles a lot of life-saving medicines


 2.2 million TEUs  13.1 million tons roro cargoes  1.7 million new cars  1 million RHU's  20 daily roro and lolo connections to all major European destinations  excellent distribution opportunities


www.portofzeebrugge.be freight business journal_benelux july_2012.indd 1 3/05/2012 10:42:26


Maastricht is markedly superior,” says Koopman. There are actually few long haul direct flights into Maastricht but the airport remains an important air trucking hub. People from outside the


Netherlands tend not to think of such a small country as having distinct regions, but they are a reality, insists Edwin Koopman. “It’s a cultural thing. We want to combine having a global system with short lines of communication with our customers, to know our customers – and this helps us to achieve that.” It’s not just a matter of local pride - in fact, some of the local dialects can be hard for other people in the Netherlands to understand. More importantly, perhaps, it also means that customers in each region have one point of contact, and don’t have to ring different departments for


seafreight or airfreight, for example. Maybe this will be the model in


future for all freight forwarding and logistics firms. “Yes, training people to handle all the different modes is more difficult – it’s rather like training a car worker to build the entire car, not just a part of it – but I think it’s important,” Koopman declares. Surprisingly, despite the


Netherlands’ pre-eminence in freight and logistics in Europe, IJS is one of only a very small handful of genuine multinational logistics firms have chosen the country for their corporate base (Ceva being another). IJS’s business in the Netherlands


is holding up reasonably well, but the country is by no means isolated from the global economic situation, Koopman continues. “The Netherlands economy is so open that, if the world outside changes, there is an immediate effect, and our customers are doing less business than they were, overall. Anything that affects trade hits our economy too – and while the Government here says it wants to create more exports, it’s a fact of life that we are primarily and always will be a transit country.” But there’s not much a forwarder


can do about the Greek economy or the Euro or Italian manufacturing performance - other than continuing its unceasing sales efforts and continuing to push its advantages. IJS is also ensuring that is best placed to meet any future challenges by putting its internal costs under the microscope but also pushing ahead with TAPA and AEO certification. It has gained TAPA-A for Amsterdam and AEO for the whole of the Netherlands. The company has also taken delivery of a security scanner for Amsterdam. “It’s a huge investment,” says Koopman, “but we are thinking ahead to changes


in airfreight security regulations in 2013 which will make having your own scanner a great advantage.” AEO is a difficult issue in the


Netherlands, as elsewhere in the world. Many forwarders are now certified, but


it will be a much


harder task to get the shippers and consignees involved, as the Government insists must happen. The Government has said that it intends to enforce checks on known shipper status, but clearly doesn’t currently have the resources to do so.


Still, Koopman isn’t complaining


about the Netherlands government’s trade facilitation efforts in general. In what other country would a forwarder have a relationship manager with which to discuss any issues? And with logistics identified by the last government as one of the ten key sectors – a policy that is very unlikely to change even with the new administration elected a few weeks ago – the forwarders can expect that level of commitment to continue into the future.


Issue 4 2012


Dutch flag carrier wins top Cargo 2000 award


KLM Cargo has been awarded Platinum status under the IATA Cargo 2000 Quality initiative, It acknowledges KLM’s leading


role in applying the ‘C2K’ quality philosophy and standards throughout its operations and is only awarded to very few of the 80 members of Cargo 2000 - although its partner Air France Cargo has obtained gold status and has started a program to upgrade towards platinum level. Martinair Cargo has recently joined Cargo 2000 and has already received silver status, very soon aſter joining. Mattijs ten Brink, SVP sales &


distribution for AF-KL Cargo and Martinair Cargo, said: “With Cargo 2000 we aim to achieve the implementation of a transparent quality management system throughout the global air cargo industry - a uniform way to measure and communicate if shipments are delivered as promised to customers.


23


With Cargo 2000 members representing 80% of the worldwide international airwaybills, we have a need and a responsibility to lead by example.” Pierre-Olivier Bandet, senior


vice-president for marketing, revenue management and network for AF-KL Cargo and Martinair Cargo adds: “Throughout our group we have launched further quality improvement initiatives, for the three airlines and across all departments involved, from booking, to revenue management, to freight handling and repair. We obviously extend our dialogue to customers and our handling partners, in order to improve quality throughout the entire supply chain. Our recently launched tracking App is a good example of this. It shows how we provide full transparency conform the cargo 2000 milestones.”


ZEEBRUGGE A NETWORK FOR EUROPE


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