Today’s global economics has seen to a continuous change in the sea freight transportation industry. But it is not the only major actor in this subsector. Changes in government policies, economics and the dynamics of customer demands on logistics managers has succeeded in creating newer challenges for Australian logistics managers as they do for those around the rest of the world.
Understanding this and what these challenges are can help in advancing towards more efficient and effective ways. This is important especially as logistics is at the heart of fostering smooth trading. For the average person looking to ship to Australia, it can be insightful. This article will also show you how they are able to combat each challenge resulting in successful Australian shipping for you.
Government and Environmental Regulations
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority are charged with implementing government environmental regulations with a deep eye to shipping. Part of the goals is to improve on the country’s air quality. However, these regulations can be a challenge to logistics managers who are affected by the severity of the compliance regulations imposed on carriers. Some of these environmental regulations are the anti-idling and the emission reduction regulations championed by government.
However, there is the concern that these compliance costs might significantly exceed their benefits for the managers and other actors involved. What they do instead is try and stay on top of the changes and determine the implications of every new one in order to adopt measures to mitigate the negative ones. Therefore, if you are looking to make an ausmove, it is important to go into detailed research as things change fast in the sector. The best place to start is Ausmove NZ as they provide you with the freshest information to stay on top of your Australia freighting needs.
Peak season congestion
Certain periods of the year like Christmas sees to a significant increase in sea freight. With sea freight managers working on a stretch, the implications are congestion. Capacity and space unavailability problems coupled with the usual slow custom clearance tradition results in delays and increase the inefficiency of tracking systems.
Logically, the solution for this, if you are hoping for your shipment to arrive as scheduled in Australia, is to opt for the air freight solution. But these are already expensive in themselves and a peak season in sea freight sets off further increase in this subsector. In this case, the solution lies most with you than the managers. What is recommended is to find out what these peak periods are and plan ahead of them.
Fluctuating prices
Changing oil prices, the Bunker Adjustment Factor, General Rate Increase, Peak Season Surcharge, Port Congestion Charges, and so on. These are some of the economic factors in the form of changeable elements which conspire to make for unstable prices to the Australian freight managers.
Regardless of the fact that these prices are highly unstable, the managers are still required to factor all of them in effectively as they all hold significance in other roles such as determining the prices of the items freighted and your profit margins.
However, there are a couple of solutions available here such as signing a contact with your freight forwarder or shipping line. This way you have better and stronger price certainty. You can also implement a buffer in your forecasting to cushion you in the event of any freight cost increase.
Customer Service
Like every other kind of service, freight logistics has to provide a customer service because customers require complete transparency all through the delivery of their shipment. What customers expect as customer service has also affected their willingness to pay for faster shipping thereby making the work of the freight managers more difficult.
Risk management
The more the changes in the factors that affect shipping the greater the risks involved. However, there is bound to be these changes owing to product launches, intellectual property and its protection, and so on.
The Australian freight managers, like their counterparts, have to constantly engage the results of these changes through constant assessments in order to stay on top of them.
End to end management
There are lots of agents involved in shipment and delivery. Therefore, the job of the freight manager doesn’t end at the dock. Instead, they have to coordinate with the other agents like those in charge of th surface transportation which will see the shipment to the end customer. This factor makes it more important to find q freight forwarder who will keep track of your shipment and predict all the unstable factors that may arise.
Conclusion
These challenges are capable of jeopardizing your move to Australia and even when the shipment arrives the dock, it is possible to still experience delays. The best solution is to hire a professional freight forwarder in Australia with experienced freight managers to ensure for timely delivery.