TRANSPORT BUSINESS STILL IN DECLINE

Our business is getting like the car industry. It doesn’t matter what the deal, freight volumes are still on the decline. I think many companies have barely scratched the surface in attacking their now bloated workforce. At the top, FedEx and especially that backward thinking and backward acting competitor, UPS. Every time I see a gas guzzling “big brown” I wonder how many gallons of fuel it is costing to deliver one package. With the largest fleet of vehicles in the world, this company has the opportunity to start acting green staring with parking up half its fleet of the ugliest gas guzzling vehicles in the world, and downsize the company to meet where the new economy which is emerging. FedEx is light years ahead of you in how they are tackling today’s market conditions and in my opinion they still have huge room for improvement.

There will be many large forwarders who will eventually downsize to the level of a mid-sized forwarder before we see some settling down of freight volumes. DHL is the company in the biggest spot of bother. My thoughts are they should get back to the business they were originally in, international courier with a little re-mail. Their acquisitions of A.E.I., Danzas, Airborne and M.S.A.S (Exel) cost a bundle which only a uncontrolled government department, in this case Deutsche Poste, could blow without any conscience. If that mob were to disappear, some balance may be brought back into the industry.

As for the smaller “guys”, my hope is their resilience will manifest itself in such a way the average “bloke” will come out even stronger. I also believe larger indigenous forwarders who work through overseas agency networks are poised to become stronger as the economy begins to settle. I say this because nationalism will play a huge role within our industry. Whether we like it or not, protectionism will replace globalization and like the rest of the world, America and one or two other remaining proponents of globalization will be singing their hymns in an empty church, if they don’t change their thinking.

Tags: CII, DHL, Export, FedEX, UPS