Background: Spiritfly International Transportation Co., Ltd (abbr. SPF) integrates international road, ocean and air freight forwarding, express, warehouse consultancy as well as 3PL services. Mr. Yao Zhixiang, who began his career with handling air freight, is the general manager and founder of SPF. He is much experienced in air freight forwarding. With the leadership of Mr. Yao, the business scope of SPF is expanding day by day.
Q: Mr. Yao, could you briefly introduce to me the competitively-advantaged business of your company, air freight, and the reason for your advantage?
A: Well, I started my career as an air freight operator. Now, we have a very good price on North American line in Shanghai market, for we have been in cooperation with American Airlines and Continental Airlines for a long period of time. We are one of the core agents for American Airlines in Shanghai.
Q: How about shipping and express businesses?
A: Our sea freight forwarding business concentrates on Russia now. We have been working on this line for 3 years, and gained much handling experience. Our price for FCL is pretty low, in that a reliable Russia agent gives us great support with low price for large box volumes. Our express business is developed with the overseas distribution network of other air freight companies in Shanghai.
Q: I know some air freight companies mainly operate import goods, how about your company?
A: Now, we do both imported and exported air freight. We have a stable cooperation with an importing warehouse. Cargo is mainly FOB goods sent to Shanghai from Southeast Asian agents.
Q: As we all know, job-hopping is a common scene in shipping industry. How do you think about and cope with this?
A: Yes, it's really too frequent. Now it has become one characteristic of this industry. It will harm the company in losing loyal customers. The coping strategy of our company is to explore overseas FOB market, so that we won't rely too much on CIF cargo brought by sales.
Q:Which countries is your main overseas market?
A: Mainly Europe, America and South America, and other regions.
Q: Have you stable partners in all these regions?
A: With one or two for each region. But the scale of their companies is small. And all the cargo is sent from us. We need more overseas agents. That is also why I choose the platform of jctrans.net.
Q: How would you comment generally on logistics industry?
A: It is generally dry, full of pressure and risks.
Q: But more risks, more profits. Is this what you mean?
A: Several years ago, this is right. But now, it doesn't fit. There are too many people working in this industry. Everyone has an easy access, for it doesn't require too much advanced technique. With one company clones another one, the only result will be the lowering of profits but not the risks.
Q: What are your experiences in risk control? How do you avoid risks?
A: Generally, we judge the credibility of a client by experience. Before cooperation with a new customer, we need to get detailed information about the company. For some customers, we will only cooperate after they have paid the freight. Because exported goods are low priced and verification sheet for document of customs clearance can be bought easily, these documents won't be binding for payment of freight. Besides, we ask our customers to sign contract with us, and provide a copy of the accredited paper. Comparatively speaking, factories, as an entity, are better famed than export and import companies, for their tangible assets.
Q: How about cooperation with overseas agents? What would be the risks?
A: It's harder to judge an overseas agent. Normally, we will refer to the company's scale, years of establishment, operating business, the country of the company and other factors.
Q: What do you think is the major difference between being sales and the manager?
A: I have to think in different perspectives. Before, as sales, I mainly cared about finding a client, and how to maintain the relationship. Now I have to work out the strategy for the company and manage all the staff. I am always on the run, and cannot stop.
Q: I believe your company will be better and better. I also hope you can fully utilize our platform and strike more deals.
A: Thank you! I hope that we will have closer cooperation with your website, and increase our international influence and broaden our global network.
Editor: Sunam Kim
|
