1st Interactive Session: Marco Sorgetti

Summary of the presentation prepared by Clecat

Clecat's presentation contains:

• Clecat & Fiata essential information

• Fiata and Clecat respective roles

• Expectations of the Freight Forwarding sector

• Fiata and Clecat answers to IRU demands

• Conclusions

CLECAT, TH E INDUSTRY IN EUROPE

Clecat is a Belgian non profit association, founded in Brussels in 1958; it is formed by 25

national federations of freight forwarders, logistics, transport and Customs service providers. All kinds of companies are members of the national federations: multinationals, SME's and family businesses. Members are present in all corners of the enlarged EU and beyond, totalling over 19000 companies and employing in excess of 1 million FTE's.

Clecat is the permanent representation of Fiata in Brussels. CLECAT's mission is to deal with the EU legislation in progress, defending its members' interests and promoting their ideas.

FIATA'S REPRESSENTING INDUSTRY WORLDWIDE

FIATA was founded in Vienna/Austria on May 31, 1926 by 16 founding Members. Its registered office is now in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest organisation of its kind worldwide.

FIATA has consultative status with ECOSOC, UNCTAD, UNCITRAL and UN/ESCAP and cooperates with a number of other international NGO's 

FIATA has 95 National Association members in 86 different countries and over 4600 Individual Members in 150 different countries.

Fiata is the universal voice of freight forwarders and consequently one of the most important organisations in logistics worldwide.

A relevant part of Fiata's activity has to do with the promotion and administration of the Fiata documents, a world standard for multimodal transport and related activities. Most important is the FBL, a reference document that has gained international recognition and reputation.

Coming to the investigation that Clecat was asked to make, here are some indications:

Has demand grown for road transport-based logistics in quantity or quality?

An increase both in quantity and quality has been observed, with the following suggested trends:

- Quantity: impact of EU Enlargement

• Foreign exchange volumes (+300% figure), source: CZ

• For road transport volumes (30% - 40%), source: D

- Quality

• From an administrative perspective, elimination of waiting time at borders has increased performance;

• Shippers are being more and more demanding, in particular as regards delivery time;

Quality could be improved significantly if the following two conditions were fulfilled: better and more adequate infrastructure (which is connected with the congestion problem) and better co-operation, with shippers on one side and carriers on the other.

Hauliers' and road transport logistics providers' ability to meet customers' changing requirements

Requirements were generally met if we think of quantities, as for quality of services, less successfully.

Some examples were provided by Clecat Members:

• 45% is in the hands of service providers

• Transport, transhipment and storage counts for 65% of volumes

• share of the GNP is 7,4%, which makes it one of the most important German industries.

Is the quest for quality prevailing on the quest for low rates, or the contrary?

Freight rates may impact on the overall cost of the final product, but logistic costs are often overestimated. However, Freight forwarders' services challenge consists in delivering the highest quality at the lowest price. Shippers should understand that both elements are interlinked and cannot be divided. A real partnership between Freight Forwarders and carriers may offer a competitive solution, through a tighter concentration on the core business.

Is there a real demand for value-added complex services?

Still a rather limited percentage, there is a real demand, usually coming from big shippers. It is growing and may entail a series of consequences, separately or in combination:

• carriers may wish to offer a wider range of services

• haulage-only service providers may need alliances

• Freight Forwarders & Carriers may work at common projects in partnership

• New MS's carriers may wish to brush up their services, to meet more demanding standards required by the clients

In the wrap-up Clecat sees the following options and observations:

• Fiata & Clecat represent the full range of services, have numbers, influence and solid tradition

• Fiata & Clecat are in active dialogue with all institutions, EU and worldwide

• Fiata & Clecat are ideal brokers of information in all Trade Facilitation issues

• Fiata & Clecat Members can be

• ideal "facilitators" and

• partners

for carriers and shippers alike.

See the Powerpoint presentation