An ironic, tongue-in-cheek blog by Nigel Tomkins
HELLO… Reptile Ron here. It is 1987 and I’m chief executive of Abacus, the airfreight company you can count on.
I make my living by organising easy access to air cargo services for my customers, many of whom I met in my local pub. It is a fully digitalised business because I can add up all the relevant numbers on the fingers of my hands.
My customers work for companies that make and sell products to overseas buyers. Their commodities can include calculators, Barbie dolls, toys, fashion items, handbags etc – and they also regularly export a range of food and pharmaceuticals perishables all around the world.
That’s where I come in. I help them by creating economies of scale. By consolidating their shipments with those of other customers I get better air cargo prices than they can if they deal directly with an airline. These airlines even give me credit facilities, free lunches and holiday air tickets. Abacus is a non-asset-based business.
It is called freight forwarding … all done on the ‘phone or on that new-fangled thing called a fax. Data sharing is provided by a voice-to-voice telephone conversation, often loaded with shouts, threats and promises.
It gets better. I have discovered that I can co-load with other, longer-established freight forwarders and benefit from their deeper agreements with airlines. Using this method, I can make money without ever coming into contact with the actual freight involved and I don’t have to take responsibility for all the necessary paperwork and liabilities.
With similar partnership agreements like this, I can also provide access to third-party trucking, specialist packaging, charters, storage and Customs clearance services … plus my cut, of course.
Guess what, my customers are completely unaware of how much I am paying for their airfreight allocations. That’s mine and the airlines’ golden secret.
Only now have I realised that I am no longer an airfreight forwarder, I’m a supply chain professional, a job title that looks so much better on the business card. Perhaps I should upgrade my branding to include that new ‘logistics’ buzzword.
Looking ahead, working with others, I may even eventually be able to take advantage of blocked-space agreements on some airlines, or even arrange part or entire flight charters.
Then one day I might escape my dependence on unreliable passenger carriers and instead acquire my own long-haul freighter capacity.
Perhaps that’s a bit far-fetched though …
Read more of Nigel’s blog posts here