Research on the Development Status of Freight Forwarding Enterprises in China

Since the reform and opening up 20 years ago, with the rapid growth of China's foreign trade, China's international freight forwarding industry is in the ascendant and has become a new service industry that has begun to take shape. By the end of 2000, there were more than 265,438+000 international freight forwarding enterprises approved by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, but on the whole, the current situation of China international freight forwarding industry can be summarized in four words-"small" (small scale of operation and few assets), "few" (few service functions and few professionals) and "weak" (weak competitiveness and weak financing ability). With the challenge of economic globalization and the further opening of China freight market after China's entry into WTO, China's international freight forwarding industry will be divided and reorganized. It is very necessary to pay attention to the development direction of international freight forwarding enterprises in China. After research and exploration, the author positions the development direction of China's freight forwarding enterprises as scale, specialization, networking and logistics.

First, scale.

Scale is the basic strategy for the development of freight forwarding enterprises in China, and it is the only way to rationally allocate existing resources and promote the sustainable operation of enterprises. Scale is the inevitable choice for freight enterprises to meet the challenge of economic globalization. The essence of economic globalization is the optimal allocation of global resources, and its main feature is the adjustment and transfer of industrial structure around the world, one of which is the surge of mergers and acquisitions. Taking the shipping industry as an example, OOCL acquired the President of the United States, and Maersk acquired Luhai as an obvious example. In the past two years, the shipping market has changed from a downturn to an active one, with good business performance. On the one hand, it is the driving force for the sustained growth of the world economy, on the other hand, it is closely related to the economies of scale generated by mergers and acquisitions in the shipping industry. Recently, in the face of new changes in domestic and foreign markets, Sinotrans Group, the leading freight forwarding industry in China, has unswervingly pushed forward the restructuring strategy since 1998, which has made the operating performance of the group company rise steadily, and the scale effect of "1 1 > 2" has initially appeared. Their practice has proved and will continue to prove that large-scale operation is an important way for freight enterprises to optimize resource allocation, reduce operating costs, enhance their competitive strength and improve their service level. Scale is the inherent requirement for small and medium-sized freight forwarding enterprises in China to integrate resources after joining wto. For a long time, under the influence of planned economy, the freight forwarding industry also has a management system of "big and complete" and "small and complete". In addition, due to limited knowledge and poor supervision, a freight forwarding market with "agents everywhere" has been formed in China. After joining wto, with the further opening of the freight market, foreign freight forwarders with superior strength will show their talents, and a considerable number of freight forwarders with weak strength will be eliminated. If freight forwarding enterprises in China continue to follow the path of "small, few, weak and scattered", the front can only be a dead end. One way out is joint reorganization and strategic alliance. Starting with the scale of supply, capital and network, taking the road of scale operation is a necessary and effective step to implement this strategy. At present, freight forwarding companies such as specialized foreign trade and economic cooperation storage and transportation companies account for nearly 1/3 of the enterprises with the right to operate international freight forwarding approved by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. However, due to the scattered sources of goods, networks and funds, most of them develop slowly and their overall competitiveness is not strong. It is imperative to unify the understanding and promote the large-scale operation of this kind of freight forwarding enterprises by combining the historical origin, operation mechanism, management means and policy conditions. Take assets and interests as the link, break the boundaries between regions, industries and enterprises, and promote the scale and intensification of supply through air transport sales agents, sea shipping booking agents or designated agents, and one-way charter flights. Financially, through centralized financing, foreign capital, private capital and other private capital are absorbed to provide financial guarantee for promoting scale operation. In management, through the mechanism innovation such as manager's annual salary, employee's internal shareholding and competition for posts, we will increase the pace of association, merger and reorganization among freight forwarders, integrate the inherent resources of freight forwarders, and promote their development and growth.

Second, specialization.

There is a popular jargon in the service industry: no matter what kind of service you are engaged in, as long as you can create characteristics and brands, you can occupy the market and win customers, thus winning a thousand miles. It embodies the essence of professional management and the vigorous vitality of freight forwarding enterprises to carry out professional services. Well-known brands such as DHL Express, Shanghai Fancheng, Tianjin Huanlian and Chang Song Shipping LCL Service have proved the market value and unique charm of professional management from examples. From the point of view of perfecting service function and implementing intensive management, specialized service is the basic requirement for freight forwarding enterprises. At present, most freight forwarders in China still remain in the role of "agent transportation", with single service function and backward management level, and customer needs can only be met at a low level. With the intensification of market competition and the improvement of customer demand, freight forwarding enterprises should also complete the role transformation to independent transport operators. Therefore, it is necessary to broaden the service function, improve the service level, standardize the behavior according to the standards of professional services such as business operation, staff quality and corporate culture, and standardize the behavior from the aspects of strategy, cost and quality. Specialization is an inevitable requirement to cultivate the core competitiveness of freight forwarding enterprises. The core competitiveness of an enterprise refers to the business that the enterprise is best at, and it is the externalization of the comprehensive resource advantages such as enterprise brand, main business, strength and innovation ability. Specialization is an important way to cultivate and enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises. Only on the basis of professional management can freight forwarding enterprises fully show their differences with other enterprises, condense profits through core competitiveness, and thus remain invincible in the fierce market competition. From the operational point of view, if the head office (parent company) of a freight forwarding enterprise as a whole can achieve scale expansion through networking or diversified operations, its branches, subsidiaries and other business outlets will rely more on specialized operations to consolidate profits, thus providing guarantee for the capital expansion of the head office (parent company). The business scope of international freight forwarders is very extensive. The content of specialized service requires freight forwarders to choose one or two of them as their main business in air transport, FCL, LCL, chartering, port collection and distribution, warehousing and distribution, and adopt intensive marketing strategies in market development, enterprise strategy, talent selection, management norms and other resource allocation, so as to develop slowly and steadily. At present, a considerable number of small and medium-sized freight forwarding enterprises in China have limited resources such as goods supply, capital and talents. It is a wise choice for them to meet the challenges and participate in fierce market competition by aiming at the goal of professional development.