by Raoul Paul

The idea to create a Cargo Community initiative arose a couple of years ago when it occurred to me that Schiphol was frequently described as “The Market Place” and that there existed a wish to develop the cargo processes in a more transparent way.

From the outside, trade matters in freighting from our airport, ports and industry appears strongly and effective but after a visit abroad it seems to be unclear what the Dutch companies and governmental institutions like the Customs and the Royal Marechaussee have to offer to customers.

Creating an own Cargo identity

With the image of this “Market Place” concept I was wondering if the Dutch Cargo industry en the whole chain of production were transparent enough for people outside- but nevertheless also inside the community. As a real market place supposed to look like, the cargo community of Schiphol and the rest of the Netherlands is a place with a rich blend of products and services. With the ambition to visualize and combine this for everyone on one place, the wish grew of giving the Dutch Cargo Community his own identity. This would be for all means of transportation: air, sea, road and rail traffic.

CargoHub is an initiative which offers companies the possibility to present themselves on the cargo portal with their industry activities and specialism. In this way CargoHub develops a meeting place where the Dutch, but also the foreign companies, can easily find the different Dutch  logistic service providers, truck companies and airlines. And with this, CargoHub hopes to improve the accessibility of doing business together.

Development and sharing of knowledge

Next to the ambition to carry out a communal Dutch main port identity, the knowledge centre (forum) of CargoHub provides the possibility to display information and to share knowledge. Community members with a certain knowledge or expertise can contribute to the community and give their advice to other members with specific questions. It is very important to offer high-quality content, therefore I’m highly grateful that companies as Loyens & Loeff, Vreede Aviation & Logistics Law, Douane Advocaat and Binnendijk Bree Surveys are represented as our editorial contributors in the community. Furthermore I certainly hope, that more companies will follow and contact us to contribute their expertise or share their input with the CargoHub Community.

Employment market in the cargo industry

A different area of CargoHub is to make the offer and demand of job vacancies in logistics more transparent. There is an economical downturn, but worldwide an economic growth still exists. It is expected that the freighting volumes will grow and with this the demand of employees. With the creation of www.CargoJobs.nl, CargoHub hopes to offer a meeting place for companies and job seekers in the Dutch cargo industry, but also more internationally oriented. This online job site hopefully contributes witch matching these two together in the Cargo Community.

The central thought of CargoJobs is the importance of attracting young motivated people who want to work in logistics and the possibility to recruit specialised and experienced employees. Therefore education and coaching of young professionals is an important part of CargoJobs. To achieve this, we will search for and attract  trainers and experienced cargo colleagues who are willing to assist as a job coach. Work experience, different insights and perspectives can be shared and transferred to young talent.

To give job seekers a clearer perception of the working method and the culture of a company, CargoJobs offers the company the possibility to present themselves with a company presentation (logo and video) to motivated and qualified candidates who are looking for a job in the cargo industry.

Easy accessibility and partially free service for the cargo industry is the starting point. Furthermore as an extra service, CargoJobs can assist companies online by creating the company profile or account and placing the available job vacancies.

Innovative Cargo E-Claims Portal

Besides the publication of the CargoMagazine, CargoHub is working the same time to further develop the product named CargoClaims. This product is developed specifically for the airlines to manage the claim process with the forwarder in an efficient way. Therefore this is an ‘revolutionary invention’ in the claim settlement of the chain process and with an entirely paper less completion. Airlines can save on enormous administrative costs and at the same time work to improve the quality and speed of completing the claim process.

 

CargoClaims possess of advanced tools to give insight to the file in an easy way to the file treatment officer or management. Furthermore risk management is more easy accessible. If desired customized reports can be send automatically to specific people or departments.

The software is a “state of the art” and offers furthermore the possibility to companies to manage cargo incidents or complaints in an easy but efficient way. The flexible design of this software makes sure that the administrative process has a seamless integration to the organisation.

It was always my wish to design my own application which can make the different steps of the administrative process more visible. This leads to optimal efficiency, quality improvement and at the same time cut down expenses.

Airline companies are therefore more than welcome to contact us for a demonstration, this is without any obligations.

New Cargo Magazine

At last I want to take this opportunity to thank all sponsors and everyone who took care of creating CargoHub and furthermore now also for the help of establishing our first edition of the CargoHub Magazine.

With this new magazine, CargoHub wants to offer the cargo industry a well balanced independent professional journal divided into sections of professional journalism, news and company reports. Our magazine exists for and because of the cargo industry and we are looking forward of creating the next edition together with you.