PROFILE
one point of contact,” Foley told Breakbulk. As the new vice president, global business development and commercial director Industrial Projects, Andy Tite leads a team of global sector heads covering mining, oil and energy, international energy companies, government and defense and engineering, procurement and construction, as well as a global bid team, Material Management System (MMS360) and marketing. “Second, for historic reasons we had the Americas split into two. We now have one regional vice president, Industrial Projects Americas – Jake Swanson. “Customers will see the difference from these changes. If they want to know who to go in the Americas, it is one person. If they want to know who is their commercial lead, they will have one focus point. It should be a simpler access point into DHL and for us it is an easy push down into connecting with our forwarding experts holding extensive project experience in specific areas. We always held that credibility, with our customers knowing they have a real industry expert guiding them – we are simply taking this to the next level.”
DIVERSE PORTFOLIO
DHL Global Forwarding’s Industrial Projects (IP) division covers a broad spectrum of activity, from major capital investment projects with a start and end date through to ongoing logistics contracts involving expediting, global supply chains, line item checking and added services that would not be part of a conventional standalone air or ocean freight offering. “If it is a bit more challenging, it falls into IP,” Foley said. “If it’s out of gauge, heavy – over 50 tonnes – or part of a large investment, our DHL colleagues have to come to us, although not necessarily just because it’s non-standard container movement. Ocean chartering, breakbulk, turnkey projects or requirements that are nonconventional generally land within the DHL Industrial Projects team. “We are actively delivering one-
off projects – while also completing and bidding for work with a lot of oilfield service companies, where there is a lot of cargo in the market. In the renewables sector, we have secured spot shipments for small wind farms as well as significant project volumes involving hundreds of turbines and with a strong pipeline for the future that we are actively quoting. So we are talking about a broad portfolio, from individual shipments to multi-vessel charter projects and five to 10-year MRO contract investments.” However, he said: “Whatever the contractual connections, the execution remains the same. We are still finding the most economic ways to move cargo and continue to push the market to provide the best possible commercial, environmental and operational solutions. Whether one-off or long-term, the work is still the same for our teams at their desk.” Which brings us to the people. Foley said that the two big challenges he faces are getting experienced people into the organization and upskilling existing teams while coping with the consequences of a virtual world. “When you look around at the number of projects being operated, there is clearly a skills shortage in our industry,” he said. “When we try to recruit, it is a challenge to secure a list
of available and competent people in the market. The pool of people that used to exist is simply not there anymore. Historically, the industry had a lot of contractors who would move from project to project. A lot have left the market and not returned, or are now taking full time roles with another forwarder.”
OVERCOMING DIGITAL OBSTACLES
Then there is the challenge of developing the right skills and experienced people in a virtual world. “I remember at the start of my career sitting next to a colleague and trying to get as much information out of them as possible – watching what they did, going to loadouts with them – and that is how I learned. That first-hand shadowing and learning opportunity is really difficult now, and will be in the future when we are still not in a full return to the office.” There are benefits from flexible working, but also many negatives in terms of being able to transfer knowledge to people, Foley said. “You can’t do that in a one-hour Teams call once a week or even once a day. “We are doing our best to give additional support, coaching and training to our people. But we are already in a difficult environment
DHL IP stays close to current bunker prices, daily rates for vessels, capacity coming on main lines and port constraints in the countries it is moving into or out of. CREDIT: DHL
www.breakbulk.com
BREAKBULK MAGAZINE 39
