vishal sharma
W
hat expedited and alternate solutions are you offering to provide a satisfactory shipping experience to shippers amid uncertainties? We are offering alternatives for air freight via charter options connecting Europe, USA and Latin America. In the current environment, we are also encouraging customers to use digital tools for booking and pricing. We are working closely with our customers to establish forecasts which allow us to plan capacity with carriers and shipping lines. How do you foster innovation internally during time of a crisis? How do you manage to keep your people aligned to service your customers more abruptly than ever? Irrespective of the challenges due to the pandemic, the fundamental priority for us remains the safety of our employees, drivers, and loaders and unloaders. We at DB Schenker in India are committed to enabling a seamless, safe and wellinformed working environment. To ensure the safety of our employees, usage of personal protective equipment (PPE) is mandatory for our ground staff and those working on the field, as well as the ones at contract logistics sites who are ensuring health care supply chains remain active. The tools, technology and product experts have brought us closer to customers although we are miles apart through various digital online platforms. Further, the attention to details taken by our teams to embrace customer expectations across products has allowed us to stay ahead of the curve. Additionally, with effective measures for road transportation, we have undertaken various initiatives to keep supply chains moving, including arranging pick-up/drop-off for our driver fraternity, as well as lodging and refreshments needed to ensure we minimise exposure of our trucks and drivers to the public environment. 40 |
september 2020
Global forwarder DB Schenker is positioning itself on the forefront of contract logistics offerings in India as the country puts heavier focus on supply chain efficiency via trade reforms and technology implementation. Focussing to better serve customers with a digital-first approach, the firm has begun to utilise autonomous robots to enhance productivity, and also bringing transparency and visibility across the supply chain, reducing the efforts of track and trace. Vishal Sharma, CEO – Cluster India and Indian subcontinent at DB Schenker informs Upamanyu Borah, on how they have been keeping pace with ever-evolving industry demands and offering specialised operations to deepen their logistics value chain in the region, covering every aspect from planning to execution.
Contract logistics is expected to get more structured How may we best summarise the current state of the 3PL market in India? Does it continue to strengthen, or has it plateaued? 3PL plays a vital role in meeting the warehousing demand from customers, which is followed by e-commerce and manufacturing sectors. It is a primary growth driver for the e-commerce industry in India, providing one-stop solutions for enterprise supply chains in packaging, warehousing, transportation, and order fulfilment. 3PL business is getting accelerated towards automation and innovation with a lot more companies investing in automated equipment to improve productivity and efficiency. The business has developed with more predictive supply chain demands and resource optimisation, resulting in more cost efficiencies. Which recent innovations at DB Schenker do you claim to be the
most ground-breaking for the industry? Carefully strategising our business continuity plan well before the lockdown was started in India enabled us to take necessary steps to keep the supply chain resilient in these unprecedented times. With the ability to meet the last-mile delivery for customers, we started charter operations in the month of April for both imports and exports between India and the USA, Europe and other Asian countries. As passenger capacity was reduced to zero and due to the scheduled cancellations of many cargo freighters, we had to deploy 25 charters to support customers who are into the manufacturing of vaccine, PPE and other health care equipment. We simultaneously started security escort services for the safe movement of cargo by road to mitigate any challenges amid the lockdown. Our multimodal solutions for customers also played a key role in these
