Alliance of competitors is the way ahead for logistics - Maersk

Ed Richardson GLOBAL LOGISTICS is becoming so complex that more and more voices are being heard calling for partnerships to help reduce costs. "One of the biggest problems facing South African exporters is that the industry isn't being collaborative," says Mark Cairns, managing director of Maersk Logistics in South Africa. He believes there should be greater co-operation within the logistics industry, as well as between clients and their service providers. "There needs to be alliance of competitors," he says. "We need to become partners on specific accounts and look at best interests of clients. "As an industry we have to ask ourselves what we can do to ensure that customers remain competitive. We can only grow if our customers continue to grow," he adds. Such co-operation would combine the strengths of different logistics service providers. Collaboration should, however, go beyond the usual arms-length relationship. Cairns would like to see the sharing of resources such as software, software management and warehousing. And he is not alone in believing that there needs to be greater co-operation within the industry. Frederik Beelaerts van Blokland, managing director of Hellmann Worldwide Logistics (HAL), says logistics has become so complex that "no logistic service provider is capable of providing solutions to all problems. "HAL has taken the approach of selecting dedicated partnerships for specific tasks. This strategy enables HAL not only to offer services at the most competitive rate but to choose the most appropriate solution per task," he says.