‘Bridging’ the freight systems gap

When Bridge Shipping set out to find a system for its forwarding and clearing business it pooled the collective experience of all the staff who would be affected in order to make the right choice. Graeme Impson, branch manager of Bridge Shipping Durban, was a vital participant in the exercise and had this to say: “The CoreFreight system was selected based on the overall functionality it provided from a management perspective and, most importantly, endorsement by staff who actually have to use the application to fulfil their work on a daily basis. “After years in the industry we have a good idea of our systems requirement – proven reliability with the ability to meet the developing needs of a South African-based agent, whether processing import or export shipments. “This goes beyond mere production of the bills of entry, but should provide a comprehensive tool for the effective management of the business – and hence service delivery to our customers,” said Impson. It was clearly a good fit in terms of staff and systems. “The expertise, enthusiasm and competence of staff and management at Bridge have ensured the smooth upgrade of systems and implementation of the extended CoreFreight functionality,” said Leslie Matthew, the Durbanbased representative of CoreFreight who provided onsite support during the transition. And the benefits are not restricted to the KZN region, said David Bosman, manager in charge of the Bridge airfreight division based at OR Tambo. “Starting up a new division we did not want the inhibitions associated with any legacy systems and were given the opportunity to choose the “best of breed” application for our business. With CoreFreight I am satisfied that at Bridge we are in a position to provide our clients with first class service for all their airfreight import and export requirements.”