‘End-to-end supply chain solutions are what it’s all about’

To take advantage of what he described as “a tsunami of opportunity” for the freight forwarding industry, Charles Dey, the head of Global Trade Training (GTT), believes that training should be seen as a vital part of the process. Freight forwarding as we now know it faces another significant evolutionary change, he told FTW. “It will never be the same,” he said. “While retaining the basic forwarding and clearing functions as core business, successful future forwarders will have to provide importers and exporters with complete end-to-end supply chain solutions. “These will have to be designed to meet every client requirement and offer them vital help in reducing their overall inventory costs.” But no such effort to take advantage of the expected tidal wave of opportunities can be made without all the training requirements needed to exploit them. Dey also sees education and training as one of the most productive pillars for scoring the up-to-15 broadbased black economic empowerment (BBBEE) scorecard points that can be achieved. “This represents a significant opportunity,” he said, “since professionalism developed through training is the freight forwarder’s competitive edge. “Also, young black people are the key to successful succession planning, with estimates suggesting that there are 10 times the numbers of potentially successful blacks out there than there are whites.” Companies should also bear-in-mind that, by fullyutilising available funding and tax allowances, training costs are significantly reduced, according to Dey. “At GTT,” he said, “we are equipped to assist companies in obtaining Sectoral Education and Training Authority (Seta) funding. “Also, our Setacompatible systems make for easy claiming of approved funding.”