Blog: Digitization in shipping
First of all, I would like to thank Maritime Delta for giving me the opportunity to write about my experiences so far in the Maritime Industry.
As a villager from Hoogezand-Sappemeer I came in touch with shipping as soon as I spent some time in Rotterdam. It didn’t take long to get hooked by the City and what drives its success, soccer club Feyenoord, shipping and logistics and the hard-working people of Rotterdam. My first encouter with logistics was with warehousing and trucking; I was intrigued and wanted to be part of this world even though it wasn’t my background. I wasn’t going to let inexperience hold me back from adventure, so I moved on to shore sea shipping and, eventually, Deepsea where I stayed for a longer period of time.
During the years I was wondering whether this Industry should change, especially when the crisis returned in 2008. My firm, Hanjin Shipping went bankrupt and the industry knew something had to change if we were to avoid losing another carrier. We avoided bankruptcies, but we saw huge consolidations; China COSCO shipping, CMA – APL and Maersk – Hamburg Sud (where I worked).
In my time with Hamburg Sud I had awesome colleagues; it was a great carrier and offered great opportunities. However, one day I met Carmit Glik and soon thereafter Flemming Frost and I was sold on their vision of digitized and simplified shipping. In particular, I got excited by the Cogoport platform, which provides a hassle-free way to search, book and track containers. It seemed to me that this was a true innovation – one which the industry had been crying out for.
At the start of April this year I signed up as one of the first European team members and it has been a fantastic experience so far joining such a dynamically fast-growing business. The company has grown in the space of just a couple of years from handling about three units a month to now close to 10,000 units and with more than 27,000 registered users on our platform.
What drives Cogoport is a passion for the needs of SMEs and a desire to see them grow. It’s a genuine part of our DNA. As we grow we’re learning more every day; digitization is a new journey for the industry and it’s full of challenges.
Shipping and logistics is an important industry and like everything else, is subject to change. Digitization means that the pressure for change is coming from the outside as much as internally. It’s happening at a pace many people in the industry can’t yet see. For example, a few years ago, no one saw the disruption that technology was going to bring to retailing. Our industry is only beginning to see the impact of new tools but how ready is the average freight forwarder or shipper to take advantage of the opportunities they bring?
At Cogoport we are starting to build a community with our customers and the wider shipping ecosystem to take the leap into a new digital era. Few SME’s can make major capital investments or spend time figuring out how their business model need to develop and our platform offers an easy route to better shipping. We can help!
My name is Glino Karjadi and if you want to know more about us, we are happy to help, either in a personal meeting or at one of our network lunch meetings held across the Netherlands.
Business Development & Sales
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