A few weeks ago, I visited the facilities of a freight forwarding company, this thanks to the invitation of a friend who serves as General Manager. In my Customs and International Transport company, SEAL , I have been able to serve different companies that request the freight transport service. Some of them only ask for international maritime freight; Others request that we include land freight transportation and others contract directly the freight transportation services to national companies.

 

 

 

On some occasions I have been contacted by companies that want to add ground transportation to their foreign trade operations, for example, companies that produce food, packaging, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables. Some of these companies have made the decision to buy transport units and have assigned this new unit to the structure already formed, which has resulted in some success stories and others have rendered the unit receiving the assignment inefficient and have decided sell the fleet of trucks on many occasions at a price lower than what they bought.

 

 

 

It is normal to find trucks without use, in poor condition or wasted, when a company does not have the necessary administrative elements to direct this line of business and make it profitable, it becomes an impossible task to achieve. This was what caught my attention about the company in which my friend works Agencia de aduana. C omo producing company executives realized that the quality of the transport service I had hired was not expected. They measure the times and costs of the service and determine that they must make a change.

 

 

 

Execute a change

 

The decision to carry out this modification leads them to make the decision to invest in transport units, but the management direction, pushes more towards the transformation and gets the partners to authorize expanding the investment to transport service units, starting with a workshop for engines. As time goes by, they add a workshop for gearboxes, a workshop for chassis maintenance and repair, a tire supply, a maintenance and paint repair workshop.

 

 

 

It is made from its own roster of drivers, whom it trains and controls directly, establishing the service parameters it needs and greatly improving the average in the country. With his own investment in this new unit, he realizes that he must create a specialized company focused on this type of service, for which he physically and administratively separates this unit and turns it into a new legal figure, focused directly on the transport.

 

 

 

This allows it to expand its services to other companies, including the clients of the mother company in charge of production, this facilitates the increase in operations and triggers the profit margin. It currently serves different types of containers in international trade and includes logistics companies in Guatemala in its client portfolio.

 

 

 

It is impressive to see the way in which each of the units works, each with its own coordinator, applying the best practices and cost and time control systems. From the moment my friend mentions the characteristics of the company and the way in which they have developed their business, I was very interested in visiting him and getting to know firsthand how this operation is developing.

 

 

 

I am very pleased to know that it is a Guatemalan company, which hires national personnel and also gives employment opportunities to personnel from departments far from the city. I believe that the decent employment offered by this type of company highlights the importance of international trade for the development of countries and helps to combat unfair practices Importaciones Guatemala. Undoubtedly an example of reconversion to grow.