UPS, a leader in global shipping, takes aim at the world’s maritime industry

UPS is looking to establish long-term ship supply services in the maritime industry, through its extensive network of service around the world. As the company’s executives put it: “We transport everything from small documents to aircraft engines by ground and air at whatever speed is required around the world”. As such, the company has invested billions in order to upgrade its network and being able to offer maritime companies the opportunity to have the capability to be both responsive and reliable when responding to fleet supply needs.

According to Iulia Gabriela Nartea, Managing Director UPS Romania, Greece & Slovenia, UPS provides a series of value-added solutions that can give our customers within the Maritime industry a competitive advantage by helping them save money. In an interview with Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide, she offers useful insight into how UPS aims to attract more customers, this time, from the world’s maritime sector.

What types of services does UPS offer to the maritime market?
Greece has a leading position, through the number of vessels owned, keeping the No1 spot of the global fleet, in terms of tonnage capacity. Greece controls more than 4,300 vessels scattered around the world and under different conditions and needs.

UPS offers the most extensive range of package, freight and supply chain management services in the industry, which can support the Maritime companies for an effective fleet management. We transport everything from small documents to aircraft engines by ground and air at whatever speed is required all over the world.

Additionally, UPS provides a series of value-added solutions that can give our customers within the Maritime industry a competitive advantage by helping them save money, become more efficient and offering them the opportunity to have both the capability to be responsive and to be reliable when responding to their fleet supply needs of vessels worldwide.

We offer a variety of on-line service options for shipments preparation and tracking and visibility tools (Worldship, Quantum View Notify and Quantum View Manage, Import Control etc.) that enable our Maritime customers to deliver insight for better decisions and cost optimization.

Just to give you an example of what UPS can offer, a maritime company in Greece has the ability to initiate and create the necessary documents for shipments originating from another country and request immediate delivery to locations around the world. This way, the company achieves better managed transportation costs, while at the same time avoiding delays and ensuring that critical shipments from Greece or agents in other countries are delivered to vessels around the globe, at the right time and in the right condition.

Who is your typical clientelle today?

UPS has solutions for customers of all sizes, and so for us there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ client. Whatever the size of the customers, the coordinated, efficient and expedited movement of goods, information and funds across borders is critical to them all, and that’s what UPS is all about.

In terms of Hellenic maritime companies, how can they benefit from a partnership with UPS?

A logistics provider like UPS offers a Maritime company the opportunity to have both the capability to be responsive and to be reliable when responding to its fleet supply needs. Failed deliveries means re-work and additional costs. Few businesses today calculate the cost of unreliability and its impact on profits, showing that supply chain efficiency makes the highest profits, but profits can only be sustained through reliability.

UPS has invested billions of dollars to establish a vast yet highly flexible service network, and that’s one of our greatest strengths. We already have the infrastructure, the technology and more experience than anyone in the industry. That means our customers can focus on what they do best and leave the rest to UPS.

Why should a ship owner or ship manager choose UPS over the competition?

With the continuous Greek investments in vessels even under the current financial uncertainty shows that the Greek ship-owners invest for the future and the potential of the global maritime market. UPS can be the reliable partner for the Ship Owner or Manager, who through its extensive global network, comprehensive portfolio of services supported by the most advanced technology, manages to meet his daily operations needs and help to overcome the challenges of supplying the Vessels in every port and the complexity of connecting the Agents or Suppliers with the Vessels globally.

We are the largest package delivery company in the world, in terms of both revenue and volume and we have been in business for more than a century, far longer than any of our competitors. We offer a broad array of services in the package and freight delivery industry and, therefore, compete with many different local, regional, national and international companies.

UPS has several competitive advantages inherent to our company. They include our financial strength, global presence and our unique business model.

First, UPS is financially the strongest competitor in the transportation industry. This is particularly important today as many customers make it clear that they want a transportation partner who is stable for the long-term.

The second industry advantage that UPS enjoys is our global presence – we are the only competitor with substantial operations in every major region of the world. Others in our industry are trying to build what UPS already has in place: an integrated global transportation network backed by a common, state-of-the-art technology platform and an experienced and professional workforce.

The third competitive advantage that positions UPS well for the long-term is our unique business model, which has all packages – domestic or international, commercial or residential, air or ground – running through one integrated transportation network. This extremely efficient use of assets has allowed UPS to consistently produce industry-leading margins and return on invested capital, while providing top-notch reliability to our customers.

How can your service add value to a ship owner’s operation, in terms of actually reducing overall running costs?

Generally, UPS customers are looking for solutions that address their pain points, so essentially we’re providing services that address issues of speed, reliability, customer service and cost. We try and help our customers view their supply chains as an opportunity for competitive advantage and as a way of taking their products into new markets, rather than just a cost centre.

When it comes to maritime companies, they face a series of challenges and have specific needs. They need to have the appropriate insight that leads to better decisions and cost optimization, the flexibility to respond immediately on exceptions for their critical shipments, a powerful no-cost shipping system that manages the shipping activities of their employees while increasing productivity, control on shipping costs and accuracy in details as well as flexibility and full control over its third party shipments activity with agents or suppliers abroad.

By leaving the logistics to us, customers are able to cut costs and concentrate on what they do best: developing & marketing their products, expanding their customer base, and growing their business.

How much has your package of services towards the maritime industry grown over the past few years?

Over the last decade, UPS has invested billions of dollars in technology development and infrastructure.

Technology powers virtually every service we offer and every operation we perform. Our technology initiatives are driven by our customers’ needs. UPS is a global leader in developing technology that helps our customers optimize their shipping and logistics business processes to lower costs, improve service and increase efficiency.

We continue to introduce updates to the company’s technology offerings (e.g. Worldship, Quantum View Notify & Quantum View Manage, Import Control). These enhancements save maritime customers time and money by streamlining the preparation, management and tracking of multiple types of shipments all over the world, while providing full visibility and automated status updates in Real-time to immediately response on exceptions on their critical shipments.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide