What one of our customers likes about Shipping Guarantee

It is very important to us what our customers think of our products and how satisfied they are with them. Therefore, we conduct regular interviews with our customers from all over the world. Recently, we spoke with Lawrence Royen, Strategic Head at the Indian company Surgeport Logistics about his experience with our Shipping Guarantee product.

Can you please briefly describe your business and your role in the company?

Having worked in senior roles in a career spanning over three decades, Surgeport Logistics has entrusted me with a role as Strategic Head, focusing on Business Development and procurement. Sourcing and procuring do not necessarily mean best ocean freight rates but there lies an equal responsibility ensuring that the shipping services are in line with our customer’s requirements.

The procurement of ocean shipping services usually becomes an ordeal if the planning and preparation module combined with market intelligence is not in place.
This ensures sharp pricing and effective capacity management.

How do you usually prevent your cargo from being rolled, especially during peak seasons and major holidays? What are the main challenges in this process?

Our little success at Surgeport Logistics comes with our valued customer’s volume forecast mixed with some basic research on the demand for their product in the global market helps as a small guide to plan our shipments accordingly.

Fulfilling carrier commitments is of top priority to us and we place this as equal to meeting our customers’ requirements.
We do face complicated situations where shippers place bookings with us, but unavoidable circumstances like production or other deliverable delays make it unable to meet sailing schedules. This sometimes becomes a problem but carriers such as Hapag-Lloyd have come to our rescue.

What is your experience with Hapag-Lloyd’s Shipping Guarantee? How did you like the booking process and the platform?

In my opinion, this process and platform are ideally suitable for meeting up with customer’s expectations especially during tough situations as we are facing space constraints with carriers currently. Hapag-Lloyd has come to our rescue. The moment I heard about this initiative taken by Hapag-Lloyd and launched the Shipping Guarantee, I started using this platform immediately and was successful in meeting customer demands. It was a beautiful sight for sore eyes when I got the booking confirmed immediately after using this great initiative, pared with safety that the cargo will not be rolled to other vessels. I am now in a position to assure customers that their cargo is shipped on voyages and schedules that suit best to their logistics chain.

How does Shipping Guarantee support your business in full space situations?

With the space crunch with all carriers, the Shipping Guarantee helps us to meet the customer’s demand and provide them additional security.

And how do you think Shipping Guarantee will benefit your business in the future?

To get certainty that our cargo is shipped on booked vessels, will help us beat the competition, especially during the space crunch.

In your opinion, how could we improve Shipping Guarantee even more?

Sometimes even after booking with Shipping Guarantee, bookings are declined. However, when tried again, we get the booking confirmed. There should be uniformity and there should not be a second attempt.

Any other comments you would like to make?

Initiatives such as this and the launching of the booking process online will make life easy for us in the highly competitive world to meet up with customer demands.

Thank you for participating in the interview, Mr. Royen!

Have you tested Shipping Guarantee yet? You can find more information about our Shipping Guarantee service on our website.