Charter management/logistics providers
 

I'm looking for some thoughts on charter management companies.
What I mean is, a customer will call a charter management/logistics provider with their requirement- for example 3000 lbs pickup at XXX, to be in YYY by 14:00.

The charter management firm then posts this on their web-based bidding system and the carriers that are signed on are alerted. Everyone submits their bid, and the winner is contacted to complete the trip. Blah blah blah.

Right now this seems to be mainly an American thing, or maybe it exists in Europe too (not sure).

Anyhow, my question is this: Does anyone have experience (from a vendor/carrier POV) in dealing with this setup? Do you get much business from it? Is it worth it?
The reason is that if you bid and lose, you have no idea what the winning bid was (not just from a dollar standpoint, but what a/c type won the job, whether or not the EXACT requirements were met etc.) and therefore cannot know "how close" you were.

I can see getting excited about the first 10-15 opportunities, but if you never get any jobs out of it...you start to lose interest. BTW, my company operates caravans

Comments?

This arrangement has been widespread for many, many years, the market is packed with 'Charter Brokers' who do exactly what you describe, however I am not aware of any who use the net in that manner just yet...

Many large logistics/freight forwarding companies have in-house 'brokers'and some are also represented on the Baltic Exchange in London which I understand has an air charter role in addition to its' primary purpose of ship broking.

Only one I know is Chapman Freeborn. I'm no expert on this subject, but they seem to have their own SITA address (don't ask, can't remember).

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rgds Rat

Sita (if I remember correctly)is

LONCF7X

rgds

T N

there is no such system in Europe. to be correctly - there were several attempts to do that (SelfMadeFly etc) - but actually it's not working. we (airline commercials) and charter brokers (Chapman Freeborn, AirSea Broker/Swiss Global Cargo etc) have established good and close relationship between us, they trust us, we trust them (f.e. I'm ready to order our operations to dispatch a charter of US$120.000 worth for Chapman Freeborn even if I have no signed contract for that, just a verbal confirmation from them coming at the midnight time, and they know that we will do our best and will be flexible on any changes, like final destination change in 45 minutes before ETD).
the main working tools are phone and SITA, and I really doubt if anything will change during next 5-10 years.
in many cases important things need to be solved in few minutes and only trust and close relationship may help, not machines and internet.

Having a "close working relationship" isn't really the point, though. And I wasn't really referring to any current clients a carrier already has- I mean hey, if ya got the contract, all you CAN do is your best.

In the USA, there are a whole bunch of companies that I was hoping to find out about. Because the charter market is so huge there, if shippers have ANY sort of lead time, using a service that essentially shops around the best price for you will save you money every time.

Big companies like all the auto makers etc. use this alot, because they constantly have a need for oddball charters, and may not know the name of XYZcargo charters that flies from "Podunk international".

Thanks anyway, and FYI check these sites out:
www.shipbyair.com
www.cargoreservations.com
www.cargosphere.com (mainly ground, but some air)
www.clicklogistics.com (not live yet)
www.grandaire.com

Neat idea eh?

Dockjock
there are a lot of such sites. but I will tell you - they not doing the business in reality. they are a kind of Caledonian Wings - a lot of words and big homepages but almost nothing in real. I can bet that all together they doing less business per several month than just one of big CFA offices (like LON or FRA) per day. and there are no serious carriers presented on these sites - usually limited to airtaxi companies who can carry 50-200 kgs box.
internet is good and useful... for tickets reservation... but not for cargo charters.

Centreline Air Charter
at BFC Bristol

www.urgentcharter.com

thats what we do! so what do you need to move NOW?