Before I begin I won’t go into why I’d like this info at the moment but will explain if it becomes relevant otherwise an already lengthy post will get stupidly long. Nothing untoward just a long story.
I have a few questions as this is an area I have no knowledge on.
Is airfreight work obtained direct or through forwarders mainly?
Is this work “sown up tight” by those already doing it?
Are the rates laughable or above average as a rule?
Is there an under subscribed area of airfreight I.e. Temp controlled (although I’m guessing normal fridge hauliers maybe used) or irregular destinations such as poorly served cargo hubs?
I understand the majority of work is Heathrow, are other hubs worth investigating? We are equidistant between East Mids and Birmingham.
Am I right in thinking a majority of freight is destined for Frankfurt, Schipol, Luxembourg and Charles de Gaulle?
And finally as you can see I have no knowledge if this area, in your opinion is it an area you can get into as a “fresh face” or is it an area which you really need a long standing experience in as a company?
Just to add - no I’m not buying a truck and going on my own. At this moment I’m just getting a few opinions if possible.
Hi! Well cant say annyting about the rates in your country,but here in Sweden there is one Company doing TNT work in Sweden and the continent and they only have polish driver this Days.That says someting about the rates dont you Think…
I did all the haulage at a steelworks in south wales but if there was a tonne or whatever to go airfreight wasn’t offered it no matter where it was flying to…
You’d only get it subbed as customers have to use government approved firms.
To be fair the subbed rate would probably be competition but most of it is round tripped in those “igloo” metal containers, empty one way, loaded the other so they don’t need to sub most of it, if you did get a sniff of that you’d need a roller bed trailer which are pretty rare.
God knows how airlines make money at it. I’ve came in from brussels to Heathrow with 3 shoeboxes of nuts and bolts before in a full 26 pallet artic. That was a sub job off jan de rijk.
Also used to pick up 50 boxes of tuna from Japan at Heathrow, take it to holland and bring 40 boxes of it back to London. Crazy.
Oh it does pay because it’s a captive market, like I say customers have to use government approved firms so they can set the rate to a certain extent as every Tom, ■■■■ or Chancer can’t quote for the work.
If the customer wants to pay for the waste of time you describe then who are we to deny them?
A lot of the airfreight services are Road Feeder Services, scheduled runs that run more or less to a timetable. They often have their own designated flight numbers, so the amount of freight on each service is irrelevant much the same as the number of passengers on a flight is. the truck will roll irrespective much as a scheduled flight will take off even if it’s only half full.
As for fixing the rate, the contracts are still subject to market forces. You’ll find these days that there are a couple of major German and Dutch airfreight players tying up the market due to the rates they can offer by double manning with Eastern European drivers.
That’s why I said to a certain extent, chronic rate cutting isn’t as prevalent with air freight compared to general haulage as those firms you mention still have to be Government approved which isn’t easy or cheap & they’d still be more expensive than Muppet McGee Transport Inc. from Borat Land.
