Interview with CQR Amsterdam and Rotterdam

Interview with CQR Amsterdam/Rotterdam

Our CQR member in Amsterdam / Rotterdam is one of our newer members, representing the network in both Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Last week, we sat down with Inver Gase, Managing Director/Co-Owner at the NBK Amsterdam office, to find out more about this century old company and its 21st century operations. 
partner with logistics company
partner with logistics company

Q. When and how did you get into the freight forwarding industry? 

A. I started my career in the airfreight forwarding industry, about 30 years ago. After graduating in Construction Engineering, (BEng) I became fed up with this industry and took an opportunity to launch a new career in the logistics industry, as a freight forwarder entrepreneur running my own show. After 20 years of operation, I sold this company.

Q. Can you tell us a little about the history of NBK AIR AND OCEAN and when you joined? 

A. After selling my company I worked on the pay-roll for various companies at management level, but it didn’t give me the same satisfaction as when I was running my own business.

In 2012, I teamed-up with the NBK Group and shortly after that I decided to start-up NBK Air & Ocean BV at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol as a part-owner of this company. The brand NBK was established almost 100 years ago (1919) near the biggest port in Europe with a specialization in transportation of wood products. Through the Years, we have gained a lot of knowledge and experience which have enabled us to become a reliable 4PL service provider. This regards transport by road, sea, air, rail or a combination of these. We coordinate the logistics from the origin to the place of destination.

Q. Does your company specialise in any particular kind of shipment or service? 

A. We are specialized in several fields of logistics, the Group NBK consists of several divisions, with 30000m2 warehousing, our own fleet of container trucks, hazardous cargo specialist, IATA and AEO licensed. Our no nonsense attitude combined with perseverance and clear, open communication makes the difference. We will always give our best service to each agent or client, no matter the size of the shipment.

Q. What would be the most significant shipment your company has handled? 

A. The one that sticks most in my mind occurred on Christmas Day, 2012. A vessel belonging to one of our customers (a ship-owner) became stuck in Cartagena port, Colombia needing spare parts from The Netherlands. It was absolutely mandatory that these spares arrived within 24 hours at Cartagena airport, with no transhipping in Bogota. With much of the world shutdown for the holiday season, we knew it was going to be a challenge.

Thanks to trust we have built with our agent partners over the years, we were able to provide a seamless service. Our team managed to book all cargo on a KLM flight into Curacao on Christmas day and there our agent chartered a small aircraft for the short journey onto Cartagena. Despite the odds being stacked against us, we managed to make the delivery on time with the spare parts arriving on board the vessel on Christmas day evening.

Q. What are the challenges facing the freight forwarding industry in The Netherlands and/or the world at the moment? 

A. Big challenges; well the industry is changing fast and competition is tough. In the Airfreight industry, we are seeing a large decrease in freighter/maindeck capacity. With new aircrafts, we are gaining tremendous belly capacity which is sold into the market at low cost. Our challenge is to find a match in cargo for a pure freighter service at high yield and substantial turnover on the larger belly capacity with lower yield.

In the end, we just keep doing what we do, providing the best service possible. With the capacity of the group and several different kinds of products, our continuity is secured.

Q. You are registered to attend our annual meeting in May this year. Why in your opinion is attending a network’s annual meeting so important? 

A. Logistics remains a people’s business, making new friends and getting to know each other is the basis of long lasting relationships. Two members of the NBK team, Rini Verhoef and Bud Klein, are attending the annual meeting. It is always great to meet so many agents, partners, friends in one place without travelling across the globe constantly.

Q. What are your goals for the meeting? 

A. Work hard, party hard! Our aims are to meet our partners and introduce them to NBK and vice-versa. The knowledge we will gain from the meeting, will ensure we can provide our clients with a higher level of service and cooperation of our agencies around the globe.

NBK Air & Ocean BV is a perfect example of the type of members we want in our network. A team committed to growing their business through mutual cooperation. 

CQR Chongqing ships 22 ton crawler excavator

CQR Chongqing, is a company specialized in handling oversized and overweight cargo

One of their most recent such shipments was for one unit crawler excavator which was shipped from Shanghai, China to Asuncion, Paraguay. The team organized a seamless and successful end to end service which in part was down to the company being a VIP customer of the main port in Shanghai, enjoying priority of entering the port, discharging cargoes and tally at the port by arranging professional staff working at the port site to meet any needs for their customers.

“Over the years, we have built up good relationships within the industry and the external providers we use are hired on a regular basis. We always ensure that they are operating correctly and efficiently in order to guarantee customer satisfaction,” explained Commercial Director, Joy Hu.

 

CQR Kanpur ships 13 MT of stainless steel sheets by air

Over the past few months, CQR’s exclusive agent in Kanpur, has been shipping literally tons of cargo by air; including 13MT of stainless steel sheets to Dammam

logistics companies and suppliers
logistics companies and suppliers

Due to the weight of the cargo, moving from Mumbai Airport was carried out with special packing instructions. The scope of work for the team included freight, packing, documentation, custom clearance and airport handling.

Whilst 13MT is a significant air shipment, it is not the team’s largest recent air shipment. They also moved a 73MT transformer from Bangalore to Angola on a chartered flight and 4 engineering valves weighing approx. 29.4 MT from Mumbai to Riyadh on nose loading plane, specially positioned for the loading of the shipment.

We would like to congratulate the team on the successful handling of these shipments!