JCtrans: Hello, Ms. Chaitaly Mehta. Firstly, will you please make a brief introduction of Express Kargo Forwarders Pvt Ltd?
Ms. Chaitaly Mehta: EKF was established in 1977 in Mumbai. We have offices at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad and Rep offices in Cochin, Kolkata, Tuticorin and Vizag with Associate offices in other cities of India.
We are IATA accredidated, ISO 9001:2008 certified and have our own CHA, MTO and Break Bulk Licences.
We handle almost all types of cargoes including:
Pharma/Bulk Drugs
Chemicals
Engineering Goods/Machinery
Electronics
Valuables
Textiles
Perishables
Live Animals
Hazardous Cargo/DGR
Diplomatic Cargo
Airline products
Automobile Goods
We are part of 3 networks: Rufaa; C5C and JCtrans.
We offer the following services to our clients:
Customs Clearance - air and sea - imports and exports
Freight Forwarding
3PL
MTO
Cross Trade
Trading
Sourcing
DDU/DDP
Insurance
Warehousing- on a limited scale
Transportation - at request of clients
We are member of National and Local Associations in India like BCHAA; ACAAI; ACHAK; FFFAI; AMTOI and International FIATA.
We have also been on the Board of many of the above Associations in various capacities and currently are in the Managing Committee of ACAAI at the H.O.
Since we are IATA Air Cargo Agents, in our 34 years we have won numerous awards for the Top Agent or Top Ten Agents from almost every airline operating into Mumbai and at our Branch offices too.
JCtrans: As one of the leading freight forwarders in India, Express Kargo must have its own outstanding Enterprise Characteristics. So will you please talk about Express Kargo's Enterprise Characteristics?
Ms. Chaitaly Mehta: EKF is a medium sized company and one of the many in the EVER GROWING Logistics Industry. All companies have everything going for them and are successful too in their own rights but what truly sets EKF apart are: Honesty, Loyalty, Commitment, Transparency and Hands On Approach. The willingness to try and acceptance of faults also goes a long way in making us different than the other companies in this market.
JCtrans: We know Express Kargo offers a wind range of services. So would you please talk about your service advantages?
Ms. Chaitaly Mehta: Honestly, the services that we offer are pretty much the same that another Freight Forwarder would offer and some may be even better than us! The only advantage that we see and which makes us popular are again our strengths and most importantly our commitment to complete a job however tough and difficult it maybe and being honest if we can't do something or if a mistake has happened. Most of the companies fail in these aspects.
JCtrans: Would you please talk about the situation of logistic industry in India?
Ms. Chaitaly Mehta: Sure, Logistics has never been in India than what it is now. However, this is only in terms of the prospects and growth opportunities. There are many hurdles and difficulties that an Indian forwarder or logistics supplier has to face on various fronts like: road conditions, port facilities, airport facilities and services, sea line and airlines - rates hike, customs problems etc. The market has opened up but the same bottlenecks persist infact some of them have just become more serious.
3 PL and 4PL are slowly gaining stronghold with 3PL becoming very common. Warehousing and Supply Chain Management has been accepted very well and everyone wants to diversify into this and investments are being made. The Indian Govt on their part is recognising the Cargo Industry and thereby spending more on infrastructure in ways of making new Ports, expansion of existing Ports and SOPS being given to the Export Trade.
If managed properly, India can definitely offer World Class Logistics Services which it is already offering to some extent.
JCtrans: Finally, will you please talk about the prospect of Express Kargo?
Ms. Chaitaly Mehta: EKF also has plans to expand and we are looking at various options and pursuing some avenues. We had already diversified at the right time in our own way so the Global Recession did not hit us too much. However, there are so many things happening in India we are proceeding slowly in order to take the correct decision. |
