Freight and logistics is of course by definition the ultimate multinational business and as technology advances executives globally are becoming aware of the potential of international cooperation without the need for thousands of miles of air travel to formulate trade agreements. It was with this thought in mind that Antonio Torres first came up with the idea of what he calls a 'Virtual Multinational' paving the way for what he considers a new generation of networks which want to mobilize independent freight forwarders to work together as global 'mega-forwarders.'
Last week however the members of this brainchild travelled to Thailand to meet their mutual partners in the flesh at the inaugural conference of Conqueror which Mr Torres says is the world's first virtual freight network. Ninety members from forty different countries met in Phuket from the 23rd to 25th May as part of Conqueror's target of setting up an exclusive 'virtual branch' in each of the 472 major cities in the 175 countries it has identified. Torres explained:
"At the heart of Conqueror is mutual cooperation, without it, the network simply would not function. "Finding reliable agents takes time; unfortunately we were forced to postpone the initial conference as we weren't prepared for the 1,950+ applications received requesting membership. We weren't willing to sacrifice the quality of our agents for an earlier conference. This first meeting gave our members the opportunity to meet in one place, at one time, with the cost of only one trip. In my opinion, it's a low cost investment when compared to the potential business created." |
