The container cooperation

Since the coronavirus hit, there has been no text about logistics and its costs that does not contain the words “volatile” and “explosive”. One way to at least partially counter volatility is to bundle transport volumes. The magic word here is “cooperation”.

In the increasingly oligopolistic sea freight business, the company Shift X (which has changed its name from “X Staff”) is trying to encourage companies that import from the Far East to follow its example. It has already enjoyed a certain amount of success in the DIY and gardening industry, among others: a number of members of the Haus und Garten (HHG) and Industrieverband Garten (IVG) manufacturers' associations are on board.

How, exactly? They book their containers from China and other Southeast Asian countries not directly with the shipping company or freight forwarder, but with Shift X. They buy together, so to speak – not products, but the transport service, which is cheaper and more predictable for them as a result.

And it is not only suppliers who are doing this – retailers are also on board: the Swiss company Coop, which is active in the DIY store business through its Jumbo sales line (to which the Coop Bau + Hobby stores have also been converted) and as a Hagebau shareholder, as well as the Belgian retail group Colruyt. Synlog managing director Markus Schering provides further details in an interview in this issue.

Shift X invites the community of collaborators and other interested parties from the logistics industry to an annual conference in a port city, not least to strengthen the community; this year's conference is in Hamburg. The BCO Conference brings together the so-called Beneficial Cargo Owners, the actual owners of the goods transported.

Because the DIY and gardening sector is a focus of Shift X activities, the organizers also invited Rainer Strnad, editor-in-chief of diY. He moderated a panel discussion with Jürgen Leuprecht from Dolle, Stefan Baumann from Coop and Gunther Desmet from Colruyt on the core topic of the Shift X business model: “Growing together: the advantages and obstacles of cooperative networks”. The tenor of the discussion round: this is the only way to do it.

But the conference, with high-profile speakers such as Jens Meier, CEO of the Port of Hamburg, was by no means just about self-assurance. The event focused on detailed information about the current situation in the sea freight market and the possibilities of digitization and standardization, which have not yet been…