Good morning everyone,

Following on from my comments re Maersk Spot last week, I thought I would let you know that I had 149 emails from Forwarders in direct response to its content.

I was actually staggered by the anecdotal evidence pertaining to others experiences and the 100% positive feedback I was given.

Some said I had big cohunes’ , others said it was about time someone called out shipping lines/carriers blatant profiteering during the past 2 years and the seeming new trend to try and push the Freight Forwarders out.

All I would say is that the day they can provide a better service to direct customers than the Aussie and Kiwi Forwarders do, ill eat my damned hat……

One asked why I would stick my neck out so far and I thought id comment on that; I’ve been around in this Industry for a bloody life time (well nearly) I am married to it, in New Zealand I was one of the Industry founders.

I am passionate about it and that’s why I’m prepared to stick that neck out and call s..t out. I’m not worried about being cancelled because I really don’t give a damn what a few knockers may think.

So what else would you like me to share comment about ?

Let me know and ill do my research and use my platform to alert the industry Nationwide.

Now on to the new April National LCL Export Tariff, its done and is ready to be downloaded from the below link;

https://www.eifc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/EIFC-NATIONAL-EXPORT-LCL-TARIFF-1st-April-2022.xlsx

wishing you a fantastic day ahead

Lance Evans and the bloody fantastic Mac-nels Evans Export Seafreight team

Industry wide Warning to all Freight Forwarders;

Today I wanted to share with you an incredibly alarming experience we have endured with trying to ship on Maersk line/Hamburg Sud using Maersk Spot.

A preamble for those not aware; late last year the respected Carrier Hamburg Sud (now owned by Maersk) made several Forwarder customers aware that the contracts they had were not going to be renewed and that only the actual BCO’s would be offered rate contracts; meaning if a Forwarder wants to get a booking they had to go on to the Maersk website and do a “spot” booking/rate request on an individual shipment basis.

I vowed and declared publicly that we would put HS and Maersk on our DO NOT USE EVER list as it was, in my opinion, a full frontal attack on our industry.

We were then approached by our Carrier rep with whom we have had a long and close relationship and they literally begged us to give them a try.

I respect relationships as one of my pillars of business and so relented and gave the go ahead for my team to explore this.

We did an intensive training session with their Maersk Spot program leaders ; all good so far….

We made a booking on the 7^th Feb 2022 from Melbourne to Lyttleton for 1 x 40ft on the Vessel Safmarine Bayete V209N ETD 05.03.2022

We received a rate that was comparable to ANL of about usd2000 (all up) booked about 5 weeks out

Two weeks later on the 22^nd Feb we requested an amendment to the destination (from Lyttleton to Auckland) as requested by our customer, and expected the usd400 amendment fee as we had been instructed in our training .

Guess what happened ????

We received an invoice for close to Ten Thousand US$ for this 40ft.

It appears that they can change the pricing !!!!

I have shielded our Forwarder Customer to this ludicrous price increase and charged them what we had quoted and I have paid the Maersk invoice even though I am about 10k AUD out of pocket.

In the background we have tried appealing to their management but to no avail. …………..( I am happy to share with you their written response should you be interested )

So today my message is (and I implore you on this), do not risk using Maersk Spot, in my opinion it will one day bite you in the bit that hurts…your wallet

I feel so strongly about this I have stuck my neck out to give you this warning, I hope it saves you the same very expensive fate

My best

Lance Evans

CEO

Mac-nels Evans International Freight Consolidators