express series english for logistics by marion grussendorf published in copyright oxford university press 2009 unit 1 exercise 1 speaker one logistics means that you manage the procurement and movement of goods and the storage of inventory speaker two it means the delivery of the goods the customer needs at the right time in the right place and of the right quality speaker three my definition of logistics is this it's to plan organize and manage operations that provide services and goods speaker iv logistics that's the purchasing maintenance distribution and replacement of material and staff speaker five logistics is the planning and support of operations such as warehousing inventory transport procurement supply and maintenance unit 1 exercise 5 speaker 1. my job is to organize the transport of goods either by sea air road or rail an important part of the job is dealing with customer requests about the most suitable mode of transport my responsibilities also include negotiating good shipping rates with shipping lines and transport companies i also make booking reservations that means i book space on a ship train glory or airplane another part of the job is to consolidate a number of shipments under one bill of lading apart from that i have to deal with all the necessary documentation and in many cases i arrange customs clearance on behalf of my clients speaker 2 i'm responsible for getting freight and passengers to their destination safely and on schedule most of my customers are international transport or shipping companies in my job i have to make sure that the cargo is not damaged on board the ship or while loading or unloading i'm also responsible for financial aspects that means for example i have to keep an eye on the budget and estimate costs additionally i advise customers on shipping rates and prepare quotations for our sales office three generally my job is to know where every piece of stock is at any given moment when new goods arrive i check where to put them in the warehouse for all this i use modern computer systems and sophisticated hardware and software our warehouse management system helps us store and retrieve the goods quickly another part of my job is to liaise with departments such as transport and production apart from that i ensure that vehicles machines and any other kind of equipment are maintained to a high level and last but not least i take care that health and safety standards are maintained unit 2 exercise 3 provider one we are one of the world's leading transport companies with a freight volume of six hundred thousand containers per year as a major non-vessel operating common carrier nvocc we can offer our customers competitive rates with all major shipping lines as well as flexible solutions for different sea freight requirements we specialize in solutions for full container loads fcl and less than container consolidated loads lcl we also provide our customers with services such as web-based tracking for cargo in transit provider 2 as a specialist in home textiles we can offer our clients customized services to meet their needs with more than 25 years experience in the industry and a modern fleet of vehicles we can ensure fast safe delivery of your consignments our services include order picking packing distribution and handling of all transport documentation our team will be happy to assist you in all matters regarding your order provider three cargo express is asia's leading provider of air freight services specializing in consolidated air freight forwarding we can provide you with tailor-made solutions for your air transport requirements we work closely with air carriers around the world and can offer our customers a wide range of flexible and cost-effective services these include collection consolidation customs clearance distribution and online tracking of all cargo movements unit two exercise five one as a major non-vessel operating common carrier we can offer our customers competitive rates with all major shipping lines two we specialize in solutions for full container loads fcl and less than container consolidated loads lcl three as a specialist in home textiles we can offer our clients customized services to meet their needs four our team will be happy to assist you in all matters regarding your order five we can provide you with tailor-made solutions for your air transport requirements six we work closely with air carriers around the world and can offer our customers a wide range of flexible and cost effective services unit 2 exercise 12 speaker one express logistics online shipping with our quick online shipping tool you can find the right service to suit your shipping needs this online tool allows you to plan shipments book collections and deliveries and keep track of your consignments using this system you can also prepare shipping and customs documentation and check shipment records for up to 90 days to use quas simply log on by selecting your town or region from the drop down menu on the left 2 intercargo eshipping our web-based booking system offers you an extensive range of e-services designed to simplify your shipping requirements after registering with eshipping you can make price requests schedule transport and obtain real-time shipment information with this user-friendly tool you can receive quotations for worldwide shipments and place orders you can also track pickups and deliveries with a mouse click you can also download commercial documents in pdf format unit 3 exercise 2 today i'm going to tell you something about crp that means continuous replenishment i'll also explain how it can be used to lower inventory and operational costs and to shorten product lead times let me start by explaining what crp means it is a system which is activated by consumer demand and which coordinates the flow of information and goods in the logistic chain crp is a sales based ordering system which works like this first of all you decide what products you want to order at what stock level the system will use this information at the point of sale in the retail store then the order is processed at the warehouse and finally the goods are delivered to the retailer to illustrate how this works in practice i'll give you an example the leading russian clothes retailer young fashion introduced continuous replenishment three years ago with the new system all orders are generated by computers which process data received from cash registers the computer program which is extremely flexible is called a retail ordering assistant the orders are sent to the warehouse by electronic data interchange where they are processed and finally the goods are delivered to the different outlets according to a schedule since the introduction of the crp system young fashion have managed to cut inventory and transport costs by about 15 percent and have reduced lead time to only 18 hours moreover errors in order processing have been reduced considerably by using scanning technology and edi unit three exercise nine okay let's get started you know that we need to discuss negotiation strategies with one of our medical equipment suppliers today i suppose we all agree that we are interested in a more cooperative relationship with our supplier baf i think we would definitely benefit from a strategic partnership how do you feel about that i agree i think we could lower costs considerably and work more efficiently if we cooperate it more closely but we need to think about reasons why they should enter into a partnership with us what are your thoughts on that gizelle i think you're right that's why we should tell them that it will be to their advantage to work with us because we are the market leader yes and i also suggest telling them that this is a good opportunity to associate with a major pharmaceutical brand like ours that sounds good in my opinion it would also be important to point out that we are interested in establishing a long-term agreement good idea and why don't we say that it's their chance to enter the pharmaceutical market so far they haven't had access to this market yes good point excellent thanks for your comments i'll work out a catalogue with the points we have covered today and we'll send it to you tomorrow unit 4 exercise 2. well basically we have three shipping options we can use inland waterways road or rail right let's start with the river barge how long would it take to ship the consignment by barge normally about six days but it often takes longer if the weather's bad and what about cost and flexibility it's cheap it's actually the cheapest of all the transport options it's not very flexible though mainly because there are only infrequent sailings there are badges to shanghai twice a week okay let's look at road transport it would only take four days to ship by truck but the cost would be about 50 higher than by barge yes but wouldn't it be much easier that's true let's see how this compares with rail rail would definitely be faster than the truck option if we use the express service that takes three days but it would also be more expensive than shipping by road transport costs are about 40 percent higher and the system isn't very flexible sometimes it is only possible to book space on the express train a few weeks in advance and then perhaps we'd have to use the standard train which is much slower so i think we need to check with our customer first and find out what's most important to them unit 4 exercise 8 first of all we offer the general purpose container for any general dry cargo it comes with a timber floor and has various lashing devices to secure the load these lashing points are located horizontally at floor level and vertically next to the door corner posts our refrigerated container called reefer can be used for delicate cargo and perishables it is temperature controlled and is particularly suitable for cargo that needs regulated or cool temperatures with our reefer your cargo reaches its destination in perfect condition if you want to ship liquids for example foodstuffs or chemicals we can provide you with our tank container this is a standard container frame with a tank fitted inside as an extra we also offer tank containers with electric plugs in case the cargo needs cooling or heating during transport for bulky cargo we recommend the open top container it comes with a pvc tarpaulin cover instead of a roof panel to allow loading from the top the doors can be removed to make loading easier last but not least there is our flat rack container which is especially designed for heavy loads we recommend this special type of container for the transportation of heavy machinery and pipes unit five exercise one global freight logistics simon dawson speaking hello this is paula santini from army italia i'm calling about the train options described on your website could you tell me a bit more about them yes of course what exactly would you like to know we have some new customers in the uk and will need to ship marble and granite to london next month what would be the best rail option for us that depends for large volumes i would recommend using block train transport if you want to ship smaller quantities the single wagon option would be more suitable i see how flexible are the various options i mean how early would we need to place our order if flexibility is important i would suggest that you book the flexi train block train option it's a bit more expensive but with that you can place your order up to 24 hours before the actual shipping date as an alternative i can suggest single car transport which is even more flexible you can order up to two hours before collection that sounds good of course it is always cheaper if you can plan transport well ahead in that case we should also consider the other block train options okay just one last question how much time would we have for a loading at least seven hours but we could arrange longer loading times if you like thank you very much for your help i'll get back to you as soon as i have our customer specific transport requirements fine i look forward to hearing from you again goodbye bye unit five exercise six okay so this is one of our larger containers the 40 foot open top its tear weight is 4030 kilos that is 880 pounds its gross weight is 32 500 kilos and here are the internal measurements of the container the open top containers length inside is 12 meters or 39 foot five inches its internal width is 2.35 meters and its height is two point three two meters that's seven foot seven inches and the containers maximum payload is twenty eight thousand four hundred and seventy kilos unit 5 exercise 12. ift international forwarders martin smith how can i help you hello this is carla hansen from cooler sweden i need a quotation for air freight to the united arab emirates i've been trying to complete the online quotation form but it keeps crashing oh sorry about that we have had some problems with it recently i'll see if i can retrieve it you said your name was hanson didn't you yes that's right okay here it is well it saved some of your details we can go through the rest of the consignment details over the phone and i'll fill in the quotation for you thanks go ahead okay um let's start with the freight details could you briefly describe the goods you want to ship they're cooling units and they're going to dubai okay so that's non-hazardous material how many units do you want to ship 15 boxes with a gross weight of 150 kilograms each right and the size of each box each box is 170 centimeters high 145 centimeters wide and 82 centimeters deep i think the volume would be about 30 cubic meters okay let me just check that for you hold the line hello hi okay so the volume would be 30.31 cubic meters for the whole consignment uh where do you want to ship the goods from stockholm sweden and when would you like the units to be collected at your premises on august 3rd okay got that when should delivery be made it's very important that our customer receives the units on august 6th would that be a problem i don't think so but i'll check do you have any other special requirements no just that delivery date okay i'll get back to you with a quotation within the next two hours could you give me your telephone and fax numbers please yes of course my number is zero zero four six eight nine zero two six five zero three zero and the fax number is zero zero four six eight nine zero two six five zero three nine and my name is carla hansen thanks very much miss hanson i'll speak to you soon goodbye thank you bye unit six exercise five john frederickson export logistics hi john this is sonya i'm just phoning about your email hi sonja thanks for getting back to me so quickly so what can we do about glp in france i think we've really got a problem here unfortunately we can't use one of our regular forwarders for this shipment i've talked to all of them and the fastest service would take 48 hours can't we use someone that specializes in express deliveries not really i've checked this option too but i'm not sure it would work for us because they offer a very limited loading capacity this means that we would have several smaller partial deliveries and we'd have to pay a lot more as a result [Music] what about the weekend delivery that's possible isn't it i'm afraid not we can't deliver at the weekend because of the hdv driving ban on saturdays and sundays oh dear i had no idea this delivery would cause so many problems i'll talk to glp again and we'll get back to you later thanks for your help no problem speak to you soon bye bye unit 7 exercise five okay let's get started we are here today to discuss how we can improve our warehouse management system which as you all know is outdated and not very efficient i think this new warehouse area management system wms 2x would help us cut costs and optimize our processes let me give you some of its main features and benefits one great advantage of wms2x is that we could reduce the number of warehouses across canada by centralizing the inventories in one single location this means that we could service all our north american customers from one warehouse another interesting feature of wms2x is customer order cycle times it optimizes processes and can reduce customer order cycle times by up to twenty five percent if we manage to improve our processes in this area we could increase customer satisfaction by getting the goods to them faster warehouse management could be improved as well by transferring departments now working at different places to one single place this could involve the areas receiving order picking and packing wms 2x would also help us reduce warehouse area and ground space i think it's another big plus point that we could have just one warehouse floor instead of the four we have now this could be achieved by installing an automated storage and retrieval system the new system would also enable us to track the material flow at any given moment and one last advantage is the print on demand feature this allows printing of labels brochures and customer guidelines in 25 languages unit seven exercise nine okay uh this is how the system works it's actually quite simple after the goods have arrived at the packing location the first step is to scan in the barcode of the shipping box after that you enter the packing location dialog okay i got that what is the next step well following that you can see and access all positions in the picking container i see if you use this function you can form one or several packages and once the package is complete the system will automatically calculate the weight using a dated interface between the scales and the system sounds good what about the shipping labels that is actually the next step the system will print the shipping label after you have selected the means of transport and now we come to the last stage of this process after the order has been completed the delivery note is printed automatically unit 8 exercise three conversation one hi peter it's simon here hi simon how are you doing fine thanks um listen peter i've just had a call from our customer in iceland they are very upset because that shipment of bath pearls in plastic containers which was supposed to be delivered this morning hasn't arrived yet do you know anything about this sorry i have no idea at the moment but i'll find out do you want me to get in touch with a customer as soon as i know what the problem is yes that would be great the customer says they urgently need the consignment because they want to start packaging on monday okay i'll get onto it straight away talk to you later then bye bye conversation two a beauty pharma pre-take part speaking hello ms ekberg this is peter bott from vita cosmetics i understand there is a problem regarding the shipment of bath pearls you should have received this morning yes well the containers still haven't arrived what's the problem i've just checked all the documents and it seems that we used the wrong address your consignment was delivered to another customer by mistake i'm really sorry about this miss egbert but i'll do everything i can to get this problem sorted out if i talk to our forwarders here in the uk now i'm sure we'll find a solution okay but make sure we have the consignment by monday otherwise we'll be in serious trouble yes i understand i'll get back to you as soon as i've spoken to the forwarder conversation three hello miss egbert this is peter bott again i've just talked to our freight forwarders here in the uk they'll pick up the containers at the other customers premises tomorrow morning and get them shipped to iceland by express cargo that way you should have them by friday afternoon would that be okay for you yes that sounds good excellent there's just one other thing as i said before the address on the documents traveling with the containers is wrong could you make sure that your logistics people know that otherwise the consignment might be rejected at the gate yes i'll see to that thanks for your help it's the least i can do let me know if there are any other problems i will bye unit eight exercise ten speaker one open account we mainly do business in europe where most of our customers expect us to give them open account terms obviously this method of payment is good for the buyers but not for us as exporters because we don't really have any control over the payment process we can ask the customer to pay at a certain date or within a certain period but we can never be sure that they will pay then to protect ourselves against non-payment or customer insolvency we usually take out credit insurance speaker 2. letter of credit with customers we haven't done business with before we always use a letter of credit it allows us to agree detailed terms with the buyer which can't be changed once they have been fixed above all it's one of the most secure payment methods in foreign trade the buyers and sellers bank work together and offer the seller a commitment of payment with a documentary credit like this we can be sure that we'll be paid for the goods we supply speaker three advanced payment we're a small company specializing in high quality computer hardware our company policy is that customers have to pay up front that means the customers transfer the money before we ship the hardware to them because we're a small business our cash flow situation doesn't allow us to offer customers longer credit periods we wouldn't be able to cope with delayed payment or customers not paying at all for us as sellers it's the most secure payment method we know of course that most of our customers would prefer other payment facilities