A freight forwarder, Mr Emmanuel Chukwuma has been speaking about how technology adoption by contemporary freight forwarding operators in Nigeria has positively changed the face of the business.
Chukwuma, who is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Lagos-based ELROL Integrated Services Limited, spoke recently in an exclusive interview with DigitalTimesNG.
He said that unlike before, there is now more comfortable ease in doing the business of freight forwarding as a result of disruptions arising from the avalanche of technology applications available for operators to run their business.
“Now, I stay in the comfort of my office or home and transact multi-million naira business without being physically present with the client. All I need do is use my mobile device for all the communications, be it voice or data information.
“Before now, you could imagine the man-hour spent on entering the car from this office to either, the Airport, Tin Can Island or the Wharf to go and effect the clearance of goods. Just imagine the risk on the road as well as the time consumption in doing all of these as a result of traffic challenges.
“But right now, I stay in my office, make calls, send emails, and monitor or track the movement of my client’s goods. What I can achieve now in a day here using technology tools, if it were before, I cannot achieve that in a week because then, we were in the analogue era. Thank God for the availability of technology.
“I process my documents here and relate to the customs and other agencies without necessarily making myself physically present before them. The adoption of technology has also drastically reduced if not completely prevented fraud in the business of freight forwarding. The government too has stopped losing money fraudulently,” the ELROL boss said.
Chukwuma, whose company is also into Air & Sea freights, Shipping, Procurement, Logistics Consultancy and Marine Logistics, noted that technology is quite essential in modern-day freight forwarding business especially for those who are in the business for profit-making.
He, however, admitted that even with the prevalence of technology, there are still some people operating in the industry unmindful of technology and its role in enhancing the business.
“People are still operating the analogue way despite the progress made in the business by the use of technology. I don’t think those people are freight forwarders because you can’t do business in this industry now if you don’t adopt technology tools; you cannot as well be a global player because you need to monitor shipments from abroad by your clients.
“As it stands now, for you to answer a freight forwarder, you must adopt technology in your operational practices. You must have an operational base that is well-equipped with technology tools that would enhance service delivery. Technology for me is not optional in this business but a compulsory aspect of the business. It has completely reduced the cost of running a business, cutting down overhead cost and the rest of that,” he said.
Chukwuma stated that as a full-fledged freight forwarding company, ELROL Integrated Services Limited was borne out of the idea to create a service that best understands and fulfils Logistic needs, adding that the reality now, is that since incorporation, and riding on about two decades of field experience, ELROL has become one of the leading lights that continually delivers exceptional values across the procurement chain.
He said that with COMPASS- that ancient but modern tool that has always helped people navigate both the charted routes and the uncharted odysseys which logistics projects are wont to be, as its corporate icon, ELROL gives clients the freedom to explore the Supply Chain horizons of Nigeria, the ECOWAS region and the entire world, without apprehension about missing one’s way or money.
“What we do here is the traditional moving of consignments from the ports to the warehouse of our clients. At the global level, we can pick consignment from any part of the world to any choice destination of our client. Part of our mantra here is that ‘your satisfaction is our fulfilment’; we are not fulfilled unless our clients are satisfied.
“For us, quality service delivery is not negotiable; it’s something we value here a great deal. We deploy every available resource to effectively deliver service to our clients. That’s what has distinguished us from other players. We have the skill, competence, capacity, intelligence and resources to deliver anywhere.”
“One of the challenges in this industry is that there are people who want to make the money but do not know how to provide the service that would give satisfaction to the client. For us here, once you engage us to work for you, we automatically take the stress involved in the job; we don’t need to stress our client because we are working for him.
“We respect clients’ instructions here. We make sure that the cost to our clients is friendly but while at the same time making sure that the quality of service is not compromised. We don’t joke with the issue of training here, from me down to whosoever, we ensure training of staff because the industry is quite dynamic. We always want to deliver professional services,” Chukwuma said.