To guarantee a smooth goods movement, freight forwarders are main actors who organize the transportation chain and who work directly with enterprise customers. They act as intermediates between shippers and transportationcarriers. Most enterprises contact freight forwarders as the only window for transport organization and a great part of shipping volume is sent to carriers by freight forwarders. It is therefore surprising that there is relatively little literature about freight forwarders in the practice of global sourcing. As a labour intensive industry, history of global sourcing in the apparel industry can trace back to the sixties in the twentieth century. The structure of this industry is quite complex and integration within the industry is not as common as others industries like electronics or automobiles. Most exchange of goods happen among different companies not belonging to the same group. Small and medium firms exist numerously in theapparel industry. Thus a network of transportation arranged by a large number of freight forwarders is very common. An empirical research in the apparel industry helps us to understand how freight forwarders ensure the efficient flow of goods when apparel firms practice global sourcing. Every actor in the apparel commodity chain, retailers, trading companies, and subcontract producers were interviewed. A lot of subcontractors and trading companies interviewed are located in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and retailers interviewed are located in France, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Each actor has his different role in the global value chain. It was enquired how they deal with their transportation of materials and goods, how they partition responsibility, what their concerns about transportation are, and how they work with their contract freight forwarders or logistics companies. Freight forwarders and logistics companies working in the apparel industry were also interviewed. The scale and working content of these companiesvaries a lot, and so does their strategy. The way a brand chain deals with their transportation and logistics is different from that for a department store or an independent retail shop. What a small forwarder can offer to their customers might be different from a global freight forwarder. The relationship between shippers and forwarders is quite long-term and stable, especially between SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) and forwarders. Usually, forwarders know a lot about international trade, so sometimes theyact more than a simple contractor of transportation for their customers. Moreover, some forwarding and logistics activities are integrated to conventional activities in the apparel industry to insure a more efficient commercial flow. For the covering abstract see ITRD E145999
Samenvatting