the speed of their container services by 10 and some UK 每 Irish ferries will also be freight company going slower, making the shipping company customers wait a little longer for their freight forwarding but reducing carbon emissions.Another area where freight forwarding companies are looking to reduce their impact on the freight company environment is taking away for recycling the cardboard and other packaging used to protect goods during freight forwarding. Where new warehouses and depots are being built by shipping companies, there is now more interest in freight company developing these on previously used brown field sites rather than green field locations.And at an infrastructure level, there is European government interest in further developing the role of both railways and inland waterways in freight transport, so as to r in the 14th century that Antwerp started to develop as a freight company port and today it is the fourth largest port in the world and the second largest port in Europe. Antwerp offers short transit times to all the world s main destinations. In 2007, almost 17,000 ships carrying cargo of over 180 million freight company tonnes docked in Antwerp. Antwerp is also the fastest growing port for container transport within the Hamburg Le Havre range. As well as sea ports at Antwerp, Zeebrugge, Ostend, Liege, Brussels, and Ghent, Belgium has also freight company established an efficient freight transport infrastructure made up of motorways, railways and waterways.Belgium s extensive inland waterway network, which is over 1500 kilometres long, connects the major Belgian sea ports to Europe s inland waterways, which are another important facility for shipping companies. Belgium s main rivers, the Scheldt and the Maas, and their connecting canals and tributaries, cover the whole country.This is the second largest system of waterways in Europe and offers very efficient transport for freight forwarding that is both environmentally friendly and cost efficient for the shipping company or freight company.Belgium ha educe the impact on the environment as both of these modes of transport are considered to have a much lower carbon footprint than road particularly when the movement involves freight shipments that are heavy and or bulky.By responding to growing interest in protecting the environment, the international freight industry is also able to make savings that can be passed onto freight forwarding customers, for example the savings in fuel costs as a result of investing in the latest fuel efficient vehicles or aircraft. In an era of ever increasing fuel costs these savings can form a highly significant proportion of total freight transport costs.ICT has also made a difference to freight forwarders＊ impact on the environment, with a lot of the documentation and freight transport updates now being made electronically rather than by using paper. So how far will shipping companies go as they look to become more sustainable in the future? Reducing the environmental impact of freight transport is a big challenge but one that the freight transport industry is rising to meet. In future, it is likely that the international freight industry will segment, as many other markets have already done, to include ＆green＊ options for freight services, catering for the needs of those businesses that are demanding them.Author’s Resource BoxStephen Willis is Managing Director of RW Freight Services a UK based freight transport company, established in 1971 and operating worldwide freight servicesFreight Forwarders Face New ChallengesAuthor : Stephen WillisSubmitted : freight company 2008-11-10 00:00:00 Word Count : 652 Popularity: 27 Tags: Freight services, shipping companies, international freight, freight transport, china import, freight forwarding, freight company, shipping company Author RSS FeedWith increases in fuel prices and a slowing economy worldwide, the international freight industry faces new challenges.So what are the trends we are seeing in the international freight market and how will they affect the customer?The global freight forwarding market stood at 116.8 billion Euros in 2007, growing by just under 11%.This was the lowest level of growth seen by the international freight market for four years. The slowdown was caused mainly by the impact of the weak economy in freight company the US on the freight forwarding market but, with the European economy now also showing signs of trouble, growth in freight forwarding is expected to slow still further this year and next.The credit crunch has had a big impact on China import to the US, a freight forwarding market which had previously been flying high. Although this decline in freight forwarding was offset a little by an increase in US exports caused by the weakness of the dollar, shipping companies are now thinking about how best to weather stormy market conditions ahead. The good news is that as they are asset light, freight forwarding companies are better placed than some to ride out the http://www.gfsforwarding.com/