Folk Shipping - Magaya

CASE STUDY:
Folk Shipping
Freight Forwarder
Folk Shipping’s Five Essentials
Folk Shipping transports exotic cars, antiques and machinery in containers
or via RORO to the Middle East and Europe. Owner and president Tarek
Abdallah uses his Magaya Cargo System to keep his customers informed with
important shipment details.
,
We pride ourselves on providing
5-star service.
,
Tarek Abdallah, President, Folk Shipping

Folk Shipping
At a Glance
Challenges
Shipping has its challenges on a regular basis, but unpredictable
events such as weather and war can throw even greater challenges into
the path. International unrest and protests in the Middle East caused
some carriers to suspend shipping to certain ports in those regions. For
example, as of February 7, 2012, FedEx announced a service suspension
for Libya until further notice in compliance with a U.S. Executive Order.
For freight forwarders working in affected regions, staying informed is
required to reduce issues and to maintain customer service levels.
Folk Shipping’s president Tarek Abdallah reads the daily news about
destinations in the Middle East that he ships to so he can keep up on
events that might affect shipping for his customers.
Folk Shipping arranges and transports vehicles via ocean RORO and
containers. They also work with partners when customers need air
freight. “We can ship any cargo, A to Z. No job is too big or too small,”
Mr. Abdallah said. They regularly ship via ocean from the United States.
The destination agents they work with are in ports in Turkey, Lebanon,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Dubai, Jordan, France, and Italy.
Mr. Abdallah communicates with agents and customers in the Middle
East so frequently that he knows by heart what time it is in each
country. But time zone differences are not something he worries
about. He runs his freight forwarding business with the Magaya Cargo
System and benefits from many features that make communicating
around the world easy. For example, he emails shipping documents to
agents directly from the software, saving time.
Mr. Abdallah explained his own approach to making sure he gets his
customers vital details. “We keep our customers informed about their
shipments by giving them what I call the ‘Five Essentials:’ the booking,
the vessel name, the voyage number, estimated times of departure
and arrival, and the cut-off time at the port. All this is in the Booking
form in our Magaya system.”
Shipping Cars
Folk Shipping
www.chakerinc.com
Industry
Freight Forwarder
Solution
Magaya Cargo System
Mr. Abdallah named his freight forwarding company, “Folk” after the
Arabic word for vessel. He learned about shipping cargo, especially
Folk Shipping Co. is a global logistics company that provides international business
services to over 200 countries worldwide. They offer FCL and LCL services, door-to-door
service, Roll On Roll Off (RORO) shipping, consolidation and loading of cars nationwide,
and more.
vehicles to the Middle East and
Europe, when he started shipping
cars for another freight company
years ago. Now it’s a specialty for
Folk Shipping and his NVOCC, Marina
Line.
Since opening in 2004, Folk Shipping
has provided transportation for
a variety of customers such as
the Lebanese Prime Minister
and members of royal families
in the Middle East. Folk Shipping
also provides inland transportation from the US to Mexico or other
locations. For example, one of their inland shipments consisted
of delivering passenger cars and personal effects for the Kuwaiti
ambassador who moved from the US to his new post in Mexico. “We
arranged the transportation while we worked with a third party that
specializes in providing all the documentation which must be clearly
labeled as “diplomatic” in accordance with US State Department
requirements.”
Folk Shipping has moved antique and luxury cars and oversized
machinery such as loaders and tractors. Dealerships that ship used cars
are their main customers, in addition to individuals who need vehicles
shipped out of the US. Folk handles the pickup, the export clearances
through US Customs, and shipment to the foreign destination.
“For the countries that we ship to regularly, we know the restrictions for
used cars. We know what age of cars we can ship to certain countries,”
he explained. “For example, in October we stopped accepting
shipment requests for models older than 2004 going to Lebanon
because the journey by sea takes 30 to 45 days from a port on the Gulf
of Mexico or U.S. East Coast. We know that by the time the car arrives,
the cut-off date for those models will have passed. We don’t load a car
unless we know it’s going to clear.”
Also making the shipment run smoothly are the software features such
as the VIN screen. It accepts title information, weight and dimensions,
year, make and model of the car and receiver’s name.

Folk Shipping
When selecting an ocean carrier, Mr. Abdallah looks at destination
and price but also which shipping lines go to which locations most
often and can then offer better rates and more options for journeys
and dates. “We have good relationships at the carriers and know all
the charges so there aren’t any surprises such as unforeseen collect
charges for our customers,” he said. “We are transparent and quote
everything up front.”
Software as an All-in-One System
Mr. Abdallah learned about the Magaya software from two friends
who were using it. Since then, he recommended the software to an
agent in Lebanon who is now working with it. “What the agent had
was nothing compared to Magaya. Now they have a reliable shipping
system, know who their customers are, and can account for their
money; it’s an all-in-one system,” he said.
In his over 15 years of experience in the logistics industry, he has
used other software programs but found them too expensive and
unnecessarily complicated. “Magaya is more user friendly. We were
trained over the phone and used the videos, which are free to use as
many times as we wanted. I remember calling Jose (his logistics advisor
at Magaya) to tell him we were ready to switch to Magaya after only a
few days. That’s all it took to get started with the software.”
this is why we stick with Magaya. And customer support is amazing.
For example, I called one day with a question to customize the Bill of
Lading. When I was on hold, I remembered how to make the change,
so I hung up. They called me back. They didn’t reach me, so they left
a message, and then they called me back again to make sure I got an
answer. You will not find that level of customer service anywhere.”
In Conclusion
“We are a Mom and Pop shop and like to be known that way,” Mr.
Abdallah said. “We’re not a large corporation. You can communicate
with us any time.”
He and his wife run the office in Arlington. They recently opened a
satellite office in Houston, “at very little expense to us,” he said. “You
just add another license, and the software grows with you.”
They are managing their growth to maintain their good name and a
consistent reputation. “When people talk about working with us, we
want them to say, ‘It was painless.’ We pride ourselves on providing
5-star service. All our customers come to us from referrals. We want our
customers to know their shipment is important to us. We’re a company
that is here to stay.”
They customized their Bill of Lading in the software to create two
versions, one for their freight forwarding service and one for their
NVOCC business, Marina Line.
When they function as an NVOCC, they must show their company
name in the “Shipper” field of the Bill of Lading to comply with the
contract rate set with the steamship line. When they ship as a freight
forwarder, Folk Shipping includes the customer’s name in the Shipper
field.
“This customization of the form was easy to do, and it was a necessary
feature for us when selecting a logistics software,” Mr. Abdallah. “To
use either Bill of Lading is as easy as selecting the template when
creating the shipment transaction.”
“The system is well thought out and does what it is designed to do,”
he said. “And it’s low maintenance. We’ve been very happy with our
account manager at Magaya. He goes out of his way to help us, and
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