Suggestions to enhance the quality of transportation agency service at VOSA

The role of quality improvement of transport agency service for improving business efficiency ...9 1.2.1.. Over long time of development, branch Haiphong of VOSA has grown steadily with

PREFA CE

During my internship in VOSA Haiphong, I had a chance to investigate about transportation agency service This is currently one of the main business of agency Under determination of managers of VOSA, this service will play very important role in transportation field in the near future Therefore, I decided to choose the topic: “Suggestions to enhance the quality of transportation agency service at VOSA” which the aim to understand the current status of implementing this service in this agency

This dissertation consists

Student Name and Signature

NGUYEN DANG LUAN

ACKNO WLE D GEM ENT

Firstly, I would like to sincerely thank the guide of my advisor: Prof: Vuong Thu Giang and all employeesand staff of Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency in Haiphong who created conditions for me to complete this topic Due to limitation of time and knowledge, the dissertation inevitably has mistaken I look forward to the

instructions of lecturers and teacher in board of appraisal

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

LIST OF TABLES vi

LIST OF FIGURES vii

INTRODUCTION 1

1 Necessitation 1

2 Dissertation Purpose 1

3 Dissertation Object and Scope 2

4 Dissertation Methodology 2

5 Scientific and real significance of dissertation 2

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 3

1.1 Quality of transportation agency service 3

1.1.1 Service and Features of Service 3

1.1.2 Service quality and the features of service quality 4

1.1.3 Characteristics of transportation service sector 5

1.1.4 The factors constituting the quality of transport agency service 6

1.1.5 Other factors affecting to the quality of transportation agency service 8

1.2 The role of quality improvement of transport agency service for improving business efficiency 9

1.2.1 The concept, content and the necessity of improving business efficiency 9

1.2.2 The role of enhancing the quality of transportation agency service to business performance in VOSA 10

CHAPTER 2: CURRENT STATUS OF IMPLEMENTING CARGO TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA 12

2.1 Introduction about VOSA Haiphong 12

2.1.1 General description about VOSA Haiphong 12

2.1.2 History and development 12

2.1.3 Main business and mission of VOSA Haiphong 13

2.1.4 The organizational structure and functions and responsibilities of each department 15

2.1.5 Activities in term of transportation agency service of VOSA Haiphong 17

2.1.6 Business performance of VOSA Haiphong 17

2.2 The quality of transportation agency service at VOSA Haiphong 20

2.2.1 Safety (Avoidance of cargo loss and damage) 20

2.2.2 Time (Speed) 23

2.2.3 Cost 25

2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of implementation of transportation agency service at VOSA Haiphong 28

2.3.1 Advantages 28

2.3.2 Disadvantages 29

CHAPTER 3: SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAIPHONG 32

3.1 Development objectives of VOSA 32

3.1.1 Main objectives of company 32

3.1.2 Strategies for the medium and long-term development 32

3.2 Suggestions to improve the quality of transportation agency service 33

3.2.1 Improve the quality of human resources 33

3.2.2 Improve the ability of staff in the preparation of contracts and administrative procedures 34

3.2.3 Investing in modernization of equipment in service as well as freight vehicles 35

3.2.4 Having indicator systems to monitor service quality affects customers 36

3.2.5 Have a system to collect the feedback from customers as the basis for quality management 37

3.2.6 Developing policies to encourage customers 39

3.2.7 Improve the service quality by reducing the time of transport 40

CONCLUSION 44

REFERENCES 45

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

WTO World Trade Organization

VOSA Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency

BL Bill of Lading

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Summary of indicators 8

Table 2: Revenue and profit Of VOSA Haiphong from 2011 to 2014 18

Table 3: Number of ships served by VOSA Haiphong 20

Table 4: Summary of damage cargo in the progress of implementation of transportation agency service 22

Table 5: Summarize of plan for cargo transportation 24

Table 6: Cost for business activities of VOSA Haiphong in from 2011 to 2014 26

Table 7: Suggested questionnaire for customer’s opinion about service 38

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: VOSA Haiphong 12

Figure 2: Organizational Structure of VOSA Haiphong 15

Figure 3: Progress of examining the reasons for late delivery 39

Figure 4: Selection of mean of transportation 42

INTRODUCTION

1 Necessitation

International Trade of Vietnam has grown rapidly over the past 15 years since integrating into the world economy, especially after Vietnam became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) In addition, the significant growth of Logistics has promoted people use the resources in an optimal way to deliver products and services with the highest quality and lowest costs to the last users Therein, cargo transportation is also one of the important contents of logistics and currently become an indispensable activity in the international merchandise trade However, the progress of commercialization also means that there are more competitions in cargo transportation in particular and freight forwarding in general For the transport sector, a sector with the increasingly fierce competition, in order to survive, each transport company and agency have to create its own way so as to have the best competitiveness Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency (VOSA) is a company operating effectively in the freight industry in Vietnam today Over long time of development, branch Haiphong of VOSA has grown steadily with various types of business and cargo transportation agency service was one of the most important services contributing primarily to revenue of agency Therefore, investigating and studying the business operations of VOSA Haiphong in general and cargo transportation agency activities in particular will help us have a more complete view of the development of agency and the quality of cargo transportation agency services

2 Dissertation Purpose

Investigating the quality of cargo transportation agency service at VOSA Haiphong is very necessary inorder to carry out accurate assessment about pros and cons in the implementation of this service at VOSA Haiphong From there, we can suggest some effective resolutions to contribute to enhance the quality of service that VOSA Haiphong is applying The improvement in service quality can help to promote cargo transportation activity and stabilize the steady development of business at VOSA Haiphong This is very important issues for manager and the main purpose of dissertation

3 Dissertation Object and Scope

3.1 Dissertation Object

Examining the literature about cargo transportation agency service, investigating the situation about providing cargo transportation agency service at Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency and offering some basic suggestions to enhance the service quality of cargo transportation agency service at Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency Service (VOSA)

3.2 Dissertation Scope

Cargo transportation agency service has been being applied by the company

in the period from 2011 to 2014

 Systemize the investigated indicators

5 Scientific and real significance of dissertation

Dissertation will systemize some general issues about cargo transportation field and basis to assess the quality of service as well In addition, the dissertation also generalizes the foundation and development of VOSA and assesses the quality

of offering the current cargo transportation agency service of company This will focus on finding some problems when providing service, the reason of these issues

to suggest the appropriate solutions in order to enhance the quality of cargo transportation agency service at VOSA

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Quality of transportation agency service

1.1.1 Service and Features of Service

The term “service” is used to define as “any act or performance, one party

can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything its production may or may not be tied to a physical product Service includes all economic activities whose output is not a physical product or construction, consumed at the time it is produced and provides added value in forms (such as convenience, amusement, timeliness, comfort and health) that are

essentially intangible and it concerns of its first purchaser”(Dabhade, 2013)

In other words, service is the result of at least one activity to be conducted at relationships between suppliers and customers and often not visible Which customers are organizations or individuals receiving product, consumer, service beneficiaries, final users, retailers, beneficiaries?

The supplier is an organization or individual providing products, the manufacturer, distributor, retailer or wholesaler, service providers Suppliers may be internal or outside the organization If there is a contract for the use of service, supplier may appoint a representative or use other mean of transactions Customer activity upon contact with suppliers is also important for the provision of services The provision or use of tangible products may be part of the service provider Service may be associated with the production and the supply, manufacture tangible products

Nowadays, all manufacturing activities are included small services: supply service, distribution service, warranty service, installation service It can be seen as special type of commodities However, service includes several following features:

 Intangibility: the main characteristic of services is that they have no particular tangibility or physicality This feature makes the quality of service largely depends on customer perceptions but not always customers have the same feeling

 Heterogeneity: this trait suggests the possibility for high variability in delivering service (Zeithaml V.A., 1985) because the service contains the primary contribution from people and it’s very hard to standardize the outcome of service

 Inseparability: this feature is taken into consideration to reflect the simultaneity of delivery and using service (W.J, 1963) Specifically, the progress of providing service happens in a period of time with the direct involvement of users

or customers

 Perishability: generally, services cannot be stored, reserved or carried forward to future (J.M, 1966) They operated as an open system and the unfinished services provided are not accepted

On the other hand, the existence of services depends on cooperation between providers and customers and the quality of offering service based on customer’s judgments Therefore, service providers need to have strategies so as to provide the best service to their customers

1.1.2 Service quality and the features of service quality

What is service quality and features of service quality?

The term“service quality” can be define as a comparison between customer

expectations with real company performance(Ms.U.Dhanalakshmi) Through improving the service quality and collecting the demand of market, companies can gain competitive advantage over other competitors Although can be assessed from service provider’s attributes, the concept of service quality should be approached from customer’s perspectives because of the variety in standard of assessment (Chang, 2008)

Due to the difference in characteristics of service with other particular products, the quality of service has its own different feature in comparison with common product’s quality According to (A Parasuraman, 1985), writings other literature on services proposes main themes of the characteristics of service qualities:

 The quality of service is more difficult to assess than goods quality

 The quality of service awareness usually depends on a comparison between customer’s expectation and service performance

 Quality assessments are not only on the outcome of service provided but also the process of delivering service

In addition, the stability of service needs to be taken into consideration The stability determines the repeatability of providing service and there are several types

 Stability of the service provider: the volatility of service quality is determined primarily by the service provider and customers So, with various customers (the existing customers or the new ones), businesses have to provide the service with the same standard to enhance the reputation

1.1.3 Characteristics of transportation service sector

Transportation service is a technical process to move the location of people and objects in space Under an economic standpoint, transportation service is moving the location of passengers and goods in space while simultaneously satisfy two properties: a material production activity and is an independent economic activity Transportation activities influence manufacturing and business processes through the transport costs (freight) In case the freight increases, cargo transportation services will increase production costs and affect the price of cargoes

as well Therefore, in transportation services, freight (transport cost) is an important indicator because it allows us to compare the comparative advantages among businesses Additionally, quality of transport service are assesses by the amount of cargoes flows and flow speed So, the characteristic of the transport operation is transportation speed must be guaranteed for businesses using service It creates

some requirements for transportation service providers to ensures service quality and schedule time In general, the business sector of transportation has several basic characteristics:

 Transportation speed depends largely on infrastructure and weather condition: roads system directly affect the speed and quality of transportation on the ground On the other hand, weather conditions also significantly influence cargoes transportation by air, sea or train

 The cost of transportation is considerably related to external factors: fuel costs, the price of spare parts and this can affects demand for a particular transportation service from customers

 Transportation services do not manufacture a new product but constitute the value of the product through the movement of cargoes

 Transport operations take place on a large scale because it associated with any business production Transportation delivers material to plants and transfers outputs to the place of consumption

1.1.4 The factors constituting the quality of transport agency service

Measuring the quality of service as has great significance to business In freght transportation field, providing high quality service can help companies or agency retain existing customers and attract the new ones Evaluating and measuring the quality of transportation agency service represents a tool for objectification quality level of provided services However, a tool that compares and evaluates the freight performance in such a way is missing in context of Vietnam in general Currently, it even does not exist, an agreement among foreign companies for freight transport quality Each shipper, operator, consignee has its own standards and quality measures, usually referred to different indicators and values (Albert Mancera) Several authors have taken into account the question of quality of freight transportation and most of them had agreement in the primary aspects which involved in quality of service(Gray, 1982) Eight indicators were investigated to define the quality of transportation agency service: freight rates, speed, reliability, damage, inventories, company policy, shipper market conditions and influence of the shipper’s costumers(McGinnis, 1978) Besides, four most crucial factors were

found out to associated with the quality of transportation agency service including:

freight rates, speed, reliability and damage

To have competitive advantage in cargo transport market, providers of freight transportation agency services focused on finding out the noticeable

transportation selection factors of consignees “Reliability”, “equipment

availability”, and “service frequency” were found as the most significant attributes

which attract the export and import shippers within selecting the container line (Kent, 1999) Nonetheless, the indicator “reliability” can vary based on different transportation agency selection criteria literature

Four factors (equipment availability, transit time and reliability, loss and damage, transport charges associated with shipment size) were predicted to measure the quality of cargo transportation agency service in the context of US market A difference of requirements is stated depending on the commodity (type of the cargoes) The results are based on real data However, no further work is found in this direction (Roberts, 1979) Since then, several other author continued using quite similar indicators in tranportation field According to Danielis, the shippers/consignees are willing to pay for a better quality in freight transport services, especially for reliability and safety (Danielis, 2005) Daniels claimed that the shippers are willing to pay for a good quality in freight transport services, especially for 2 main attributes: reliability and safety Although it should be taken into consideration that the concept of quality of transport service could change depending on the type and volume of cargoes and the scope of the company, because they have strong connection with certain transport or economic needs On the other hand, to assess the relative importance of Ro/Ro Ferry selection factors in freight transportation, “Rapid and reliable cargo movement”, “price”, and “fast response to problems” were discovered as the most important attributes(Meyrick, 1992)

The transport research on selection of shippers/consignees was either concentrated on the time aspect or the value of time saving for cargo transportation However, along with time, other quality indicators of freight transportation agency service, such as punctuality and avoidance of damages, become increasingly vital in the environment of present logistics services

Basing on basis of researches, shippers usually consider some attributes

“Cost”, “Time (Speed)”, “Loss and damage of cargoes (Safety)”, “Reliabilty” to select the appropriate freight transportation agency Therefore, 4 factors (Loss and damage of cargoes , Time, Cost, Reliability) can be used as indicators to measure the quality of freight trasportation agency services

Table 1: Summary of indicators

1 Avoidance of loss and damage (Safety)

 The development of engineering and technology: the innovations of engineering field through researching, discovering, inventing and applying scientific progress into manufacturing help enterprises offer service with high reliability, minimizing costs in accordance with the customer’s requirements On the other hand, technology is general technical modes, skills, methods used to transform resources into service Technology includes:

 Facilities and equipment used to provide cargoes transportation service

 Ensuring the necessary information

 Preparing the facilities, organizing and coordinating in management

 Appropriate and efficient processes for various requirement of customers

 Government policies: The ability to improve and enhance product quality, facilities for the services sector depends largely on the management mechanisms of the state Government policies as a priority service sectors can create competition and promote the innovations and quality improvement for transportation enterprises and agencies

b) Internal factors

 Labor force: Laborforces have a decisive role to the quality, especially the quality of service because employees directly involved in the service-providing process Therefore, enterprises must have specifically plans to recruit the new labor force and retrain the existing workforce to meet missions of enterprises and market demand as well

 Management level in general and management level in progress of providing high service quality in particular is one of the basic factors accelerating the improvement of service quality In cargo transportation field, the ability to accurately identify the objectives through professional management can help to reduce the time of transport

 Technological capabilities and equipment of the enterprises or agencies: The quality of service was also influenced by the modernity of facilities and equipment

So, transportation enterprises and agencies need the ability to maintain machine to fulfill the requirements of service

1.2 The role of quality improvement of transport agency service for improving business efficiency

1.2.1 The concept, content and the necessity of improving business efficiency

a) Concept: The term “efficiency” describes a level of performance that illustrates a progress that uses the lowest amount of inputs (material and resources)

to manufacture the highest amount of outputs (products or services) In other words,

efficiency in business relates to the use of all inputs in creating required output which saves personal time and energy

b) Content: Applying new advanced technology to primary business activities and main service of business has the possibility to approach the new way in which a company carries out main areas of the business, such as customer service or supply chains Through renovating current business activities into more streamlined progresses, enterprises can minimize costs, increase productivity and efficiency, meet the market requirements, reduce risk, become more responsive to continually changing business environment and create comparative advantage over other competitors

c) The necessity of improving business efficiency: The diverse and complex movement of the market mechanism led to fierce competition among enterprises, contributing to the advancement of businesses However, in order to maintain the existence and development of enterprises, it requires businesses to differentiate modes of operation, develop strategies and business plans appropriately to achieve positive results In addition, In order to improve the efficiency of production and business operations, enterprises must always improve the quality of goods and service offered, reduce production costs so they can achieve profitability goals Therefore, improving business efficiency in market mechanism is extremely important, it is expressed through:

Firstly, business efficiency improvement is fundamental basis to ensure the survival and development of enterprises

Secondly, business efficiency improvement is a factor promoting the competitiveness and progress in business

Finally, business efficiency improvement can help enterprise reach the term objective which is maximizing profit

long-1.2.2 The role of enhancing the quality of transportation agency service to business performance in VOSA

Transportation agency of VOSA was established in 1996 after the foundation

of the International transport agents in the North of Vietnam Nowadays, transportation agency service becomes the primary business of VOSA as the main

source of revenue along with other main business such as shipping agency service, warehousing service, vehicles renting, counting and forwarding service As mention above, the increase in flows of cargo transportation led to the demand of transportation service as well In addition, cargoes owners, ship-owners now have more strict and detailed requirements for transportation agency service and the strong competition of transportation field requires Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency

to have particular objectives and carry out necessary resolutions in order to compete

in this market The transportation agency service as the main business plays very important role in encouraging the business performance of company and providing high standard of service quality can help VOSA attract ship-owners, cargoes owners, which is the basis for increasing company’s profit and company long-term development as well

CHAPTER 2: CURRENT STATUSOF IMPLEMENTING CARGO TRANSPORTATION

AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA 2.1 Introduction about VOSA Haiphong

2.1.1 General description about VOSA Haiphong

Figure 1: VOSA Haiphong

 Company name : Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency Corporation

 Transaction name : VOSA Group of Co

 Address : 25 Dien Bien Phu Str., Hai Phong City, Viet Nam

 Telephone : 84.313.551408/ 3551032/ 3551321/ 3855846/ 3551319

 Fax : 84.313.859915/ 3859842/ 3550864/ 3551131

 Email : ops.dept@vosahp.com.vn

 Website : http://www.vosa.com.vn/

 Director : Mr Le Thanh Hai

2.1.2 History and development

VOSA Haiphong is the branch of Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency Corporation which was recognized as government-owned corporation on May 12th

1993 with many functions such as shipping agent, cargo transportation agent, cargo exporting and importing, ship broker and shipping transactions, agents for foreign shipping lines, warehousing On August 2nd 1993, Vietnam Maritime Administration has issued Decision No 439 / QD-TCCB-LD which regulated about the operation of VOSA Haiphong under Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency as a division with legal personality VOSA Haiphong has right to sign contracts with international organizations within and outside the country and to use the material

resources and foreign technology to serve business production

With the nature of the industry deeply affected by the development of the economy, the development of import and export goods and the development of the dock port, Haiphong VOSA has made certain changes in the development process

to fit the market economy of our country Thanks to capture early market shifts, VOSA Haiphong has maintained the traditional agency and gradually works into other business areas to increase incomes for businesses

As a company with traditional partners, VOSA Haiphong has made efforts to maintain and ensure its credibility In general, infrastructure and geographic location of the business is relatively favorable for production and business activities, particularly for the traditional shipping agency

Operational range of maritime services sectors at VOSA has widespread network at the local and important port in the country, creating competitive strength

in maritime services, especially for shipping agency services

2.1.3 Main business and mission of VOSA Haiphong

 Main business

In general, VOSA Haiphong has service provided as follow:

 Shipping Agent Service

Ship chandler service

Brokerage and maritime services

Service customs clearance, shipping and unloading, packing goods imports

 Transportation Agency Service

Freight Forwarding (i.e the organized activities and operating activities on behalf consignor through searching transport services and other related services)

Multimodal transport, container transportation by road

Prepare documents

Provide business information

 Acting as a general ship’s agent for container carriers (Nam Sung Shipping Co., Ltd.)

 Mission

Cooperating with ports and related authorities to implement the tasks: loading and unloading cargoes, playing a role as freight forwarders and providing other maritime services, receiving foreign exchange earnings for the country Developing plan contribute to the development of VOSA, participating in the international organizations Maintaining and expanding the traditional transport activities Developing of young human resources through recruitment plans and training in order to create incentives for individuals, helping them gradually acquire the legacy and experience from previous employees

Researching and developing of scientific and technical applications in the maritime sector Developing high added value services such as cargo transportation agency, warehousing, bonded warehouse, importing and exporting cargoes, investing to construct warehouse network and buy modern stevedoring equipment and other vehicles (barges, ships and automobiles) that meet the requirements of international standards Managing the training and educating employees, encouraging them to participate actively in the protection of national security, politics, maintaining social security Guiding to check the implementation of the policies and the rules and regulations issued Controlling materials, capital, and organizational and accounting business activities

2.1.4 The organizational structure and functions and responsibilities of each department

2.1.4.1 The organizational structure

Figure2: Organizational Structure of VOSA Haiphong

2.1.4.2 Functions Of Department Of Company

Board of Director: is responsible for implementing the plan and directly

manage the execution of agency’s operations, allocating plan appropriately for agency, directly participating to discuss and sign contracts, participating in foreign affairs and having overall responsibility for the operations of the agency

Organization and Administration Department: manages administrative

matters of the agency such as the work of clerical storage, inventory management, distribution of the equipment and facilities for agency

Finance and Accounting Department: includes 2 divisions

a) Foreign payment division: is in charge of all of the payment and settlement

of the ship-owners, shippers, carriers and other related parties Calculating the budget signed with the ship-owner Collecting and paying fee on behalf of ship-owners Monitoring the financial activities related to the import or export cargo, calculating and collecting agency services

b) Domestic payment division: is in charge of financial affairs within the

company such as revenue, income, prices, costs of production, capital depreciation Observing the situation of collecting and paying fee on behalf of ship-owners,

calculating and establishing the funds, considering the financial situation of enterprises

Transportation agency department: plays as agent for the domestic and

foreign shippers who need transport regardless of retail or container cargo Transportation agency service includes intermodal transportation, door-to-door service and provides types of transport On behalf of cargo owner, transportation agency department handles all related documents in order to export or import cargo such as license for package, customs procedures, arrange and supervise the transport modes to transport cargoes In addition, it is also in charge of marketing and seeking customers (shippers), arranging forwarder, delivering retail cargoes and collecting money Entrusted import and export services, arranging importing and exporting procedures for shipments

Nam Sung Shipping Agency Department: VOSA Haiphong also plays a role

as a general shipping agency for foreign container carriers such as Nam Sung shipping Co., Ltd (the liner carrier of Korea) When vessels of Nam Sung carriers arrive, this department will be the shipping agency for its ships In addition, this department also has other mission such as: organizing to serve and handle documents for container ships Doing work delegated by ship-owner Signing contract and negotiating directly with Nam Sung shipping Co., Ltd finding for cargo owner who has appropriate container cargo with shipping lane Organizing and controlling empty container of carriers and lending cargo-owner the empty container in order to pack exported cargo

Shipping Agency Department: includes 3 division which has following duties

a) Cargo Division: delivery of goods to the warehouse, inspect shipments Delivery document to cargo-owner (if the document is sent along with ships to the port) Checking and adjusting the consignee name, quantity and weight required by each shipping line and notifying the relevant authorities Considering and examining of documents, original bills of lading, letter of recommendation, and letter of authorization to provide the delivery order Receiving cargo list from stevedore, numbering and recording the B/L that ship provided the shipper Subscribing to stevedoring activity, gathering bill of lading to establish the manifest

b) Ship Agency Division: principal task is to work directly with ship When

receiving the call from the carrier's captain and shipping line through business

division, ship's officers discuss with port authorities and maneuver ship to berth

Staff of agency who are in charge of the ship have to understand the entire operation

of the ship and do all the work that captains and boat owners entrusted Besides,

they have the responsibility to care about freeing the ship until the ship left the port

c) Business Division: Receiving information from the ship-owner, contacting

the ship, transfer information This department is also in charge of signing contract

with ship-owners,playing a roleas intermediary in signing transport contracts,

charter and contract about purchase and sale of vessels and other contracts relating

to maritime activities

2.1.5 Activities in term of transportation agency service of VOSA Haiphong

This is a relatively new activity of the company in recent times but it is

quickly contributing a significant portion of the total revenue of the company

Along with the development of the company, despite the difficulties, the scope of

activity of the transportation agency service is also extended to all types of services

in this area such as: on behalf of the exporters and importers, agency provides

services related cargo transportation, cargo consolidation service and special

services such as shipping cargoes for construction, transport hanging cargoes, door

to door service, freight services for exhibitive cargoes to other countries

2.1.6 Business performance of VOSA Haiphong

Business performance of VOSA Haiphong from 2011 to 2014

Table 2: Revenue and profit Of VOSA Haiphong from 2011 to 2014

Along with the traditional business of VOSA which is shipping agent for shipping liner, transportation agency service gradually claims its role as the main source of revenue for agency during the period from 2011 to 2014 In 2011, the total revenue of VOSA Haiphong was approximately 30 billion VND This number went

up slightly to about 30.5 billion VND in the 2012 even the fall of revenue for the activities of agent for Nam Sung shipping line, a 2% increase in total In the same period in following years, the total revenue in the first three quarters continued following an upward trend and the major contribution came from transport agency service Specifically, in 2013, turnover reported from this service was about 16.5 billion VND accounting for nearly 50% of total revenue of agency Meanwhile, the revenue from ship agent for NAM SUNG shipping line and shipping agent service were about 9.5 billion VND and 9.1 billion VND respectively The year of 2014 witnessed the significant growth in total revenue of VOSA Haiphong From nearly 35.2 billion VND in 2013, this figure went up to about 45.2 billion VND During this period, the annual growth for revenue increased mostly in transportation agency department while these numbers for Nam Sung shipping line and shipping agency service fluctuated In which, annual growth increased mostly still being transportation agency service

However, in terms of profit, sources of money primarily came from agency service for Nam Sung shipping line Specifically, in 2011, profit before tax generated from this service was about 4.4 billion VND, comprising 71% of total profit of VOSA Haiphong as this indicators for shipping agency service and transportation agency service were approximately 830 million VND (13%) and 1 billion VND (16%) respectively From 2012 to 2014, the indicator of profit from Nam Sung continue played major role as main source of profit for agency However, profit indicators for traditional shipping service and transportation agency service had significant development

In general, although being the main source of revenue for VOSA Haiphong, but the major source of profit coming from agency service for Nam Sung shipping line proved that outcome for transportation agency service is not really impressive

or does not really meet company’s expectation However, the gradual development especially in annual growth in this period proved that this service is very potential and increasingly plays an important role in business performance of VOSA Therefore, investigating the quality of this service is really necessary