Introduction

“Logistics is all about mastermind the science of movement.” The goal of logistics is to achieve a targeted level of customer service at the lowest possible total cost that aims to service the demand created by marketing efforts.

Logistics is one of the oldest and also the newest activities of business management. It involves combining diverse functions and service providers who may be culturally and objectively different.

Logistics is about moving materials, information and funds from one business to another business or consumer. It is an important part of the business economic system and is a major global economic activity. In fact 10-15 per cent of product costs are logistics related. Worldwide, logistics constitutes about $2 trillion a year. For any country, the logistics cost is estimated between 9 and 20 per cent of its GDP.

Globally, transportation sector accounts for around 3 to 5 percent of GDP. Almost 65% of the world trade is done through ocean. this is the same case of India also. The demand for transportation industry is directly proportional to the growth of the economy, mobility of population and other related factors.

Though traditionally, transportation involves physical movement of goods, however, in the new era, it is largely influenced by information and communication technologies with the focus being on knowledge of customer needs and value added services in order to provide maximum benefits to user.

Generally the forwarding function can be divided into the following areas.

1. Documentation
2. Planning and Costing Routes
3. Booking and Coordinating Freight
4. Arranging Ancillary Services (Eg: Warehouse, Packing)
5. Consolidation
6. Paying chares due to Carriers, Ports, Customs etc
7. Customs Requirements
8. Advice
9. Information that helps to prepare Quotations

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

International trade plays a significant role in the economy of our country. Foreign markets now tempt business firms that never much warned about sales beyond their nation’s border. The Logistics industry as such is heavily competitive in nature with all players trying various strategies to gain a hold of the market

The rapidly expanding transport facilities and technological development in transport has grown in a boom stage in the trade and commerce. Shipping agency can have a huge import on the trade of individual countries. The logistics completely developed in a country have a great say on its economic development. This topic is relevant in the context of trade.

The present study has been titled as “A LOGISTICS HIGH PERFORMANCE OF SHIPPING AGENCIES”. Since Logistics service is the important in world wide business. Hence this topic has been chosen.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study is to analyze the High Performance of Shipping Agency. The other objectives are:]

1.To study the functioning of Shipping Agency.
2.To study the responsibilities of Customs House Agents.
3.To study about documentation procedure in detail
4.To offer findings and suggestions to improve the High Performance of Shipping Agency.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The study is confined only to a particular Shipping Agency and hence the conclusion must be drawn with due care, when the attempt is made to generalize the result. The results have also been drawn based on the information gathered. Time constraint is another problem faced by the researcher. Data has been collected within permitted time limit.