THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

ESP DEPARTMENT

FIELD
STUDY
REPORT
JOB
PERCEPTIO
N: FREIGHT
FORWARDE
R

Supervisor :
MA Nguyn Trn
Uyn Nhi
Students :
Nguyn Th t Min
Vn Hiu Lm
Nguyn H i Trang
Trn Th Vn
ng Hong Thin n

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
PART 1: THE IMPORTANCE OF FREIGHT FORWARDING INDUSTRY
1.1. Definition of Freight Forwarder
1.2. The importance of Freight Forwarding industry
1.2.1. To the national economy
1.2.2. To enterprise
1.3. Advantages to the development of the industry
PART 2: PROCESS OF CONDUCTING THE SURVEY
2.1. The process of conducting survey
2.2. Advantages and Disadvantages
PART 3: RESULT OF THE SURVEY
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX

INTRODUCTION

1. The reason for choosing the occupation of Freight Forwarder:

Freight forwarding industry plays a significant role in expanding trade by procuring
efficient and economic modes of transport. It creates necessary conditions to ensure
that import and export products may timely reach their destinations and helps to
deliver efficiently goods from sellers to end users. The industry is still young in
Vietnam, but it has gradually contributed to the improvement of the countrys balance
of payment by assisting export promotion and giving support to the national Carrier &
Insurers. In some extent, Vietnam Freight Forwarding industry has played an active
role in facilitating trade by simplifying and rationalizing trade and documentary
procedures, thereby reducing transport cost.

Vietnam went through a lot of hindrances and difficulties to reach the splendid
achievements over the past years. In international economic integration process,
challenges remain considerable but there are always opportunities for the development
of national economy. Freight forwarding industry also finds its opportunities to grow
up, contributing to the national development strategy of restructuring the economy,
intensifying the industrialization and modernization process and laying the foundation
for rapid and sustainable development of national economy.
It is acknowledged that freight forwarding will be a sunrise industry due to an increase
in international economic integration, especially when Vietnam has recently been a
member of TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) and AEC (ASEAN Economic
Community), therefore we strongly believe that an increasing number of people will
devote themselves into this area. These are the reasons why we choose the occupation
of Freight Forwarder.
2. The scope of the study: Freight forwarding companies in Da Nang
3. Methodology: We combined a lot of methods: survey, questionnaire, analysis,
compare, statistic, summarize.
4. Structure: Our Field Study Report is divided into three parts:
Part1: The Importance of Freight Forwarding Industry
Part 2: Process of Conducting The Survey
Part 3: Result of The Survey

PART 1: THE IMPORTANCE OF FREIGHT FORWARDING INDUSTRY

1.1. Definition of Freight Forwarder
A freight forwarder is an agent who acts on behalf of importers, exporters or other
companies to organize the safe, efficient and cost-effective transportation of goods.
Freight forwarders use computer systems to arrange the best means of transport, taking
into account the type of goods and the customers' delivery requirements. They use the
services of shipping lines, airlines and road and rail freight operators. In some cases,
the freight forwarding company itself provides the service.
Companies vary in size and type, from those operating on a national and international
basis to smaller, more specialized firms, who deal with particular types of goods or
operate within particular geographical areas.
As a freight forwarder, your work would involve:

 arranging routes and schedules, and confirming the details with carriers
booking cargo space with carriers
negotiating rates
arranging insurance
calculating weight, volume and cost of goods to be moved
recording details on a computer system
preparing quotations and invoices
clearing goods through customs and arranging for any duties or taxes to be paid
preparing contracts such as Letters of Credit
advising clients about the arrangements that have been made
carrying out general administrative tasks such as filing
You may also be known by other job titles such as traffic office clerk, or if your job
involves importing and exporting goods overseas, you could be known as an import,
export or shipping clerk.
1.2. The importance of Freight Forwarding industry
1.2.1. To the national economy
Freight forwarding activities play an essential role in producing, circulating and
distributing import and export goods. Around the world, the average cost of freight
forwarding service for imports and exports equals about 15 percent of the value of
import or export goods, the highest rate account for 40 percent and the lowest around
10 percent. Experts predict that Vietnam exports and imports together could come to
US$200 billion per year by 2017, and thus freight-forwarding services could earn
Vietnam about US$30 billion in 2016. Accordingly, the development of freight
forwarding industry will naturally contribute to the improvement of national economy
as well as Vietnam freight forwarders if they know the tips to do their business and
catch their own opportunities in todays age of international economic integration.
1.2.2. To enterprises
Freight forwarding in particular and Logistic in general are the keys for enterprises to
deal the input and output problems. They help to change the input material and
maximize the flow processes of material, goods and services and therefore reduce the
cost and enhance enterprises competition. Without freight forwarding or logistic

services, enterprises business activities would meet huge troubles and may come to a
deadlock.
1.3. Advantages to the development of the industry
Freight forwarding industry is still young in Vietnam, but it has rapidly become a
developing field and played a significant role in the national economy. Now Vietnam
has become a member of WTO, AEC, TPP, favorable conditions would be created for
Vietnam freight forwarders. According to Vietnam Freight Forwarders Association
(VIFFAS), there are five reasons to do freight forwarding/logistic services in Vietnam.
Firstly, the Government policies have strongly encouraged enterprises to penetrate
deeper and wider into international market. Furthermore, Vietnam is speeding up the
integration process in both scope and rate by amending structure, policies, bureaucracy
and building the law of economic and financial system to make it more suitable to
international rules.
Secondly, Vietnam has a strategic location in Southeast Asia with a more than 2000km
of coastline, deep-water ports, international airports, trans-national railways and a
rather developing road network, which are good backgrounds for developing freightforwarding services. Moreover, borderlines with China, Laos and Cambodia can bring
favorable conditions for providing transport services, especially the multi-modal
transport, an important factor in logistic service chains. With such advantages,
Vietnam import-export turnover will increase accordingly.
Thirdly, joining WTO, AEC, TPP has created the best conditions for the development
of many industries and services, including freight forwarding industry. There is an
increasing amount of money from ODA (Official Development Assistance) projects,
non-government organizations and foreign investors pouring into Vietnam to raise
infrastructure. Many deep-water ports and airports have been upgraded to attract
customers. Land route system as well as railway system have been repaired and
renewed to serve in transportation.
Fourthly, freight forwarding and logistics activities have drawn the attentions of
Governmental institutions as well as local and foreign freight forwarding enterprises.
As a result, many container ports and airports have been taken into long-term
investment projects and development programs. In addition, land routes and railway
systems are being upgraded and expanded.
Finally, the strong development of Information Technology has significantly
contributed to modernize freight forwarding industry. Since July 2005, Electric
custom-clearance procedure has been applied in some ports and was deployed widely
in 2007. In recent years, General Department of Customs has invested more than 10

billion VND to develop Information Technology and upgrade Local Area Network
(LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN). Moreover, some enterprises have tried to use
tracking &tracking network and booking through the net.
These five advantages above are the keys for Vietnam Freight Forwarding industry to
open the door of development in the coming years.

PART 2: PROCESS OF CONDUCTING THE SURVEY

2.1. Kickoff and Planning
We worked in group of five people, we discussed and shared opinions about objectives
of the study, then made decisions about the topic, the role of each person in group.
We also created a plan and timeline.
2.2. Research Design
We created the survey by determine the scope of the study, the methodology and
specified the information needed to write a questionnaire
2.3. Deploying the Survey:
We deployed our survey in three freight forwarding companies: FDT CO.,Ltd,
GVLINK CO.,Ltd and Interasia Lines Ltd. Employees in the three companies
participated in the survey by completing our questionnaire. The questionnaire posed 18
questions considering factors within the occupation of freight forwarder such as

knowledge and skill, personality, level of stress, professional development, promotion,

job satisfaction, difficulties, English use.
2.4. Reporting Findings
Two weeks after distributing 25 questionnaires, we gathered 16 acceptable ones. Then
we analyzed raw data and wrote the report.

PART 3: RESULT OF THE SURVEY

In term of skills needed, all of the employees agree that problem solving skill is very
essential in their job. Then, communication and foreign language skills are considered
as important skills in the job. Other skills like planning, team working, computer and
mathematic skill also play a vital role when you work as a freight forwarder. You can
see further details in the following chart.

Figure 3.1. The graph shows proportion of people agreeing that these skills necessary in the F.F job. (%).
120
100
80
60
40
20
0

This job also requires some certain personalities. Well-organized and hard-working are
agreed to be the most necessary ones (75%). In addition, many people say that
communicative and flexible are essential for this job. Some people agree that to be
disciplined is needed as a freight forwarder. More details are shown in the table below.
Figure 3.2. The table indicates personalities required in Freight Forwarding
Personalities

Number of answers

Rate(%)

Communicative

11

68.75

Organized

12

75

Disciplined

15

31.25

Flexible

11

68.75

Hard-working

12

75

62.5% of the employees work from 8 to 10 hours per day while 37.5 % work from 6 to
8 hours per day and most of them dont have to work evening or on weekend as well
as rarely travel abroad for job. 12.5% of them always use English in work place and
50% of them usually use it while the rest use this foreign language less frequently.
In terms of stress, half of the participants think that in this job, stress level is medium,
30% of them say it is very stressful while 18.75% say it is quite stressful.
When it comes to professional development, there are 68.75% people say that they are
given extra courses in their work. And with these people, they often take part in halfyearly and annually courses than monthly or quarterly courses.
Most of the participants say that this job offers good promotion (68.75%) while 31.25
% say it does not. Moreover, if you want to get promotion in this career, there are
some criteria you should focus on. You should widen your knowledge and get more
experiences for this job. You also had better understand clearly your customers, your
services and market information. Job promotion also bases on your problem-solving
skill so you should improve yourself. Nguyn Th Ngoc Hanh, a staff said: I must try
all my best to learn skills and knowledge of this field. Addtionally, I must do a lot of
business to solve many cases which will be happened suddenly and differently.
In term of job satisfaction, 43.75% of employees taking part in this survey say that
they are quite satisfied with their job. 37.7 % of them feel very satisfied with this work
while 18.75% of them are less satisfied. The employees agree that the friendly working
environment is the best factor making them most satisfied. Besides, they also satisfy
with high salary, flexible working, good perk as well as promotion opportunities.
However, there are some difficulties in freight forwarding job. According to the
employees, they must learn more new knowledge that takes them much time. Lack of
foreign language skills can be difficult for us to communicate with our customers. In
addition, in this job, they must work with local authorities and government partners.
81% of the participants agree that the demand for workers of this occupation will
increase in the next five years. There are some useful advices for people considering
this career: In this job you will need to work accurately and pay close attention to
detail. You will also need a head for numbers. Furthermore, you should improve your
language skills and learn how to solve unexpected problems first. Having a good
relationship could be an advantage. In addition, it is necessary to be dynamic and hardworking so you should prepare well before applying for this job. Huynh Ngoc Thinh, a
staff suggested:You should study and work so hard to get more experience, dont
worry about mistakes and increase your value day by day.
CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Freight Forwarding industry plays an important role in developing

Vietnams foreign trade, help to speed up the development of urban areas and hi-tech
industrial parks. When foreign trade grows, it will modernize the national freight
forwarding. As a result, the development of Vietnam freight forwarding sector is
necessary and the economy is expected to be more industrialized and modernized.
Now that Vietnam is a member of a lot of international organizations such as WTO,
AEC, TPP, the countrys enterprises, including freight forwarders, will have the
opportunity to expanding their oversea markets. However, limited infrastructure and
Information Technology, small size, improper laws and policies and minimal
cooperation between businesses are keeping logistic businesses from growing well.
Therefore, they are making their best effort to improve their capability, expanding
business in order to compete against foreign logistic companies and get a foothold
overseas. As Mr. Nguyen Tham, Vice President of Vietnam Freight and Forward
Association (VIFFAS) said, Vietnam logistic enterprises have to combine to each other
in order to gain the market share from foreign companies. Being aware of strengths
and weaknesses of Freight Forwarding industry, students who want to work in this area
prepare themselves needed knowledge and skills in order to perform successfully.
During the process of conducting our survey, we have both advantages and
disadvantages
Advantages:
All members in our group have serious attitude toward the study because we are all
aware of the importance of teamwork. In fact, each of us has made active contribution
and does the required task quite well.
Unfortunately, we have some acquaintances working in the three mentioned companies
and they are all willing to help us
Some subjects we have learn like International Trade, Business English provide us
with useful knowledge to conduct this survey.
Disadvantages:
Due to limit in the time given and in the relationship with local businesses, we
deployed the survey within only three freight forwarding companies.
We look forward to learning from the teacher suggestions!

APPENDIX
We enclosed the questionnaire here:

We major in Business English at Da Nang University of Foreign Language Studies.

We are conducting a survey about job perception and we choose your industry due to
its reality and necessity in todays age of international economic integration. We would
be grateful if you could provide us with appropriate answers for the following
questions.

CARREER RESEARCH QUESTIONAIRE

Job: Freight Forwarder

Name (optional): ..
Sex

Male

Female

1, What university did you graduate from? Whats your major?

..........................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................
2. What are the essential skills a freight forwarder should have? (You may tick as
many as you like)
Good Maths skills

Computer skill

Team-working skill

Foreign language skill

Communication skill

Problem-solving skill

Planning skill

Others

3. What personalities do you think a freight forwarder should have? (You may tick as
many as you like)
Communicative

Discipline

Hard-working

Organized

Flexible

Others

4. What level of stress in your job? The numbers show the degrees of stress.
(Circle the appropriate number)
Normal

Extreme

5. Are there any extra courses for professional development for staff in your company?
(Tick the appropriate answer)
Yes

No

6. If yes, how often do these courses are offered? (Tick the appropriate answer)
Monthly

Quarterly

Half-yearly

Annually

7. Are there many good promotion opportunities in your company?

Yes

No

8. If you want to promote, which criteria should you focus on?

..........................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................
9. Do you do different work or basically the same every day?
..........................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................
10. Which factors make you satisfy with your job? (Indicate the best three in order,
with the best being number 1).
High salary
Flexible working hour
Friendly working environment
Good perk
Lots of promotion opportunities
11. Whats level of your job satisfaction? The numbers show the degrees of
satisfaction. (Circle the appropriate number)
Normal

Extreme

12. What difficulties or challenges do you usually face in your job? (You may list as
many as you like)
..........................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................

13. How often do you use English in your job? (Tick the appropriate answers)
Always

Usually

Sometimes

Rarely

14. How often do you travel abroad? (Tick the appropriate answers)
Always

Usually

Sometimes

Rarely

15. How many hours do you work a day? (Tick the appropriate answers)
6-8 hours/day

8-10 hours/day

16. Are you required to work evenings or weekends? (Tick the appropriate answers)
Yes

No

17. How do you see this occupation changing in the next five years: Will it demand for
workers increase or decrease? (Tick the appropriate answers)
Increase

Decrease

18. What advice do you have for a young person considering this occupation?
..........................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................

The end
Thanks for your cooperation!