NEUTRAL NVOCC Vanguard Logistics Services (VLS), based in the Carson area of Los Angeles, plans to expand services in the intra-Asian region.

"Today, Vanguard has over 770 weekly services in the region," said CEO Charles Brennan. "We want VLS to be the most comprehensive intra-Asian service provider with the most direct points between Asian origin and Asian destination services. This means we will provide enough services into the main ports like Shanghai, but also means the company must connect the less traversed origins and destinations like Headphone in Vietnam to Bangkok in Thailand and Port Clang in Malaysia to Maura in Brunei."

VLS has targeted 45 points within intra-Asia to build the expanded point-to-point network. "Essentially, we want to bring the service expansion strategy we have implemented globally to the intra-Asian service," said Vancouver founder and executive chairman Owen Glenn.

The aim of VLS is to connect these ports with direct services, while simultaneously increasing volumes and frequencies. This initiative will provide forwarders more options, for example if they miss the cut-off for a service, they will have another option soon after, a company statement said.

VLS has undergone management changes in order to accommodate the growth of this market. Roy Chew, regional managing director for southeast Asia, will head up the initiative at an executive level and will be based out of Singapore. Jeff Lee, currently vice president Business Development, will relocate to Singapore in order to fill Mr Chew's former position of regional managing director. Michael Sinclair, executive vice president based out of Carson, California, will represent corporate interaction with the region in the expansion roll out.

In a separate development, the company is also expanding its in-house software, Directions, to now offer bar code labelling technology that is intended to improve the efficiency of cargo handling throughout its global warehouses. Directions is the company's globally standardised operating platform, which allows VLS to offer a single database for end-to-end freight tracking services.

Source: Shipping Gazette