In 2020, during the unprecedented impact of COVID on our business environment, our industry has proven to be very resilient and adaptable.
Our customers, vendor partners, and ONE staff around the world were challenged with a very uncertain and dynamic situation early in the year. After the initial slowing down of volumes as a result of a worldwide shutdown, the industry was quickly able to adjust capacity. In turn, when the demand quickly picked up, with the effort from all sectors, the industry was able to re-engage our network again, in order to accommodate the needs of our customers.
Having experienced the turmoil of 2020, I believe a key issue for the industry in 2021 is to provide stability. However, this cannot be done alone. It starts with alignment, setting the expectations of all stakeholders involved in the logistics chain.
What are the volume forecasts? Can the seasonal spikes be flattened? Can vessel capacity, containers, and terminal capacity be properly aligned?
What are realistic service levels and true logistic budgets that are sustainable?
Can all these moving parts of our industry be set in place in order to handle the volumes?
These are the challenges that we face and must work with focus to resolve.
In 2020, the industry proved that it can respond to large volume swings, but not without disruption and pain. With better forecasting and planning, we can make the industry better together as ONE.