U-Freight has thrived off China’s evolution

In only a generation, China has evolved from being a small niche player in international trade to the most powerful trading nation in the world and the U-Freight Group’s own development has benefited from that evolution.

That was the message that our chief executive Simon Wong conveyed in a recent interview with one of the world’s leading trade magazines, Air Cargo News.

Simon explained that U-Freight is a freight forwarder than can truly say that it was there at the start of China’s industrial and commercial revolution.

As a young company in the early 1970s –  we were founded in Hong Kong in 1968 – one of its first major trades was in high tech, or electronics as it used to be called. Except that in those days the flow of components was not east to west but from California’s Silicon Valley into South East Asia.

U-Freight also moved some of the first silicon chip manufacturing machinery to the region, as well as one of the first mobile phone manufacturing plants, perhaps little knowing that we were helping to trigger a global manufacturing and business revolution.

The article explained why the company remains privately owned with a culture of encouraging our own talent and cultivating the younger generation.

Simon explained that in an era in which manufacturing in China was just getting off the ground, U-Freight became well known for shipping capital equipment; complete car plants for GM or Volkswagen, the equipment used to make silicon wafers, and also some of the raw materials.

In mainland China, we had a policy to hire local people and we relied on them, rather than having them directed by head office directing them. And this has been one of the successes of U-Freight as a company – we rely on the local people to get things done.

Simon also explained how the growth of U-Freight’s network in China has been paralleled by its overseas expansion. We now have subsidiary companies throughout Asia and in the USA, the UK, the Netherlands and a network of exclusive partnerships in other countries worldwide, most of them going back 25 years if not more. We favour similar, like-minded family or privately owned companies as our partners.

In the article and generally speaking, Simon said there is a widespread consensus that China needs to grow to keep its younger generation, including 10 million graduates a year, engaged and gainfully employed. U-Freight in China does however share with its overseas offices and partners a difficulty in attracting new talent to the industry. “In Hong Kong, in particular, the younger generation almost won’t consider a career in freight,” he states.

However, has explained our adoption of a clever strategy. While younger people might not be interested in freight, what does grab their attention is the Internet and e-commerce. U-Freight has leveraged its pioneering expertise in online transactions to develop an E-Commerce Logistics brand, e+Solutions (eplusss.com), separate from its traditional freight forwarding activity, and using the latest digital marketing techniques to generate business. It offers online traders a worry-free platform, taking on all the freighting and customs administration and allowing them to concentrate on selling their wares rather than fulfilment issues.

The article also explains how U-Freight was in at the very start of the e-commerce revolution. We believe that we were the first forwarder to offer internet tracking of shipments and still has the hand-written notes for the first software from the 1990s, in case there is any doubt.

To read the article in full please visit the following URL:

https://www.aircargonews.net/freight-forwarders/u-freight-thrives-off-chinas-evolution/1079614.article?CMID=E6284E387-CMP70CON70-RCP2I7780O31&utm_campaign=ACN-MONTHLY-FEB%20050225-JM&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Email&utm_content=Newsletter

For more information about the U-Freight Group and our international freight and logistics services, visit the relevant pages on this website, or speak to your usual contact in our company.