Whale Logistics - Company of the Year - Transportation

Company: Whale Logistics, Ingleburn, NSW, Australia
Company Description: Whale Logistics is an award-winning Australian freight forwarder and logistics company. We deliver digital-focused freight forwarding services including comprehensive sea, air and road freight solutions, parcel delivery, customs clearance, ecommerce solutions, warehouse and distribution, and tracking.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Company of the Year - Transportation - Medium-size

Nomination Title: Whale Logistics

Whale Logistics is an award-winning Australian freight forwarder and logistics company. We deliver digital-focused freight forwarding services including comprehensive sea, air and road freight solutions, parcel delivery, customs clearance, ecommerce solutions, warehouse and distribution, and tracking.
We ensure customers get their cargo to the right place, at the right time, at the right price.

Our service capabilities include:
- Sea freight. We’re ranked in the top five sea freight forwarding and logistics companies in Asia Pacific with offices in 16 out of the 20 largest sea ports in the world.
- Air freight. We provide on time deliveries for time-sensitive cargo and have strong airline relationships.
- Customs clearance. We have three customs brokers with 70 years experience between them. We have achieved over $1 million in duty returns for our customers.
- eCommerce and warehousing. We provide 3PL fulfillment services for same day delivery. Orders are tracked in real time. We manage customer service and returns handling. We provide secure storage for high value goods and 24/7 video surveillance and security monitoring.

Whale Logistics was founded in May 2015 with the goal of doing things differently in the industry and is now an industry leader.

Outline the organization's achievements :
1. Unlike our competitors, Whale Logistics has remained resilient throughout the pandemic, with no disruption to business operations.
3. We grew our headcount in 2020, despite the impacts of the pandemic.
4. Customer retention remained strong due to our focus on customer experience. We got back to basics; working with clients to understand their challenges during the pandemic and enabling them to continue to trade successfully.
5. Schedule reliability has been the worst on record, creating uncertainty around shipping timelines. To counter this, we developed a software program which tracks and automates anticipated timelines in real time. For e.g. if a service used to take 14 days, but is now on average taking 20 days, that data is automatically updated to give us access to more accurate data.
6. In 2020 we rolled out an industry-leading automation solution, enabling us to manage the shipping of a container from factory to customer without requiring any contact with the customer, provided there are no issues or exceptions. Combined with our Vision Technologies software, an integrated solution for buying, sourcing, production, delivery, supply chain and 3PL, our technological offering in the industry is unrivalled.
7. Our team culture is unlike any other in the industry. We’re certified in the Great Places to Work program. Our employee satisfaction rate is at 92%, 23% higher than the industry average.

Our efforts to optimise the business in the last six years have paid off throughout the pandemic. Our workforce was already agile and enabled for remote work. Our systems and processes were efficient and streamlined.

While our local and global competitors cut jobs or stood staff down, we didn’t let anyone go due to the pandemic.

We didn’t lose any major clients. Our client retention rate was 92%. In this time we actually strengthened our client relationships by reinforcing our role as a strategic partner and advisor.

We were able to adapt quickly to solve the biggest problem for our clients - schedule uncertainty - and ensure less disruption to their supply chain.

Our mantra is One Whale, One Family. We are an employer of choice, as recognised in the Australian Business Awards, and achieved through in-house training through our Centre of Excellence and staff recognition through team events and celebrations.