The globally operating logistics cooperative for air and sea freight, Tandem Global Logistics Network, has announced its new network strategy. Until the end of 2020, the 14 shareholding members and 68 cooperative partners will focus on quality, growth, value, and innovation. Tandem’s executive board will measure the successes of this quality phase according to these four core tenets.

Founded in 2007, Tandem starts into its second decade with a new strategy. “In the first years of our cooperation, we aimed at expanding our global reach by finding partners in the most important markets around the world,” explains Frits Schouffoer, managing director at Tandem Global Logistics Network. “Now, the development of new quality and IT standards as well as an increase in shipments are becoming more crucial.” Quality control is vital in ensuring reliable services to customers in times of increasingly strict trade regulations and volatile market conditions.

To ensure this, Tandem strengthens its executive board to consequently implement resolutions. The cooperative’s executive board consists of three permanent members from the US, Japan, and Germany plus one annually rotating shareholder – currently the partner from Canada. A more top down approach to decision-making is adopted to make sure every partner is committed to the network.

“We were one of the first logistics networks to grant our partners exclusivity in their respective countries. Because of this exclusivity, partners really have to be dedicated to Tandem”, noted Frits Schouffoer. “That way we can ensure that our clients keep receiving the best possible service to which they are accustomed.” Moreover, growing digitization of the forwarding sector makes the partners’ commitment to one platform under one brand ever more important, since it makes network-wide implementation of IT-tools possible.

In order to remain or become a cooperative Tandem partner certain Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and requirements have to be met. Among these are: total number of shipments, cooperation with Tandem partners whenever possible, branding their business as a Tandem partner, quality of service, and response time. Tandem requires partners to increase the number of shipments they handle over the network.

The Tandem network is growing constantly and is looking for new, self-driven partners who are interested in a long-term cooperation. Professionally managed and business driven, the cooperative offers its partners exclusivity in their countries, a network of carefully selected agents and the possibility to compete with international forwarders. Unlike many other logistics networks, Tandem requires their cooperative partners to offer all logistics services in-house. Since Tandem only appoints one partner in each country, this ensures that Tandem’s clients can rely on full-service coverage globally.