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DB Schenker, a leading global logistics provider, proudly celebrates 45 years providing freight forwarding services and logistics solutions in Brazil. Since 1973, DB Schenker has held a position of prominence in the local market supporting industry and trade in the global exchange of goods through land transport, worldwide air and ocean freight, contract logistics and supply chain management.
The company has grown to more than 730 employees in 11 branches located in five states in Brazil; Campinas, Curitiba, Embu, Guarulhos, Itajaí, Paranaguá, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, São Paulo (HO), and Viracopos. Plus, dedicated partners across seven Brazilian states; Partners: Belo Horizonte; Brasília; Fortaleza; Manaus; Recife; Salvador; and Vitória for extensive market coverage.
“Here at DB Schenker Brazil, we’ve been through a lot of changes and explored many new opportunities during our 45-year history,” says Roberto Moreno, Managing Director. “By maintaining high levels of safety, integrity, quality, respect, and sustainability standards, we’ve been able to grow and reach record numbers of local staff in the more than four decades that we’ve been operating in Brazil.”
Growing and Evolving
Over the last 45 years, DB Schenker has grown and evolved right along with Brazil itself—a country that has transformed into a critical aspect of many of the world’s supply chains. Based in the São Paulo area, the logistics provider set up shop in the country with the goal of working with the many different multinational companies and industries that were doing business in this strong, emerging marketplace.
“We started with air and ocean freight services, with a focus on working with shippers that were importing their products into Brazil,” says Roberto Moreno, DB Schenker Brazil’s Managing Director.
Over the years, and despite the challenging political and economic changes, DB Schenker enlarged its footprint in the Brazilian marketplace. “The ups and downs always demanded fast actions and reactions to keep the company on the right course,” says Moreno. “Through it all, our main success factors were flexibility, innovation, and an extremely proactive management team.”
Combined, these factors have helped DB Schenker persevere and grow—all while supported a wide swath of industries and hundreds of individual shippers. Of course, that level of coverage isn’t always easy to manage. DB Schenker has faced its fair share of challenges in the Brazilian market, where transportation infrastructure is an ongoing issue.
“Ports and airports are constant bottlenecks for Brazilian importers and exporters,” says Moreno, who points to limited capacity to receive, load/unload containers; limited airport storage area; and strikes that include both customs and Brazilian authorities, as some of the key obstacles that companies face.
“Taking care of our customers’ demands requires a lot of creativity and flexibility,” says Moreno, noting that DB Schenker maintains partnerships with key stakeholders at ports, airports, and with Brazilian authorities. It also continually seeks out alternatives and different possibilities for its customers—all with an eye on faster and more economical logistics solutions.
“Hard times are always good opportunities for innovation,” says Moreno. “The last three years has been especially challenging, what with Brazil’s poor economic scenario and a reduction in shipping volumes across most of all industries.
“During this most recent recession period, we brainstormed on how to keep the business healthy and at the same time, attend to our customers’ demands,” says Moreno, whose team launched the following new services as a result of those brainstorming sessions:
National Distribution: To become a trucking company in Brazil, DB Schenker obtained the necessary licenses and approvals from local authorities and is now an official “Trucking Company,” issuing its own Trucking Bill of Lading complete with insurance coverage, risk management, and dedicated customer service teams. “To support our operations on a highly-professional level, we also hired a national distribution manager and acquired a TMS for better control over operations, tax, and full supply chain visibility,” says Moreno. “We can now cover 100% of the country, distributing vehicles, consumer goods, chemicals and other products, with an average of 1,100 deliveries per month.”
Contract Logistics: DB Schenker already had the international portion of the supply chain under control (customs clearance, distribution, etc.) but the middle of that chain was “empty” and had left an important gap to fill. “One of the most important pieces of the puzzle was missing,” says Moreno. Working with its regional and global teams, DB Schenker Brazil won its first showcase in 2017 with an existing forwarding services customer. “We started in ourwarehousing operations in January 2018 with our own people and management,” says Moreno, “operating a 50,000sf area in a strategic place within the São Paulo area. Both products were very important and strategic to the company and cemented our position as a strong and competitive partner for our customers.”
More to Come
Looking ahead, Moreno says his team has ambitious growth targets that could be supported by a local acquisition in the near future—all with the overall focus on increasing DB Schenker’s portfolio of local services. “We’re investing in technology and digitalization on a global basis,” he adds, “and are confident that we’ll be prepared to continue meeting and exceeding our customers’ expectations for another 45+ years.”
Thank you to our customers for the last 45 years.
