At the helm of one of the world's busiest ports with at least 10,000 vessel calls per month, The National Forwarder is a leading freight forwarder in Singapore and the Southeast Asian region. The firm has been in operation since 1991. Rajoo Amurdalingam, MD at The National Forwarder identified a niche and untapped market for ship spares logistics and sought to capitalize on this potential. Having witnessed this opportunity, over the years, National has polished its competence in handling urgent ship spares ranging from 1kg gaskets to 10,000kg anchors. Since it has dealt with such a diverse spectrum of ship spares, the firm takes pride to be closely associated with many prominent ship owners, managers, agencies, and suppliers in the marine shipping and oilfield industries. Besides marine parts, its services also extend to other general cargo such as electronics, pharmaceuticals, apparel, and seafood.
A Notch Above All
Singapore is a very small country with limited land, so for a company like The National Forwarder to have a 100,000 square foot of warehouse space is quite rare on its own. The facilities' ideal locations in Singapore's east and west are another pluses - being in the East places the company right beside Changi International Airport in Singapore, while being in the West implies that the firm is close to Singapore's container ports terminals and shipyards.
Over the years, the company has positioned itself as a one-stop shop for its clients, making every effort to thoroughly grasp all of their demands by speaking the same language as them and carefully listening to their requirements. This serves as the key factor for National to stand tall among other peers in the market. Since National has a full understanding and comprehensive knowledge of the end-to-end requirements of its customers, the firm is able to offer them holistic service, wherein its clients can just forget about the cargo. National strives to be the single point of contact, and give them a complete peace of mind.
It builds trust that it can manage the entire process, including planning the best route, recommending the most practical means of transportation, and managing all necessary intermediary procedures. “Over the years, we have earned the tremendous trust of our clients, and have remained the preferred logistics partner for decades. Our ability to offer this end-to-end service stems from our effort to fully understand the needs of our customers," emphasizes Rajoo Amurdalingam. National’s services include sea freight, air freight, and inventory management. To begin with, the company offers vessel-to-vessel delivery and has recently explored the possibility of using drones to
provide drone-to-vessel delivery. The firm also provides international routing, which means that cargoes can be transported from point A to point B without having to travel to Singapore. National considers all cargoes from all aspects and believes that no job is too big or too small. It handles modest parcel deliveries as well as chartering for huge project cargoes. Significantly, a couple of years back, National shipped, a 32-tonne riser of a deep-sea drilling vessel, from Singapore to Frankfurt, setting the record for the heaviest air cargo ever flown out of the country. Under inventory management, the firm provides storage, packaging, stuffing, freight fumigation, and other services. Aside from that, the firm also provides other services such as documentation and paperwork, any regulatory requirements, and permit declarations.
Streamlining Operations via Automation
With the advent of COVID, National has been leveraging cutting-edge technology and implementing automation to optimize processes for time and cost efficiency. The firm is in the midst of deploying an automatic cargo receipt with a conveyor sensor, which will eliminate the need for manual intervention in measuring the weight and volume of the cargo and entering freight history details into the computer. With this automation, a barcode containing information about the delivered cargo is automatically printed once it is placed on the conveyor belt. Further, the firm wishes to use automatic container stuffing in the near future, which is essentially a robotized hand or a machine that unloads and packs boxes and parcels from a container, which is otherwise a very time-consuming and labor-intensive procedure. This saves a lot of man hours, makes the workplace safer, and reduces workplace injuries.
The Company has positioned itself as a one-stop shop for its clients, making every effort to thoroughly grasp all of their demands by speaking the same language as them
Unrivaled Growth Since its inception in 1991, The National Forwarder has come a long way and grown exponentially from a humble beginning with just a team comprising a few people, an empty office, a couple of cell phones, one fax machine, and a few trucks. But today, the company has more than 50 professionals, 20 trucks, and 100,000 square foot of warehouse space and two unbeaten national records. The firm is catering to about 200 clients from various industries and of different sizes all over the world. As it strives to achieve new heights, the company is guided by the mission of being a global logistics service provider. Thus, the firm is looking keenly to expand overseas with its initial step of setting up an office in Indonesia and India as it expands its geographical presence across the globe. All in all, National is focused on maintaining its premium quality customer services, and efficient logistical support particularly for ship spares logistics while also exploring other kinds of niches such as pharmaceuticals. Rajoo, a self-made businessman in every sense of the word, is the Founder and Managing Director of The National Forwarder, a regional leader in ship spares logistics.
The company was just honoured with KPMG's Enterprise 50 award in 2021. For these and other achievements, Rajoo was lauded asEntrepreneur of the Year by ASME in 2016 and SICCI in 2020. Rajoo Amurdalingam is often recognized as an entrepreneur who succeeds by doing good. Rajoo firmly believes in putting others first. Few organizations can claim that they have never had to lay off a single employee due to crises or pandemics. National is unquestionably one of them. In fact, Rajoo prefers to go against the grain by investing in those who are disadvantaged.
Beyond business, Rajoo frequently supports charity initiatives as well as lends his support to the rugby community through sponsorships. In 2009, he financed the Singapore expedition to cross the Antarctic in honour of the Commonwealth's 60th anniversary. Despite his achievements, Rajoo maintains a humble demeanour, as many who know him would vouch for it. The principal ambition in his life is to support younger people on their life journeys. In tandem with this, Rajoo sits on his alma mater, Raffles Institution’s Board of Governors as a Board Member and chairs the Raffles Rugby Union, which this former school rugby player passionately initiated in 2000.
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