Interview with
Ms. Jolanta Schmidt
Sea Freight Operations Manager
The history of EAS, Jolanta. What can you tell us about it? Who owns the company?
EAS International is a family-owned company, established in 1988 as EMERGENCY AIRFREIGHT SYSTEM INTERNATIONAL SAS in Paris, France. So for more than 30 years, EAS has been a time-critical, logistics specialist. We provide a full scope of forwarding services – airfreight, seafreight, and road and rail freight. We also offer Customs brokerage services.
EAS International belongs to Herport Group, which is a representative logistics operator, offering a full range of services in the field of customs clearance and transport in all countries of the world, whatever the type of freight. The CEO of EAS is Mr. Olivier Hennequin. In Poland, our Managing Director and Board Member is Mr. Adam Komorowski located in Warsaw, and Mr. Marco Muggianu is located in Paris.
We are strong in airfreight services: we offer services not only for standard shipments, but also on-board courier, express shipments.
As far as ocean freight is concerned, EAS International offers comprehensive seafreight shipping services via a worldwide network for FCL and LCL shipments, break bulk, project logistics, dangerous wastes logistics, and specific hazardous goods transportation.
We also offer road freight within Europe and rail service on the New Silk Route.
When was the branch in Poland established, and currently, what is the main line of logistics business that you perform?
EAS was established in Poland in 2019 and was known for the time being mainly an air freight and road freight forwarder, dealing especially with clients from the Automotive sector and Electronics, but also Fashion and Pharma.
But the company policy is to serve all forwarding services also in Poland, so I’m here ? .
I joined the organization in February but have already arranged many FCL and LCL shipments. Project cargo shipments are also already scheduled for April.
Have you experience in handling oversized and project cargoes? Could you provide us with a few examples?
Yes, in my previous business life. I worked many years in UTi Worldwide (now acquired by DSV) where we handled project shipments for the Ministry of Defence. These shipments were not only big in size, but also dangerous goods at the same time, including military vehicles, so they were really interesting shipments.
After UTi, I got more experience at Fracht FWO Polska (Fracht AG Group) and Logfret Poland where we handled a lot of project cargo shipments, ie. transformers, generators, heavy machines for production lines, and deliveries for the Energy sector.
I used to arrange export / import operations via Polish ports but also via ports in western Europe, Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Antwerp and Rotterdam.
What are the main ports used for import/export in Poland? Also, further to the current political situation with Russia/Ukraine and the subsequent termination of railway services, how are you coping with this?
The main ports for Polish import / export shipments are Gdansk and Gdynia. However, for clients located in the western part of Poland, we often use Hamburg or Bremerhaven.
Considering the current political situation with Russia / Ukraine, we are seeing a significant increase of interest in ocean freight, instead of rail. Some rail operators still offer departures from China, but most clients are afraid of blockades of borders.
Poland has a very strategic location in Europe – the easiest transportation way from East to West is via our territory, so the New Silk Route was really popular. Today however, only a few clients decide to move goods via rail.
Poland is a big country in both Europe and the EU. How big is your population, and how has Corona affected your daily life in business?
Our population is around 38 million. Of course, Corona affected our daily life in business. In the field of transport, I think ocean freight is the most important for the world economy, so therefore, any unexpected changes significantly affect the entire supply chain. Shipping lines saw a reduced number of vessels and announced blank sailings. Port operations were strongly hit by Corona, as ports were sometimes blocked for many days. All this caused huge delays and rate increases.
Significant rate increases resulted in reduced client orders of goods with low margin or they switched for some time to rail freight, while those rates were even more competitive.
Now, again, clients prefer ocean freight, but this is related to the war and uncertain situation on the rail.
How is it best for our readers to get in touch with you?
The easiest way is to send an email, call or send a WhatsApp message per the details below:
Jolanta.Schmidt@eas-intl.com
Mob +48 798 398 993
Website: http://www.eas-intl.com/
