- Adlet, container transportation occupies a fairly large percentage of the entire company's activities. How long ago did the trend for demand in container transportation begin and what was it associated with, in your opinion?

- Yes. In the post-Soviet countries, it turned out that already well-established and familiar tools and rules were practiced in logistics. While the process of containerization has been actively going on all over the world for a long time and the whole world transports cargo in containers, in Kazakhstan the boom in these shipments began only a couple of years ago. It is no secret that China is a key player in logistics. In recent months, now even years, when widespread isolation began against the background of the coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese began to have a real phobia – they were afraid of contracting the virus through the transfer of goods, cargo, and sought to minimize direct contacts by any means. And here the solution was containers. During containerization, the container is safely loaded, disinfected, it is sealed with seals and sent to the destination, to the recipient. In China, the laboratory checks it for viruses, then they open the container and unload the goods on the spot. In the opposite direction, the container is also disinfected and sent.

- It seems that everything is going too well in container transportation today. But surely there are certain difficulties and problems here. Tell us about the main issues that you have to solve in the process of work?

- Yes, there are a lot of problems. Basically, this is a consequence of the fact that the direction is still relatively new for Kazakhstan logistics and there are rough edges. Clients come to us with the simplest questions, as well as with specific contracts, asking for help. And our specialists pay a lot of attention and time to senders to explain how transportation is carried out in practice. We are appreciated for the fact that we do not abandon customers halfway, but we explain and carry out the transportation itself at the proper level.

- And such problems, typical for other types of transportation, when the cargo is idle for weeks at the border for various reasons, are relevant for container transportation?

- Sure. There are cases when containers stand at the border for up to 3 months. And besides the fact that there are certain reasons associated with the lack of work or, on the contrary, excessive zeal of some services, another one is added here, characteristic of container transportation – the lack of experience of senders. One of the examples is that the client did not send us an invoice in a timely manner, saved money and did not order a registration service from us. He said-I will do everything myself, I will arrange everything myself, I know everything. We provided him with wagons, forwarding, the container left. As it turned out, the sender loaded too much goods, above the norm, respectively, the containers were detained on the Chinese side. They are stuck in the middle, between Kazakhstan and China, in the neutral zone. China does not accept and does not give a reason for the return, Kazakhstan cannot accept it, because there is no reason. And the containers have been standing for a long time. Of course, we are solving this issue. Another thing is that now we need time for this and additional expenses at a time when such a situation could have been avoided.

- Has this problem – the lack of experience of senders and their desire to save on high-quality services-become a systemic problem in container transportation?

- This is not systematic,but it happens. You need to understand that when filling out invoices, you need to take everything into account correctly. All graphs must be entered correctly. Of course, there is a human factor, mistakes happen everywhere. As a result, the cargo is stopped for a week or two. There are cases when containers are damaged on the way-no one is immune from this either. Just vandals who spoil, break through containers. We try to avoid this. But no one canceled the force majeure.

- And how often do senders make a choice in favor of the so-called savings, refusing a full package of services? Maybe it is worth explaining the consequences of such a decision, when the client, relying on his experience, eventually loses a lot of money?

-Yes, such cases are not uncommon. Our company provides a full range of services for a variety of transportation. When we offer the client "turnkey container transportation", he can ask for some service separately – we provide. There are also intermediary companies that are trying to entice the client using price dumping. It happens that customers go for it. In the end, almost all customers in our experience regret this. What is the peculiarity of logistics? Something changes every day. This is not a production where you can adjust everything and be calm. Something has changed and the one who provided the service already says-sorry, the price will now be different, because the conditions have changed. They begin to "unwind" it for every little thing, as they say, and the client bears losses. In the end, he loses a lot more, and secondly, the relationship with us is also damaged. Yes, there are such cases, but, fortunately, not often. Basically, the customers who work with us, they understand that if they pay, they will receive a service, a good service, and if something changes in the market, the company always goes forward to smooth out these moments.

- Through what tools, resources and assets do we ensure the safety of the cargo, compliance with deadlines and other obligations to the client? What do we have at our disposal, what makes us strong and what allows us to meet the needs of the client?

- The company has large assets. These are our own terminals, cars, equipment, and human resources. All this is there, respectively, when customers contact us, they can immediately receive a range of services. Here is another example: a client has submitted a plan for June, but does not have time to send a container for some reason. Its 10-20 containers at the terminal. I did not have time according to the plan, it is postponed to July, this plan is approved for another 10 days. In total, three weeks are lost and all this time he has to pay for the storage of containers. If we see such situations, we always try to get into the situation - we make discounts, sometimes we even cancel the storage fee, because we understand that we need to send this product to us, we just need to help the client, insure him.

- Adlet, let's get back to work in quarantine. What other changes did the pandemic make to your work, especially against the background of growing demand and volumes?

- Here I will start with the fact that I have been working in the container department relatively recently - I have started my fourth year. When I first came, the most popular, I repeat, directions were import, transit, when the containers were empty (empty) returned to China. Russia started working in this regard before us, they understood the advantages of returning Chinese containers, how it can be used in logistics. There is a shortage of containers in Russia now. Where can I get them? In Kazakhstan. A lot of loaded containers arrive in Kazakhstan, after unloading they are empty, after which the Chinese take them back to themselves. Russia offered a more convenient way of returning, but the path there is a little longer, that is, it simply took it for its export. Such things happened in my second year of work. And then, on the third, a pandemic occurred. If you go deeper, senders in Kazakhstan are used to one mode of operation - the main thing is to take them to the border, the rest does not matter. The cargo was sent on covered wagons, there was no interest in containers, because the tonnage was less and there was no point in bringing them to the border. During the pandemic, everything changed, China stopped accepting covered, any other special cars. But the contract must be fulfilled and the thinking of market participants began to change. It was realized that the container has a lot of advantages. We redirected the covered wagons that were previously sent to Dostyk and Khorgos, where the cargo was reloaded into containers, to our terminals at Zhetysu, purchased the necessary resources, hired an additional team of people who carry out reloading from covered to containers, with further departure. By providing such a service, we saw that customers began to apply. You know, word of mouth is very popular among people. Customers began to contact us, high containerization began. This is perhaps the main thing that marked the work during the pandemic.

- And what do you carry most often? And where, besides China?

-  In 99%, it is China. Mainly grain crops are sent - barley, wheat and so on. Now those producers who sent minerals, copper, aluminum, zinc also realized that they need to switch to containers. I think over time they will also contact us.

- Adlet, how does your department cope with such volumes of work? What motivates your employees and specifically you to achieve results?

- The volumes are serious, yes. Now applications for almost 4 thousand containers are received monthly. Regarding my motivation – I just like my job. If this is not the case, I think no one will last long in logistics, because it is nerves, sometimes you need to stay at work late, this is a high responsibility. But I like it all, I do my job with pleasure. My team has been formed over the years. Our company is characterized by constancy, stability and reliability. That's what gives strength, gives motivation. In addition, we are encouraged every year, the company invests a lot in employees, in their training. All this gives us a support from which we can start and go further. I always tell managers that everyone can make a mistake, and this does not mean that you will be fired for a mistake. No, the company will always support, help and sort out why you made a mistake, tell you what can be done in this case. The last six months have certainly been stressful for employees, because there was a particularly large influx of applications. Unfortunately, we did not foresee the problem of staff shortage here. It is difficult to find a good specialist who is ready to work, to give everything in full. But we hope. Now our company is recruiting young specialists who are ready to grow up and make them professional logisticians. I was a student myself when I came to Atasu Logistics, I came as an engineer, I grew up to be a manager. It was in 2011, I was 20 years old. I am an energy engineer by profession, I came here because I understood the technical part, I was hired, I worked for about 8 years and due to the fact that there was a certain decline in the container department, I was transferred to where it was necessary to strengthen. That's how I got into the container department. Then there were three of us.

- That is, you have completely retrained?

- As an engineer, I drew, created diagrams, in general, this is a separate structure. In the container department, I do basically the same thing, or rather, according to the same principles – to bring everything to the end, make quick decisions, and not be afraid to experiment. Our vip clients, with whom we are currently working, were my first clients. After a year and a half, I was appointed director of the department. I admit, it was a complete surprise for me. But if the management has trusted me, I will cope. Because, again, I like my work. We started with three people in the department and have grown to 15 at the moment.

- What are your immediate plans for the development and scaling of the department? As far as we know, the demand continues to grow and it needs to be provided...

- There are always tasks that any manager sets for himself. And the main thing for me is to purchase containers in the property in the starting volume of up to 200 pieces. This is the minimum plan-until the end of the year. In general, we will add up to 5000 containers to our fleet. Then we will see how the market will grow. But we definitely do not plan to stop, we will grow to the most solid indicators, I am sure.

- Adlet, thank you for the conversation, good luck to you!