Tài liệu Suggestions to enhance the quality of transportation agency service at vosa

SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG PREFACE During my internship in VOSA Haiphong, I had a chance to investigate about transportation agency service. This is currently one of the main business of agency. Under determination of managers of VOSA, this service will play very important role in transportation field in the near future. Therefore, I decided to choose the topic: “Suggestions to enhance the quality of transportation agency service at VOSA” which the aim to understand the current status of implementing this service in this agency. This dissertation consists  Chapter 1: Literature  Chapter 2: Current Status Of Implementing Cargo Transportation Agency Service At VOSA  Chapter 3: Suggestions To Enhance The Quality Of Transportation Agency Service At VOSA Haiphong I declare that this report is my own unaided work. It has not been submitted before. If violated, I am solely responsible for and bear the punishments of the Institution and University. Student Name and Signature NGUYEN DANG LUAN NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Pagei SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG ACKNOWLED GEMENT Firstly, I would like to sincerely thank the guide of my advisor: Prof: Vuong Thu Giang and all employeesand staff of Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency in Haiphong who created conditions for me to complete this topic. Due to limitation of time and knowledge, the dissertation inevitably has mistaken. I look forward to the instructions of lecturers and teacher in board of appraisal. NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Pageii SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ............................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...................................................................................... ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................... iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................. vi LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. vii INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1 1. Necessitation .................................................................................................1 2. Dissertation Purpose .....................................................................................1 3. Dissertation Object and Scope .......................................................................2 4. Dissertation Methodology .............................................................................2 5. Scientific and real significance of dissertation ...............................................2 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................3 1.1. Quality of transportation agency service .......................................................3 1.1.1. Service and Features of Service.....................................................................3 1.1.2. Service quality and the features of service quality .........................................4 1.1.3. Characteristics of transportation service sector ..............................................5 1.1.4. The factors constituting the quality of transport agency service .....................6 1.1.5. Other factors affecting to the quality of transportation agency service ...........8 1.2. The role of quality improvement of transport agency service for improving business efficiency ...................................................................................................9 1.2.1. The concept, content and the necessity of improving business efficiency ......9 1.2.2. The role of enhancing the quality of transportation agency service to business performance in VOSA ........................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2: CURRENT STATUS OF IMPLEMENTING CARGO TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA ........................................ 12 2.1. Introduction about VOSA Haiphong ........................................................... 12 2.1.1. General description about VOSA Haiphong ................................................ 12 2.1.2. History and development ............................................................................ 12 2.1.3. Main business and mission of VOSA Haiphong .......................................... 13 2.1.4. The organizational structure and functions and responsibilities of each department ............................................................................................................. 15 NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Pageiii SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG 2.1.5. Activities in term of transportation agency service of VOSA Haiphong ...... 17 2.1.6. Business performance of VOSA Haiphong ................................................. 17 2.2. The quality of transportation agency service at VOSA Haiphong ................ 20 2.2.1. Safety (Avoidance of cargo loss and damage) ............................................. 20 2.2.2. Time (Speed) .............................................................................................. 23 2.2.3. Cost ............................................................................................................ 25 2.3. Advantages and disadvantages of implementation of transportation agency service at VOSA Haiphong .................................................................................... 28 2.3.1. Advantages .................................................................................................28 2.3.2. Disadvantages ............................................................................................. 29 CHAPTER 3: SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAIPHONG ................... 32 3.1. Development objectives of VOSA .............................................................. 32 3.1.1. Main objectives of company ....................................................................... 32 3.1.2. Strategies for the medium and long-term development ................................ 32 3.2. Suggestions to improve the quality of transportation agency service ........... 33 3.2.1. Improve the quality of human resources ...................................................... 33 3.2.2. Improve the ability of staff in the preparation of contracts and administrative procedures ............................................................................................................. 34 3.2.3. Investing in modernization of equipment in service as well as freight vehicles .................................................................................................................... 35 3.2.4. Having indicator systems to monitor service quality affects customers ....... 36 3.2.5. Have a system to collect the feedback from customers as the basis for quality management .......................................................................................................... 37 3.2.6. Developing policies to encourage customers ............................................... 39 3.2.7. Improve the service quality by reducing the time of transport ..................... 40 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 44 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 45 NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Pageiv SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS WTO World Trade Organization VOSA Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency BL Bill of Lading NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Pagev SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Summary of indicators ...............................................................................8 Table 2: Revenue and profit Of VOSA Haiphong from 2011 to 2014 .................... 18 Table 3: Number of ships served by VOSA Haiphong ........................................... 20 Table 4: Summary of damage cargo in the progress of implementation of transportation agency service ................................................................................. 22 Table 5: Summarize of plan for cargo transportation .............................................. 24 Table 6: Cost for business activities of VOSA Haiphong in from 2011 to 2014 ..... 26 Table 7: Suggested questionnaire for customer’s opinion about service ................. 38 NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Pagevi SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: VOSA Haiphong .................................................................................... 12 Figure 2: Organizational Structure of VOSA Haiphong ......................................... 15 Figure 3: Progress of examining the reasons for late delivery ................................ 39 Figure 4: Selection of mean of transportation ......................................................... 42 NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Pagevii SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG INTRODUCTION 1. Necessitation International Trade of Vietnam has grown rapidly over the past 15 years since integrating into the world economy, especially after Vietnam became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In addition, the significant growth of Logistics has promoted people use the resources in an optimal way to deliver products and services with the highest quality and lowest costs to the last users. Therein, cargo transportation is also one of the important contents of logistics and currently become an indispensable activity in the international merchandise trade. However, the progress of commercialization also means that there are more competitions in cargo transportation in particular and freight forwarding in general. For the transport sector, a sector with the increasingly fierce competition, in order to survive, each transport company and agency have to create its own way so as to have the best competitiveness. Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency (VOSA) is a company operating effectively in the freight industry in Vietnam today. Over long time of development, branch Haiphong of VOSA has grown steadily with various types of business and cargo transportation agency service was one of the most important services contributing primarily to revenue of agency. Therefore, investigating and studying the business operations of VOSA Haiphong in general and cargo transportation agency activities in particular will help us have a more complete view of the development of agency and the quality of cargo transportation agency services. 2. Dissertation Purpose Investigating the quality of cargo transportation agency service at VOSA Haiphong is very necessary inorder to carry out accurate assessment about pros and cons in the implementation of this service at VOSA Haiphong. From there, we can suggest some effective resolutions to contribute to enhance the quality of service that VOSA Haiphong is applying. The improvement in service quality can help to promote cargo transportation activity and stabilize the steady development of business at VOSA Haiphong. This is very important issues for manager and the main purpose of dissertation. NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Page1 SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG 3. Dissertation Object and Scope 3.1. Dissertation Object Examining the literature about cargo transportation agency service, investigating the situation about providing cargo transportation agency service at Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency and offering some basic suggestions to enhance the service quality of cargo transportation agency service at Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency Service (VOSA). 3.2. Dissertation Scope Cargo transportation agency service has been being applied by the company in the period from 2011 to 2014. 4. Dissertation Methodology During the progress of investigating and researching topic, the dissertation has used the following methods:  Data collecting and summarizing  Data processing  Data analyzing  Systemize the investigated indicators 5. Scientific and real significance of dissertation Dissertation will systemize some general issues about cargo transportation field and basis to assess the quality of service as well. In addition, the dissertation also generalizes the foundation and development of VOSA and assesses the quality of offering the current cargo transportation agency service of company. This will focus on finding some problems when providing service, the reason of these issues to suggest the appropriate solutions in order to enhance the quality of cargo transportation agency service at VOSA. NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Page2 SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1. Quality of transportation agency service 1.1.1. Service and Features of Service The term “service” is used to define as “any act or performance, one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything its production may or may not be tied to a physical product. Service includes all economic activities whose output is not a physical product or construction, consumed at the time it is produced and provides added value in forms (such as convenience, amusement, timeliness, comfort and health) that are essentially intangible and it concerns of its first purchaser”(Dabhade, 2013) In other words, service is the result of at least one activity to be conducted at relationships between suppliers and customers and often not visible. Which customers are organizations or individuals receiving product, consumer, service beneficiaries, final users, retailers, beneficiaries? The supplier is an organization or individual providing products, the manufacturer, distributor, retailer or wholesaler, service providers. Suppliers may be internal or outside the organization. If there is a contract for the use of service, supplier may appoint a representative or use other mean of transactions. Customer activity upon contact with suppliers is also important for the provision of services. The provision or use of tangible products may be part of the service provider. Service may be associated with the production and the supply, manufacture tangible products. Nowadays, all manufacturing activities are included small services: supply service, distribution service, warranty service, installation service. It can be seen as special type of commodities. However, service includes several following features:  Intangibility: the main characteristic of services is that they have no particular tangibility or physicality. This feature makes the quality of service largely depends on customer perceptions but not always customers have the same feeling. NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Page3 SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG  Heterogeneity: this trait suggests the possibility for high variability in delivering service (Zeithaml V.A., 1985) because the service contains the primary contribution from people and it’s very hard to standardize the outcome of service.  Inseparability: this feature is taken into consideration to reflect the simultaneity of delivery and using service (W.J, 1963). Specifically, the progress of providing service happens in a period of time with the direct involvement of users or customers.  Perishability: generally, services cannot be stored, reserved or carried forward to future (J.M, 1966). They operated as an open system and the unfinished services provided are not accepted. On the other hand, the existence of services depends on cooperation between providers and customers and the quality of offering service based on customer’s judgments. Therefore, service providers need to have strategies so as to provide the best service to their customers. 1.1.2. Service quality and the features of service quality What is service quality and features of service quality? The term“service quality” can be define as a comparison between customer expectations with real company performance(Ms.U.Dhanalakshmi). Through improving the service quality and collecting the demand of market, companies can gain competitive advantage over other competitors. Although can be assessed from service provider’s attributes, the concept of service quality should be approached from customer’s perspectives because of the variety in standard of assessment (Chang, 2008). Due to the difference in characteristics of service with other particular products, the quality of service has its own different feature in comparison with common product’s quality. According to (A. Parasuraman, 1985), writings other literature on services proposes main themes of the characteristics of service qualities:  The quality of service is more difficult to assess than goods quality NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Page4 SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG  The quality of service awareness usually depends on a comparison between customer’s expectation and service performance.  Quality assessments are not only on the outcome of service provided but also the process of delivering service. In addition, the stability of service needs to be taken into consideration. The stability determines the repeatability of providing service and there are several types of stability:  Stability of place: it requires the provision of service at the same quality in various subsidiaries of business.  Stability of the products and services: the possibility of changes in the quality of service lying in the product itself. Therefore, to improve service quality, businesses need to take measures to minimize and control possibility for quality changes of products.  Stability of the service provider: the volatility of service quality is determined primarily by the service provider and customers. So, with various customers (the existing customers or the new ones), businesses have to provide the service with the same standard to enhance the reputation. 1.1.3. Characteristics of transportation service sector Transportation service is a technical process to move the location of people and objects in space. Under an economic standpoint, transportation service is moving the location of passengers and goods in space while simultaneously satisfy two properties: a material production activity and is an independent economic activity. Transportation activities influence manufacturing and business processes through the transport costs (freight). In case the freight increases, cargo transportation services will increase production costs and affect the price of cargoes as well. Therefore, in transportation services, freight (transport cost) is an important indicator because it allows us to compare the comparative advantages among businesses. Additionally, quality of transport service are assesses by the amount of cargoes flows and flow speed. So, the characteristic of the transport operation is transportation speed must be guaranteed for businesses using service. It creates NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Page5 SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG some requirements for transportation service providers to ensures service quality and schedule time. In general, the business sector of transportation has several basic characteristics:  Transportation speed depends largely on infrastructure and weather condition: roads system directly affect the speed and quality of transportation on the ground. On the other hand, weather conditions also significantly influence cargoes transportation by air, sea or train.  The cost of transportation is considerably related to external factors: fuel costs, the price of spare parts and this can affects demand for a particular transportation service from customers.  Transportation services do not manufacture a new product but constitute the value of the product through the movement of cargoes.  Transport operations take place on a large scale because it associated with any business production. Transportation delivers material to plants and transfers outputs to the place of consumption. 1.1.4. The factors constituting the quality of transport agency service Measuring the quality of service as has great significance to business. In freght transportation field, providing high quality service can help companies or agency retain existing customers and attract the new ones. Evaluating and measuring the quality of transportation agency service represents a tool for objectification quality level of provided services. However, a tool that compares and evaluates the freight performance in such a way is missing in context of Vietnam in general. Currently, it even does not exist, an agreement among foreign companies for freight transport quality. Each shipper, operator, consignee has its own standards and quality measures, usually referred to different indicators and values (Albert Mancera). Several authors have taken into account the question of quality of freight transportation and most of them had agreement in the primary aspects which involved in quality of service(Gray, 1982). Eight indicators were investigated to define the quality of transportation agency service: freight rates, speed, reliability, damage, inventories, company policy, shipper market conditions and influence of the shipper’s costumers(McGinnis, 1978). Besides, four most crucial factors were NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Page6 SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG found out to associated with the quality of transportation agency service including: freight rates, speed, reliability and damage. To have competitive advantage in cargo transport market, providers of freight transportation agency services focused on finding out the noticeable transportation selection factors of consignees. “Reliability”, “equipment availability”, and “service frequency” were found as the most significant attributes which attract the export and import shippers within selecting the container line (Kent, 1999). Nonetheless, the indicator “reliability” can vary based on different transportation agency selection criteria literature. Four factors (equipment availability, transit time and reliability, loss and damage, transport charges associated with shipment size) were predicted to measure the quality of cargo transportation agency service in the context of US market. A difference of requirements is stated depending on the commodity (type of the cargoes). The results are based on real data. However, no further work is found in this direction. (Roberts, 1979). Since then, several other author continued using quite similar indicators in tranportation field. According to Danielis, the shippers/consignees are willing to pay for a better quality in freight transport services, especially for reliability and safety (Danielis, 2005). Daniels claimed that the shippers are willing to pay for a good quality in freight transport services, especially for 2 main attributes: reliability and safety. Although it should be taken into consideration that the concept of quality of transport service could change depending on the type and volume of cargoes and the scope of the company, because they have strong connection with certain transport or economic needs. On the other hand, to assess the relative importance of Ro/Ro Ferry selection factors in freight transportation, “Rapid and reliable cargo movement”, “price”, and “fast response to problems” were discovered as the most important attributes(Meyrick, 1992) The transport research on selection of shippers/consignees was either concentrated on the time aspect or the value of time saving for cargo transportation. However, along with time, other quality indicators of freight transportation agency service, such as punctuality and avoidance of damages, become increasingly vital in the environment of present logistics services. NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Page7 SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG Basing on basis of researches, shippers usually consider some attributes “Cost”, “Time (Speed)”, “Loss and damage of cargoes (Safety)”, “Reliabilty” to select the appropriate freight transportation agency. Therefore, 4 factors (Loss and damage of cargoes , Time, Cost, Reliability) can be used as indicators to measure the quality of freight trasportation agency services. Table 1: Summary of indicators No. Name of indicators 1 Avoidance of loss and damage (Safety) 2 Time 3 Cost 4 Reliability 1.1.5. Other factors affecting to the quality of transportation agency service a) External factors  Market demand: As the starting point of the process of managing service quality. The characteristics and trends of market demand for freight transportation directly affect to the service provided. With the high demand for commodities exchange in globe, the demand for good cargo transportation service is also high as well. Therefore, it requires providers or agencies investigating the market, analyzing the socio-economic environment, determining customer’s needs. The fierce competition in cargo transportation field forces transportation enterprises to determine the appropriate market segment and have solutions in order to fulfill the quality criteria.  The development of engineering and technology: the innovations of engineering field through researching, discovering, inventing and applying scientific progress into manufacturing help enterprises offer service with high reliability, minimizing costs in accordance with the customer’s requirements. On the other hand, technology is general technical modes, skills, methods used to transform resources into service. Technology includes:  Facilities and equipment used to provide cargoes transportation service NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Page8 SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG  Ensuring the necessary information.  Preparing the facilities, organizing and coordinating in management  Appropriate and efficient processes for various requirement of customers  Government policies: The ability to improve and enhance product quality, facilities for the services sector depends largely on the management mechanisms of the state. Government policies as a priority service sectors can create competition and promote the innovations and quality improvement for transportation enterprises and agencies. b) Internal factors  Labor force: Laborforces have a decisive role to the quality, especially the quality of service because employees directly involved in the service-providing process. Therefore, enterprises must have specifically plans to recruit the new labor force and retrain the existing workforce to meet missions of enterprises and market demand as well.  Management level in general and management level in progress of providing high service quality in particular is one of the basic factors accelerating the improvement of service quality. In cargo transportation field, the ability to accurately identify the objectives through professional management can help to reduce the time of transport.  Technological capabilities and equipment of the enterprises or agencies: The quality of service was also influenced by the modernity of facilities and equipment. So, transportation enterprises and agencies need the ability to maintain machine to fulfill the requirements of service. 1.2. The role of quality improvement of transport agency service for improving business efficiency 1.2.1. The concept, content and the necessity of improving business efficiency a) Concept: The term “efficiency” describes a level of performance that illustrates a progress that uses the lowest amount of inputs (material and resources) to manufacture the highest amount of outputs (products or services). In other words, NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Page9 SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG efficiency in business relates to the use of all inputs in creating required output which saves personal time and energy. b) Content: Applying new advanced technology to primary business activities and main service of business has the possibility to approach the new way in which a company carries out main areas of the business, such as customer service or supply chains. Through renovating current business activities into more streamlined progresses, enterprises can minimize costs, increase productivity and efficiency, meet the market requirements, reduce risk, become more responsive to continually changing business environment and create comparative advantage over other competitors. c) The necessity of improving business efficiency: The diverse and complex movement of the market mechanism led to fierce competition among enterprises, contributing to the advancement of businesses. However, in order to maintain the existence and development of enterprises, it requires businesses to differentiate modes of operation, develop strategies and business plans appropriately to achieve positive results. In addition, In order to improve the efficiency of production and business operations, enterprises must always improve the quality of goods and service offered, reduce production costs so they can achieve profitability goals. Therefore, improving business efficiency in market mechanism is extremely important, it is expressed through: Firstly, business efficiency improvement is fundamental basis to ensure the survival and development of enterprises. Secondly, business efficiency improvement is a factor promoting the competitiveness and progress in business. Finally, business efficiency improvement can help enterprise reach the longterm objective which is maximizing profit. 1.2.2. The role of enhancing the quality of transportation agency service to business performance in VOSA Transportation agency of VOSA was established in 1996 after the foundation of the International transport agents in the North of Vietnam. Nowadays, transportation agency service becomes the primary business of VOSA as the main NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Page10 SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG source of revenue along with other main business such as shipping agency service, warehousing service, vehicles renting, counting and forwarding service. As mention above, the increase in flows of cargo transportation led to the demand of transportation service as well. In addition, cargoes owners, ship-owners now have more strict and detailed requirements for transportation agency service and the strong competition of transportation field requires Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency to have particular objectives and carry out necessary resolutions in order to compete in this market. The transportation agency service as the main business plays very important role in encouraging the business performance of company and providing high standard of service quality can help VOSA attract ship-owners, cargoes owners, which is the basis for increasing company’s profit and company long-term development as well. NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Page11 SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG CHAPTER 2: CURRENT STATUSOF IMPLEMENTING CARGO TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA 2.1. Introduction about VOSA Haiphong 2.1.1. General description about VOSA Haiphong Figure 1: VOSA Haiphong  Company name : Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency Corporation  Transaction name : VOSA Group of Co.  Address : 25 Dien Bien Phu Str., Hai Phong City, Viet Nam  Telephone : 84.313.551408/ 3551032/ 3551321/ 3855846/ 3551319  Fax : 84.313.859915/ 3859842/ 3550864/ 3551131  Email : [email protected]  Website : http://www.vosa.com.vn/  Director : Mr. Le Thanh Hai 2.1.2. History and development NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Page12 SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF TRANSPORTATION AGENCY SERVICE AT VOSA HAI PHONG VOSA Haiphong is the branch of Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency Corporation which was recognized as government-owned corporation on May 12th 1993 with many functions such as shipping agent, cargo transportation agent, cargo exporting and importing, ship broker and shipping transactions, agents for foreign shipping lines, warehousing... On August 2nd 1993, Vietnam Maritime Administration has issued Decision No. 439 / QD-TCCB-LD which regulated about the operation of VOSA Haiphong under Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency as a division with legal personality. VOSA Haiphong has right to sign contracts with international organizations within and outside the country and to use the material resources and foreign technology to serve business production. With the nature of the industry deeply affected by the development of the economy, the development of import and export goods and the development of the dock port, Haiphong VOSA has made certain changes in the development process to fit the market economy of our country. Thanks to capture early market shifts, VOSA Haiphong has maintained the traditional agency and gradually works into other business areas to increase incomes for businesses. As a company with traditional partners, VOSA Haiphong has made efforts to maintain and ensure its credibility. In general, infrastructure and geographic location of the business is relatively favorable for production and business activities, particularly for the traditional shipping agency. Operational range of maritime services sectors at VOSA has widespread network at the local and important port in the country, creating competitive strength in maritime services, especially for shipping agency services. 2.1.3. Main business and mission of VOSA Haiphong  Main business In general, VOSA Haiphong has service provided as follow:  Shipping Agent Service Ship chandler service Brokerage and maritime services NGUYEN DANG LUAN GMA02 Page13