The ship chandler is one of the most important business partners you can have when you want to ship products to various regions. The reason is simple, you can have amazing products but if they don’t arrive on time to your customers or if they are damaged, that ends up ruining your reputation. If you have a shipping business, then you do need to have immediate, quick ways to ensure all the ship requirements are fulfilled.
That’s why you want to ensure you always work with the best possible ship chandler company out there. Once you choose a professional ship chandler, it becomes a lot easier to fulfill orders and also ensure your customers receive excellent results every time.
What are the duties of a best ship chandler company?
It’s very important to understand what a ship chandler does. The ship chandler is also called the ship supplier, marine contractor or marine supplier. The role of any ship chandler is to ensure that the supplies and goods needed for a ship are delivered accurately and on time. On top of that, the main goal is to always maximize efficiency and ensure that the ship requirements are fulfilled properly.
That’s the reason why a ship chandler will supply the ship with commodities, offer repair and maintenance services, provide cleaning services, calculate the ship needs for the journey, offer new buyers details about the ship condition and so on. The ship chandler will also supply any marine painting materials, repair communication equipment, offer pest control services, inspect safety equipment too. So yes, the ship chandler has plenty of duties, all of which are vital for the wellbeing of the ship and anyone on it.
How can you select the best ship chandler company?
Check if they are certified
When you want to hire a great ship chandler, your first focus has to be on certifications. The truth is that having a certified ship chandler is imperative, since this means they are qualified for this type of service. Sure, there might be ship chandlers that are very good, but if they lack a certification that’s already something to worry about. The best approach is to always pick a good ship chandler that’s fully qualified and certified to do this kind of work.
Generally, a certification shows the quality standards that a ship chandler guarantees. Sure, people can claim a lot of things, but certifications are the ones showing exactly what they are proven to do. While you can hire any ship chandler, the ideal option is a certified one, since it helps you remove any of the worries and challenges that might arise.
What infrastructure does the ship chandler have?
In order to provide as many ship-related services as possible, the ship chandler needs to ensure that they have the right infrastructure. That means they need a large warehouse where they can store products. They also need to invest in the best possible transportation services they can afford. After all, ships rely on the ship chandler to deliver everything they need on time. That means time is paramount, and any delays will cost them money.
When you want to hire a good ship chandler, you always want to focus on finding one with a great infrastructure that’s already set up. Some ship chandlers might promote future investments they want to do, but the reality is that you want someone whose system is already in place. That means you can get started right now and ensure all your ship needs are fulfilled at the right level. It will help you save time, money, while also implementing a system that works for a very long time.
How fast can they deliver supplies?
Every ship has its specific requirements, but when you hire a ship chandler, you do want to ensure that they deliver supplies quickly and without any delay. Making sure that the electrical and engineering supplies, but also general supplies are always sent on time is extremely important. Any delay is always going to cost the shipper, so a fast delivery time is crucial to take into consideration here.
Do they offer multilanguage support?
Not everyone is going to speak English on a ship. In fact, there are many international ships coming in that need a good ship chandler. Which is why one of the lesser known requirements to focus on would be to find a multilingual ship chandler. It’s a great idea to have multilanguage assistance and support. Even the smaller things matter when it comes to picking a ship chandler, and this is definitely one of them.
If you receive assistance and help in your native language, that helps immensely because you can avoid any language barriers and issues which come from that. More and more ship chandlers are investing in the idea of having multilanguage staff. Not only does that offer more efficiency and help for their clients, but it also allows them to stand out in the industry. It’s a tremendous opportunity and one of those important aspects that you really need to think about in a situation like this.
- Adaptability
Upon hiring a ship chandler, you want to ensure that they are able to adapt to your own requirements. It’s safe to say that every ship has its own needs. Some will focus a lot on their day-to-day supplies, others will need assistance with their engineering repairs and so on. This means the need of each ship chandler customer is going to vary quite a lot. The most important aspect here is to ensure that you are finding a professional ship chandler which is known to help, provide great results and a very good value every time.
Not every ship chandler is adaptable to the customer’s requirements. Some of them are specialized on doing solely a single service. Others are more versatile and thus they are able to deliver all kinds of services to their clients. Which is why it’s extremely important to see how much can the ship chandler adapt to your requirements. In the end, that’s what will give you the best experience, so making sure the ship chandler is able to adapt to what you need is what will make or break the deal.
- Pricing
Of course, whenever you hire any type of service, you always need to think about prices. And that’s no different in regards to the ship chandler. What really matters when it comes to the ship chandler is that such a service can vary in prices based on who you are working with. The best thing that you can do is to create a list with everything that you need from the ship chandler.
Once you do that, you can then show the list to multiple ship chandlers and see what their prices are and if they can fulfill everything you need. This is a great conversation because it shows exactly what you want and you don’t have to worry about hidden prices. Focus on versatility and on picking those professionals that give you a complete set of services. Splitting services between multiple ship chandlers will just cost you more money, and that’s the type of thing you want to avoid.
We always recommend focusing on value and quality. The reality is that focusing on lower prices is not going to help that much. Instead, try to find a good balance between prices and what you get for the money. That’s what really matters after all, and in the end it will give you a much better result even if you pay a bit more than usual.
- Timely deliveries
As we mentioned earlier, ship chandler delivery speeds are very important. However, you do want to check their history and see if they are delivering on time or not. What you can do is to check customer reviews online. They can give you a very good idea of what you can expect and what ROI you can get from something like that.
Reviews are important because they will also help you narrow down any specific upsides or downsides related to a certain ship chandler. Of course, some of them are biased and they won’t really give you a lot of insights. But there are many unbiased reviews that might actually come in handy and they can give you lots of information. When you’re not sure what ship chandler to use, reviews can make it easier to narrow down the best options, and the experience can be very good.
- Service list
A good thing you can do when choosing a ship chandler is to ask them for a list with all their services. What a lot of people don’t realize is that some ship chandlers actually have more than just one service. That alone can actually bring great value and results, and you will find this to be extremely interesting. Once you narrow down the services they provide, you will know if they are an ideal business partner or not.
There are also situations when the ship chandlers will actually give you adjacent services aside from their main ones. Those add-ons might actually come in handy based on the specifics of your business. That’s why we highly recommend perusing the service list of every ship chandler, as that on its own can help you take the right decisions in no time.
- Communication
One of the basic requirements when it comes to working with any business is certainly communication. The same thing is valid for the ship chandler, you want to ensure that they are great communicators and they do reply when necessary. You always want to ensure that you are getting the best possible results and that means communicating at the highest level and always offering the right solutions.
What you want to ignore is the type of ship chandler that only offers delayed answers. When you want to work with a solid business partner, receiving a reply a day later doesn’t seem professional. Plus, it can end up delaying your work and thus costing you money. This is why we think that hiring the best ship chandler does require you to focus on active, reliable communication. You can’t expect instant replies, but you shouldn’t have to wait a day or more for a reply either.
- Transparency
The last thing you want is to deal with a ship chandler which constantly adds on unforeseen expenses. Sure, issues can arise in any industry, but the truth is that you always expect transparency from any business partner. This is why we all expect the ship chandler to not bring in constant unforeseen expenses. When you have a transparent ship chandler that communicates with you about any expenses which arise, things are much better. So yes, it’s crucial to value transparency and even the simplest things can make a huge difference here.
How large is their team?
It’s also a good idea to learn more about the capacity that their team has. Do they have a small team or a larger one? Also, how many clients do they have at once? The truth is that a lot of people don’t realize it, but some ship chandlers end up thinning themselves by taking too many clients. This is a problem, because they can’t offer the efficiency and support that every client needs. That’s the reason why hiring a larger ship chandler or one that focuses only on a few clients at once is better. After all, you want the most attention and help from them.
Conclusion
There are many different things to focus on when you want to hire a good ship chandler. The truth is that even the simplest things matter and they can influence your experience and results. All the ideas listed above should be a guideline to follow, because they can help you narrow down which is the best ship chandler to suit your needs. At the end of the day, you always want to work with a professional, reliable and efficient ship chandler, while also getting the best value for money. Just stick to the ideas above, and ensure that you maintain a high level of communication with the ship chandler to ensure your needs are fully met!