The SeaRates and Digital Freight Alliance teams are proud to be part of the dynamic success of the global freight forwarding community. We enjoy exchanging valuable experiences of cooperation that ensure that businesses around the world achieve their aims as profitably as possible.
For today's interview, we invited Vera Vydrina, Head of Sales and Marketing of P&B Terminal company, a DFA Premium Member from Riga, Latvia.
We are grateful to Vera Vydrina for the pleasant opportunity to talk and learn about the uniqueness and service versatility of P&B Terminal. Stay with us further and discover new partnerships and acquaintances for the prosperity of your logistics businesses.
Tell us a bit about your company
P&B Terminal started its path in 2011 and today we are an indispensable part of the supply chain, located in the Freeport of Riga. Over the years, we have become more important in the logistics operations of shippers and consignees around the world. Moreover, we have expanded our partner network in the region and far beyond its borders around the world.
We are a large, modern terminal with our own transportation facilities and comprehensive services. We have a steady tendency to launch new services every 3-4 years, complementing the expanded arsenal of existing ones.
Describe your services to your perspective customers
Our company focuses on three core areas: warehouse logistics, cargo transportation, and customs clearance.
Warehouse services
We guarantee 24-hour video surveillance and security by the Freeport of Riga police on the territory of our warehouses. We are a major terminal for the entire region and provide space and proper conditions for more than 6,000 palletized items. Our warehousing services are notable for their comprehensiveness and fullness. Our services are available for any type of cargo handling.
Consolidated, project, oversized, or dangerous goods require many additional security measures and activities to keep them safe. Our specialists have extensive experience in all operations with this kind of cargo and therefore carry out long-term storage efficiency.
We take care of the cargo repacking, load the goods based on their type, inform our customers about the estimated unloading costs in advance, and process the cargo quickly. P&B Terminal offers competitive prices for storage as well as transshipment using our special equipment and transport.
Our customs clearance specialists are also fully involved in the process, as we guarantee assistance with customs clearance of goods when imported into Latvia or in transit.
Cargo forwarding
We are committed to ensuring efficient and safe delivery of our customers' cargo in the most suitable way:
Custom clearance
We fully manage our clients' imports, exports, and transit by obtaining customs permits for over 3 years and making the declaration required. Our company has all the necessary permits to operate in the customs zone. This is the reason for the high-security guarantees we provide to our clients. Automatic insurance of all cargoes stored in our warehouse or passing through our warehouse temporarily. We are proud of our high level of reliability and efficiency, and our customs permits are proof of this.
Additionally, we have a License for the transportation of cargo. This allows us to independently pick up containers and deliver them to our warehouse for storage or further transshipment.
How many facilities or warehouses do you have?
The territory of our warehouses covers more than 5,000 km². P&B Terminal has 2 large terminals, one of which is equipped with temperature control technologies, depending on the needs of the client's cargo, working to maintain heat around 20°C. Both warehouses are located in the company's territory.
We have a large container yard for storing a sufficient number of containers, promptly repairing them, and loading them on time.
Own equipment and transport
P&B Terminal offers full-service handling of containers, oversized cargo, and more, ensuring the efficiency of operations with a variety of loading and unloading equipment, such as the following:
- Reach stacker KALMAR DRD420-60S5
- Telescopic loader MECLIFT ML 1612R
- Forklift DIESEL FORKLIFT HELI CPCD35-W15H
- Forklift DIESEL FORKLIFT TCM FHD15T3, FHD18T3, FHD25T3
- Stacker HELI CDD16-950, HELI CQD16S
The company's transport allows us to carry out full-fledged logistics in a timely, efficient, and productive manner. Among the trucks, P&B Terminal has the following:
- Tractor SCANIA R420
- Tractor SCANIA R440
- Tractor VOLVO FH
- Trailer KRONE SD, KRONE SDC
Moreover, there is a conveniently located parking area for our drivers' vehicles waiting and preparing for loading and unloading operations.
Currently, our third large warehouse at the stage of preparation is a specially equipped area for storing cargo, for example, in big bags. We are implementing this development as we know the frequent needs of our customers - big bags are a type of packaging that is inconvenient to store, neither in the warehouse nor outdoors. Therefore, we will soon announce the opening of our third warehouse in the customs zone in the port, which will instantly simplify logistics and ensure the complete safety of our customer's cargo.
An important advantage of P&B Terminal's warehousing services is temperature control. We frequently deal with cargo, such as vehicles or their parts that are oiled, etc., that require certain storage conditions. We can store them all year-round in a safe place at the right temperature and in the right position.
What are the advantages of your tariffs?
Comprehencive pricing
We guarantee the competitiveness of our tariffs because we have direct negotiations with both shipping lines and marine agents.
If our clients require a lot of resources from shipping lines, such as their own vessels, maintenance, and other transportation expenses, we provide the opportunity to carry out shipping at the rates of shipping companies.
In case our clients require additional services, we will work directly with the tariffs offered by marine agents. This mainly applies to the Asian region, where we have a large network of partners and have been working with them daily for 5+ years. Thus, we also offer our clients unique freight rates, depending on seasonality, force majeure on trade lanes, and other changes.
Such a wide choice enables us to obtain low freight rates for our customers without being limited to a single offer.
Favorable offers
We have a leading position in the transportation of oversized cargo. This experience and value-added services allow us to maintain P&B Terminal's competitive edge by offering comprehensive services to our customers.
While the Latvian region is characterized by a small flow of cargo that stays in the country, we are the first point of contact with the European Union. So, our company is a transit route to Europe, and we keep extensive connections with Asia, Africa, South America, and North America. If our customers from anywhere in the world need to make long-distance deliveries to other continents, we are happy to offer our services.
Accordingly, we are very flexible in terms of payment terms for our customers, especially for warehousing services.
Guarantees we offer
The validity of our tariffs is an essential part of our guarantees. We know exactly the expiration dates of the tariffs we offer, as our managers have many sources to benchmark the best ones.
Our company also has a definite advantage in terms of payment for our services. P&B Terminal can negotiate with the client and take care of all the delivery costs in various ways. If the client wants to ship now but can pay only after receiving the goods, we are ready to consider such cooperation.
Have you already started to promote your freight rates on the SeaRates marketplace?
Freight rates for destinations from Riga, LV, for 20-ft and 40-ft container shipments have already been provided by P&B Terminal and are available in the Logistics Explorer tool on SeaRates.com. Here are a few of them:
| Port of Origin | Port of Destination | 20-ft FCL | 40-ft FCL |
| Riga | Qingdao | From $1300 | From $1500 |
| Riga | Haifa | From $1800 | From $2700 |
| Riga | Port Kelang | From $1500 | From $2500 |
| Riga | Kaohsiung | From $1400 | From $1500 |
| Riga | Keelung | From $2000 | From $2000 |
| Riga | Pusan | From $1400 | From $1500 |
| Riga | Cat Lai | From $1800 | From $2200 |
*Actual rates are valid until April 30, 2024.
How has being a Premium Member of the DFA enhanced your business flow?
We are pleased to be part of such an extensive network of freight forwarders from all over the world as the Digital Freight Alliance. Our business can confidently point out two groups of advantages that we have gained and will continue to increase thanks to the Alliance - reputational and practical.
Speaking of our reputational achievements, the DFA Premium Membership allows us to significantly expand our network of contacts and rapidly increase our recognition. 6 years ago, you could find out about us by visiting the Freeport of Riga and seeing a signboard, but now we are immersed in digital promotion, which is definitely of greater quality.
Also, there are some great success stories of cooperation and fruitful partnerships. We are increasingly in direct contact with members of the Digital Freight Alliance. P&B Terminal is a major representative of Latvia, so we are competent in specifically assisting our foreign colleagues with customs, cargo shipping, and warehousing services related to specific regions.
We cooperate with partners from Spain, France, and countries from different regions, effectively working together to handle sea deliveries, customs clearance, transshipment, and so on.
We are excited to do business together and expand into wider markets around the world, seeing our colleagues' willingness to cooperate effectively.
How has the use of innovative technologies, such as our tools, contributed to the growth and efficiency of your business?
We realize how your IT tools benefit not only DFA Members, but also contribute to the overall development of the industry, and we are always interested in participating in such an evolving process. We are actively using the Tracking System and have an integrated Tracking System API to increase the loyalty of our customers so that they can track the location of their cargo.
No doubt, providing data to customers brings them significant benefits, which are currently highly valued in the market. Especially in logistics, it is important to have accurate dates of shipment and arrival of goods.
The first thing that makes this service useful to us is that it helps us plan our financial obligations. We can know exactly when we will receive an invoice for a shipment and how much we need to pay. This allows us to manage our payment calendar efficiently.
In addition, this service helps us plan our internal work. We realize that the arrival of cargo on our vessel requires coordination of unloading operations. We can respond to this information promptly and schedule the necessary activities to handle the cargo.
Moreover, our customers, who often resell or use shipments in their production, need to know when they will receive their goods. Instead of spending time searching for this information on sites, they can get it directly from us.
Finally, this service also allows us to keep our business processes in order and establish checkpoints for planning. In the four years, we have been using this service, we have integrated it into our system, and it has become an integral part of our work.
It is really important to us that we provide the best service to our customers. We consider DFA and SeaRates our partners and are willing to test all your offerings.
Now we are focused on a large amount of work to improve our internal infrastructure, which allows us to provide our customers with even more benefits and improve the quality of our service. Currently, we are also using the Tracking System in the development of our mobile service.
We are committed to providing our customers with comprehensive feedback, covering not only transportation but also warehousing services. Our team is working to expand the functionality and provide customers with more complete information about the status of their cargo and stock.
How has being part of the DFA increased trust and credibility among your clients, leading to more bookings?
Our team has certainly noticed an upward trend in the number of inquiries from the DFA network. We would also like to emphasize that this is a great platform for continuous business growth if one takes a proactive stance and works in the direction provided by the Alliance. On our part, we always offer high-quality, comprehensive services at good prices. From the side of DFA and SeaRates, we get many opportunities to implement cooperation with clients and partners.
Of course, our industry has its own seasonal peculiarities. However, together with our proactive attitude and willingness to work and your offers, we get a great result as regular inquiries and bookings. We have noticed how your offers provide a wide range of work opportunities for Digital Freight Alliance members. So we are constantly making efforts to realize this potential.
How does your company handle problems that may arise during transportation?
Some situations we can't change, such as rough weather conditions, but we can always foresee and solve them effectively for our clients.
A recent case of such a mishap was related to a flood, which made it difficult to unload the incoming cargo on time. In such situations, you can always wait it out, but we will not cause unforeseen expenses for the client if we can find an alternative. So, we quickly found an additional warehouse nearby for prompt unloading, which minimized the losses caused by the cargo's downtime.
We are convinced that it is one of the responsibilities of a logistics expert to keep the entire process of transporting the client's cargo under control. Our managers are always ready to offer a "Plan B".
The next group of successful cases concerns groupage cargo. In this case, we quickly find additional cargoes in the required countries to ship the containers.
Here we fully utilize our advantages of a wide network of partnerships and membership in the DFA to provide the client with favorable terms of delivery to any country.
P&B Terminal's managers can be given the term "anti-fragility" for their ability to respond quickly to force majeure or changes and always be ready to satisfy our clients.
How do you envision your company's growth and success in the future, especially in light of your partnership with the DFA and the utilization of innovative technologies?
We already have successful experience in handling project and oversized cargo, including transportation, loading/unloading, storage, customs clearance, etc. We are interested in achieving greater results in this area because we see mutual interest from our customers, DFA representatives, and shippers around the world.
We plan to cooperate with DF Alliance in this way because we have unique equipment that allows us to work with any kind of cargo. For example, our regular customers ask us to handle cars, electric vehicles, tractors, and other transport means, for which we have special equipment for securing, loading, and transporting.
For large project cargoes and refrigeration units, we also offer a comprehensive solution for delivery and storage, taking into account all the specifics, which is our advantage among our colleagues in the region.
Why should clients choose your company for their shipments?
“We know everything about logistics”, – P&B Terminal - Freeport of Riga
...and not only know but implement. P&B Terminal employees are convinced of the value and quality of our versatile services. Without a doubt, we guarantee comprehensive and turnkey logistics for general and project cargo, for standard and unique clients' requirements, Door-to-Door delivery, and much more.
- Versatility and comprehensive freight services: P&B Terminal is a powerful aggregator of transport companies, shipping lines, and marine agents around the world, providing space and all the possibilities for smooth logistics and high-quality freight forwarding services. Our extensive partner network is an advantage for our clients, as we replace entire logistics departments and reduce additional expenses for cargo transportation.
- Advanced warehousing solutions: We are proud to serve as temporary or permanent warehouses for many customers, where they can safely store their goods. We are called upon for temporary storage in case of unexpected events, such as a sharp rise in the cost of transport rental, and we are chosen permanently because of our technical advantages. We offer a wide range of transport and handling equipment for any need for large and small volumes of cargo of various types.
- Advantages of Location: Being located on the territory of the Freeport of Riga enables us to improve the guarantee and quality of our services through enhanced warehousing security measures, high-quality customer clearance, convenient cargo handling, advanced equipment, suitable placements for managing multimodal transportation, and much more.
This makes us reliable even in extraordinary situations. We are versatile, as we can provide any logistics service and offer a comprehensive solution for our clients.
We appreciate the opportunity to showcase P&B Terminal and express our sincere wishes for your company's prosperity and development. SeaRates and the Digital Freight Alliance look forward to the possibility of meeting you soon and contributing to your success.
For any logistics and trade needs, please feel free to contact us at sales@searates.com. To reach P&B Terminal, refer to the contact details provided below:
Contact details
Feel free to contact P&B Terminal for high-quality services to handle your cargo and improve your logistics experience with comprehensive and versatility services for shippers worldwide:
P&B Terminal – Freeport of Riga
Email: sales@pbterminal.eu
Website: www.pbterminal.eu
Uriekstes Str 18, Riga
+371 27315555
Vera Vydrina
Head of Sales and Marketing
