"It was a wonderful experience interacting with you and appreciate the way you have planned and executed the whole publication process within the agreed timelines.”
Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh PalLogistics, Shipping and Supply Chain Management is an emerging subject of importance in an emerging country like India and similar economies. Since India is at the cusp of being a developed nation and subjects like Logistics are still at the infancy stage, lot of Universities and Institutes in India have started including these subjects at the Bachelors, Masters and diploma levels of Business Administration, Management Science, Commerce and Export & Import related subjects and this book will have, I hope, tremendous interests among the practitioners, young students and the academia not only for the global community but Indian sub-continent and South East Asia specifically.
Since now, after more than 30 years of professional life, I am a visiting faculty member of various Universities and Institutes, I felt that there is dearth of proper books in this field, and I felt it as my humble duty to share whatever limited knowledge with the young students who were never exposed to subjects like Shipping, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Commerce, Export-Import Trade and their operational and legal aspects. If this book also assist the faculty members even in a limited way, then my humble efforts are fulfilled.
Although there are lot of people worldwide who has guided and helped me during my career in India and abroad, to name them is a huge task. But I can’t forget the help and guidance given to me during my professional life in Germany by Mr. Herbert Poetschke, Hapag Lloyd AG, Hamburg, Mr. Christian Conen, VLA-Vereinigte Linen Agenturen GmbH, Bremen and specially my well wishers in India Mr. K.C. Raman, former Director of Forbes Gokak, and Mr. Shantanu Bhatkamkar, Chairman of the ATC Logistics Group, Mumbai. But it was the persuasion from one of my cousins and a friend, Mr. Sam G. Nilamel of Nilamel Exports, an industrialist in Kerala and Kuwait, who always prompted me to write a book.
Though in I have commenced this hilarious exercise of bringing out this comprehensive handbook on Logistics and Shipping couple of years back, it was a tremendous task to write, re-write, revise and edit this volume. After the main script is finalized, it is my daughter Aatira Benn John who helped me in formatting and designing this book in its present form and I am thankful to her.
Comments and suggestions from readers are welcome to improve future editions and your suggestions may be sent to my email: logisticsterms@gmail.com
Benny John
Mr. Benny John, M.A. (Lit), LL.M., M.C.I.L.T (Lon). has had an illustrious career in the shipping and logistics industry. After completing his postgraduate degree in English Literature from Christ Church College, Kanpur in 1977, he completed a two year course in commercial shipping at the Narottam Morarjee Institute of Shipping in Mumbai. After working for a short period in Mumbai, he moved to Germany. He joined the head office of Hapag Lloyd AG, Hamburg, for a two-year management training following which he was posted to their Chennai regional office in 1986. In 1993, he joined as General Manager, Hanjin Shipping at Chennai. In 1997, he joined the head office of the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) at their head office in Riyadh and later at their Dubai Regional Office. He also worked with the ATC Group (ATC Global Logistics), at their Dubai & New Delhi offices. Mr. Benny John was the Chairman of the Madras Steamer Agents Association (MSAA, presently CHENSAA) in 1996, and was Secretary & Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Transport (Southern India Section) in 1992 & 1994 respectively, Member of the Expert Committee on Shipping, Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) in 1992.
In 2009, he entered academia and has been a visiting faculty member of various universities and colleges including the Indian Maritime University (IMU), the Indian Institute of Logistics (IIL) in Chennai, Kochi and Coimbatore, VELS University, IIKM, IIMM, St. Britto’s College, AMET University etc., teaching various subjects on shipping management, shipping law, business law, logistics , freight forwarding, transportation and commerce. During all these years, it has been his ambition to bring out a concise handbook to help his students on the basics of above mentioned subjects and hence the publication of this book titled, ‘A Handbook of Logistics, Shipping, Transportation, Export- Import and Commercial Terminologies’.
