{"id":100424,"date":"2019-06-28T18:56:14","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T16:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=100424"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:24:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:24:22","slug":"i-should-be-able-to-come-out-tops-thats-the-challenge-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2019\/06\/28\/i-should-be-able-to-come-out-tops-thats-the-challenge-for-me\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I should be able to come out tops, that\u2019s the challenge for me’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine you\u2019re a company that just bought products in China and wants to get them to Rotterdam. Until recently, this meant engaging the services of a freight forwarder: a kind of intermediary who arranges a shipping container on your behalf. Generally, you\u2019d contact a number of freight forwarders. After lengthy e-mail exchanges, you\u2019d end up choosing a container for transporting your cargo to Rotterdam.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSanne van der Most<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\t

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What brings students to set up their own business? And how do they turn their entrepreneurial ideas into reality? In this series, student entrepreneurs talk about the early years of their business. In this instalment: after recognising an opportunity in the port of Rotterdam, entrepreneur Jarell Habets is now competing with the likes of DHL. <\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

\u201cIt was a very traditional, unsexy sector,\u201d remembers Jarell Habets. He experienced it first-hand during an internship at one such freight forwarder. \u201cE-mails are static: the provided information is no longer up to date even as you press the send button. On top of which, I couldn\u2019t promise the client we\u2019d provide better service than our competitor. If someone in customer service didn\u2019t check his e-mail on time, the client wouldn\u2019t be provided with the required information.\u201d Each container led to a flurry of e-mails \u2013 40 on average \u2013 and each application instigated a new round of the same old questions. \u201cIf you\u2019re managing thousands of containers, this can keep quite a few people busy,\u201d according to Jarell.<\/p>\n\n\t

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