We recently interviewed Artiom Kozlov, CEO and Owner of KGE Global Logistics. He is self-driven, business-oriented, and highly motivated in the Project Cargo and Freight Forwarding industry. Artiom is ready to take any challenges that come his way and find creative solutions to them. He specializes in Project Cargo from door to door and in different nations. Apart from these, he has leadership development skills and sales motivation and can handle stress with proficiency. Let’s learn more about Artiom and his journey through this interview below.
Beginning Of The Journey
We started the interview by asking, “Which career path led you to where you are today?”
Artiom Kozlov shared, “Actually, I was living in Australia almost half of my life, and one day decided to go back to my home country back in 2005 for 3 months to check out how and what, in these 3 months while I was there, I have a meet girl that eventually became my wife and still is. So we met in early 2006 in our town at the wedding of friends that we both knew. After 4 months, I proposed to her, and we had a wedding on 01.07.2007.
After the wedding, we went back to Australia for 1 year; my wife and I decided to go back to Latvia and live there for some time, so we did. I started to work for her Dad at his Transport company which specialized in Oversize cargo transportation from Europe to CIS countries, Central Asia, Mongolia, and the Caucasus.”
Artiom Kozlov continued, “When I started to work for him, I was like a freshman without any previous experience in the Transport industry or Logistics. So he set me down next to him for about 3 months doing some small technical work, learning from the below grounds how to measure fuel tanks for trucks coming back home from trips, calculating how long the trip/average km per day, etc., and also started making some requests.
So it took me around 1 year to get to know the basics of the industry. I like it very much. It was very challenging compared to the other jobs, and seemed very dull. So I moved up to the project manager after 2 years from the moment I started and enjoyed every moment.”
Inspiration Behind This Company
We were interested in learning about what inspired Artiom to build this successful business. We asked, “What inspired you to develop the idea for your company?”
Artiom Kozlov shared, “It was 2013 when the idea came up to establish my own Freight Forwarding company, so myself and a couple of partners registered a company in the Netherlands and called it KGE Logistics.
KGE stands for KEY, GLOBAL, EFFECTIVE, and 2 partners also had rich expertise in the project cargo field and Logistics, so we were a strong team of energetic workaholics that loved what we did. Very good in this significant and challenging Logistics sector.”
Evolving Priorities
Business priorities often change with years of functioning in the industry. We asked, “How have your priorities in terms of business evolved since you first started?”
Artiom Kozlov replied, “My priorities first are, of course, Family, then the work comes to mind, and this is what I love to do !! Logistics is my passion, for sure. It is the most interesting sphere and challenging work I have ever done in my career, and I can assure you that after working over 15 years, I still feel like I have the same attitude and energy as when I started back in 2008.”
Challenges And Key Points To Overcome
Every business faces challenges amidst the tough competition of the present times. So we asked, “What are the most challenging situations your company overcomes?”
Artiom Kozlov shared, “Most challenging situations will be overcoming stressful moments that very often happen in our daily work, etc., truck not reaching the loading place on time, missing the vessel cut-off time when the project is top urgent, and you don’t have any extra free days to deliver the goods to the final destination, providing a truck for loading that the shipper does not accept, and so on I can go forever and ever.”
We asked, “What’s the key strength to overcome it?”
Artiom Kozlov replied, “Keep yourself calm in any stressful situation because everything is being sorted anyway, so you just stressed and lost your hair for nothing. Be always confident in what you have created, and believe in yourself and your team till the end.”
Stand-Out Factors
We were intrigued to know about Artiom’s company’s unique features that make it different from its competitors. We asked, “What makes your company stand out from all the other businesses in your industry?”
Artiom Kozlov shared, “KGE GLOBAL LOGISTICS is a company with a professional approach and expertise in Freight Forwarding and Project Cargo sector. We use about 70% of our shipments as Multimodal transport modes (truck–sea–truck or truck – sea- rail combinations) dealing with various industries such as Oil and Gas, Mining, Industrial, Agriculture, and others.
Besides that, we also provide robust and reliable service for standard shipments FTL ( Full trucks loads), LTL ( less truck load), FCL ( full container Loads) vessel Chartering, Airfreights, transporting Dangerous goods class 1-8, Rail transport of general and Oversize cargos via our warehouses in Europe.”
KPIs For Measuring Business Success
“What KPIs do you use to measure your business success?”
Artiom Kozlov replied, “One of the KPIs we use in our company is measuring our goals from top to bottom. I always prioritize my goals shortly and achieve them within the specific time frames I have targeted for myself and my employees.
The main target currently is to Lift sales in UAE/ GCC / Middle East and Mena region because KGE is a fresh player in this region, so I want to get my company to get spotted by global producers of different industries and Global Freight Forwarders to gain mutual business and help customers to get best service and price for Logistics in the market.”
Available Services
We wanted to know about the available services and offerings of the business at present times. So we asked, “Tell us something about your services. What are you working on now?”
Artiom Kozlov shared, “Our daily services are as follows: road transport from door to door from UAE/ GCC countries , Africa , Mena Region, South East Asia Europe to CIS countries, Central Asia, within Europe, Caucasus, Middle East, China, Mongolia, and vice versa. Sea transportation from any origin worldwide to any destination port, last-mile delivery afterward. Oversize transportation via Multimodal transport modes from any door to any door globally. Rail transportation from EU hubs to CIS/ Central Asia/Caucasus railway stations.”
Building Bonds
To achieve business success, the employer must emphasize having strong relations and trust with the employees. This will encourage them to work in a better way and will enhance productivity. We asked, “How do you build trust with your employees and boost productivity without causing burnout?”
Artiom Kozlov shared, “Trust within your team is a very important key point; I think employees are one of the most important human beings in any field and any work place . Without them, your company and you are basically nothing . To gain Trust, just be yourself and try to encourage them always, even if they are wrong or made a mistake. Because if you are going to scream or abuse them mentally, they will lose their confidence and reliability in what they do.”
Adapting To the Latest Technologies
Another major factor to consider while running a business is appropriately understanding the dynamic trends and adapting to the latest technologies. So we asked, “How do you stay on top of new technologies and trends in your industry?”
Artiom Kozlov shared, “It is not easy to keep up with new Technologies, that’s for sure! Even though the logistics sphere is old-fashioned compared to other industries and technologies, we are trying to keep an eye on and keep up with the new startups or platforms. Still, it would help if you had a dedicated team to spare time, learn more about the product, and then try to integrate it into the company for internal use.
We use simple tools in our company to have more control over each request and shipment ( manually), creating Booking orders, invoicing, tracking shipments, etc. While speaking about Technologies, I would like to introduce my new project that we are developing and want to present to the UAE Market, Mena Region, and the Middle East.”
Artiom Kozlov added, “It is a new generation Tech Log startup named FREIGHTPLAT. I am a Founder of FP; we are currently in the MVP stage and about to launch later this year in the UAE to test the marketplace. Please visit our website and be free to be the first registered user with a complimentary 3-month free-of-charge subscription.
It’s a cloud based Innovative platform/Marketplace in the Logistics and Transport sector.
Currently, we have over 250 users registered in our platform. FREIGHTPLAT provides first professional social network to all logistics players, giving them opportunity to be in one virtual space. Apart from the Marketplace, FREIGHTPLAT provides great tools for carriers/forwarders/shippers and other logisticians. Posting loads/trucks on daily basis and also to finding loads and trucks etc. More features to come in the near future.
- We are currently looking for early stage seed funding in order to continue realizing our dream so FREIGHTPLAT will be next Facebook and Uber in Logistics and Forwarding.
In order to understand more about FREIGHTPLAT Please feel free to visit our homepage : www.freightplat.com You can register very simple takes few minutes, then you will go straight to market place, where you can POST loads/trucks and also FIND loads/Trucks, and promote your company in our Social media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8HU-wQJv4M – for customers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q0k_GsInfI – introduction
We recently received early-stage funding but are still open and looking for new investors and partners.”
Advice To Beginners
“What advice would you give to starting entrepreneurs?”
Artiom Kozlov shared, “My advice to all is to be bold and start anything you want; if you have an idea or passion, go out there, create it, and go for it!! Our life gives us these one-time opportunities that we cannot avoid or ignore. Take your chance and make your dream come true!!!”
Connect with Artiom Kozlov on LinkedIn.
Visit KGE Global Logistics at LinkedIn, Instagram, or visit https://kge-global.com/.
