Summaries

No cargo. Both sides agreed to start working together, and the next steps are on paper. Intros by email from Manoj; MHB sends its cost matrix and tariff; a WhatsApp group with Win Lines' NVOCC pricing team for daily enquiries. MHB wants to be Win Lines' agent at Sokhna and in Egypt, and to recommend Win Lines to its own principals. Manoj agreed to mutual recommendation "once we gain confidence in each other", not to an appointment. The most concrete offer: Mohamed Haron says they can fill a vessel's space Sokhna to Fujairah and sell slots to other Egyptian agencies.

From their own mouths, 5 Oct (Dr. Mazen unless marked):

• A holding company with 4 or 5 companies under it. In the market since 1995, started in customs clearance and general cargo; NVOCC sector since 2021.
• Told us they manage more than 45 NVOCC lines (heard as "SKS, East Vision, Express Feeder"), work the Mediterranean, have their own general cargo vessels, MLO lines working with them, land transport and a feeder.
• 9 offices in Egypt: 4 Alexandria, 2 Sokhna, Damietta, Port Said. An office in Dubai. 120+ staff.
• Preferred destinations from Sokhna: Fujairah, Jeddah, King Abdullah Port, Port Klang, St. Petersburg, Mundra, Nhava Sheva, Karachi, China and the Far East; Black Sea and Mediterranean.
• Offered to buy about 10 containers against bookings and move them to Win Lines' side.
• (Mohamed Haron) China to Sokhna business if Win Lines gives good China rates; boxes out of Sokhna to Sohar, Fujairah, Jeddah, Mundra, Nhava Sheva; DTHC must match the market ("not this high DTHC we are facing"); volume to Port Klang; can fill Sokhna to Fujairah space.

From LinkedIn (Mohamed Haron, Wed 30 Sep): "Ebhaar agency under MHB line co"; Sokhna to Mundra 80 x 20', Sokhna to Sohar 2 x 40' weekly, 2 x 40'HC Sokhna to Karachi, 2 x 20' Sokhna to Aqaba, 1 x 40' Sokhna to Aden, regular high-volume Fujairah and Jeddah, Mundra to Alexandria. Before that he was at Poseidon Shipping Line (Empire Logistics' sister NVOCC); Riham handed us to him on 9 Sep.

From their websites (read 5 Oct): Ebhaar (ebhaar-eg.com) Alexandria and Sokhna, line agent, NVOCC and logistics, 20+ years, partners shown Unifeeder, GFS, X-Press Feeders, Folk. MHB Egypt (mhb-egypt.com) Smouha, Alexandria, ship agency 30+ years, ISO certified. Neither site names the other.

What we said (Manoj unless marked): Win Lines is the same group as WorldZone, same management and investors, separate company, team, budget and financials; aims to become a carrier; has an NVOCC division and a forwarding team; agents for some principals in Dubai; Messina agent in Oman, about 22 principals in Oman; about 60 own boxes, 100 to 150 this year; rotates India subcontinent and Malaysia, planning China; used to send boxes to Sokhna (good detention income, leased boxes) and stopped on low collections; earlier Sokhna agent MSM Shipping; handled a vessel heard as "Vellore"; can sell slots for Dubai and Sohar; "Sohar is the boiling market". Nisarg: the points are recorded and will go in the group.

1. Manoj: intro email to Mohamed Haron and Dr. Mazen with Win Lines' details. He set the order: mail first, then numbers, then the group. Clock: Tue 6 Oct. Blocked on their email addresses: we hold only mohamed.haron@poseidon-line.com, his old company.
2. Manoj: open the WhatsApp group with the Win Lines NVOCC pricing team, Mohamed Haron as admin, Nisarg in it. Clock: Tue 6 Oct.
3. Nisarg: post the meeting points in the group (promised on the call). Clock: as soon as the group exists.
4. Nisarg: send Manoj's number to Mohamed ("I'll send his number to you"). Clock: today.
5. Manoj / Win Lines pricing: comments on MHB's cost matrix and tariff when it arrives.
6. Manoj's own question is still unanswered: what collections, return-cargo ports and minimum container turnaround MHB will guarantee at Sokhna. Get it in writing with the cost matrix before any box goes to Egypt.

Theirs: Dr. Mazen, cost matrix and tariff ("right now"); Mohamed Haron, add their team to the group; bookings for Win Lines' sectors.

• Theirs, unverified: since 1995, 45+ NVOCC lines, own general cargo vessels, 9 offices, 120+ staff, the Dubai office. Line names "SKS, East Vision" are as heard; "Express Feeder" is likely X-Press Feeders (on Ebhaar's site).
• Garbled: "Freight Bulk", "Amsha lines for Rabia", "Winlines SEO" (likely CEO). Do not quote.
• The money offer (equity, liquidity, "huge budget") and the branch proposal (Win Lines' name on their company): what they mean is Manoj's to ask. Do not repeat outward.
• MHB and Ebhaar: Mohamed says Ebhaar is "under MHB"; Dr. Mazen owns MHB; the websites do not link them.
• Ours: "until Jebel Ali opens" (Manoj) is a war-time operating fact; check its current state before it goes in writing. The vessel "Vellore" is as heard.
• Ours, wrong before the call: on LinkedIn (30 Sep) Nisarg told Mohamed Win Lines is Messina's agent in Bahrain. Manoj said Oman on the call, matching Muscat Daily (2 Jul 2026). Oman is right.
• Empire / Riham: Mohamed left Poseidon, Empire's own NVOCC, and now works with MHB. Nothing was said about it on the call. Whether Riham hears it from us is Nisarg's call.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

COSCO Greece's air freight desk wants a Dubai partner for ship's spares, and they asked us for three concrete things before the call ended. It is already a working relationship, not an introduction: they have sent enquiries, our rates came back competitive in their own words, and one export has been attempted. Our CEO, Manu, joined for the first ten minutes, offered to open our other Gulf offices to them, and left for another meeting.

Who was on it. For COSCO Greece, in Piraeus: Minhas Papas, air freight department, ship's spares sales supervisor and business development, and Panagiotis Abunakis, sales, air freight and spares. A third colleague joined briefly. For us: Julie, Nisarg and Soumya, with Manu for the first part.

What they are. The air freight department of COSCO Greece, inside its logistics and forwarding arm and separate from the container line. About 90 per cent of their shipments are ship's spares, and their clients are Greek shipping companies, so speed to catch a vessel at a port is the whole job. Their own office at the airport, IATA and DG certified. They are GSA in Greece for an airline the recording garbles as "Junillau", with a direct connection to China. A warehouse inside the port, in the free zone, with no VAT on stored goods, first seven days free and then about 25 cents per pallet per day, their figure. Most of their work never touches Athens: Singapore to Dubai, Shanghai to Los Angeles, which is cross trade.

The limit on their side, stated plainly. In Piraeus they are not nominated to handle spares for anything but COSCO's own vessels, because the Greek authorities have not given them that permission. They can take cargo as far as the airport, pass the papers to one of the few nominated agents, and truck a delivery if the client wants. So on-board delivery in Piraeus is not theirs to give us.

What they asked us for.

1. A tariff for Dubai import charges: terminal handling, delivery order, collection, and final delivery to a land station or on board. Panagiotis has a client with about ten vessels who says another Dubai forwarder is cheaper, and he has already sent us two enquiries on it. He wants the tariff so he can win the next one.
2. A warehouse figure for Jebel Ali: a small shipment, about 300 kg gross, and he wants free time of about a month. We said there is no free storage in the bonded free zone, only no duty, and that we would quote minimum rates once he gives the CBM. Soumya said she would check with the warehouse team after the call and send it.
3. Saudi Arabia, on board. They get enquiries for deliveries on board at Jeddah and Yanbu. We said our team can clear and deliver to Yanbu, warned it is far from Jeddah and the delivery windows there are restricted to a few days, and asked them to plan the flight in advance.

What they offered. Air export from Greece and cross-trade enquiries into the Gulf; import spares from China, Japan and Korea into Dubai, where they often do not know the call order and need us to take over once the container is split; and the unanswered one, the Ladonna export (the name is garbled in the recording), where spares came off a vessel in Dubai and they could not run the export because they needed a UAE company registered in the customs system. They asked about it twice. Our air freight manager was said to be joining to explain and did not, and the second ask went unanswered as we left for the next meeting.

Decided. This partnership runs on air freight, Minhas's own words: container business would go directly to COSCO UAE, so this desk is air, spares and general cargo plus pickup and delivery. Enquiries come to Julie and Soumya, who put our GCC import and pricing teams in the loop so they can go direct, and Manu's introduction to Saudi, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman stands. Another meeting was offered and not fixed.

A buying desk asked us for three concrete things and gave us a reason to answer fast: they have already flown with us, they say our rates are very competitive, and they have lost jobs because they could not reach us quickly enough. Their words, about Julie on WhatsApp: "I try to reach Julie every time from the WhatsApp. We are going to fix this."

The three asks, in their order:

1. A Dubai tariff for a client with about ten vessels: terminal handling, delivery order, collection by dedicated order pass, and final delivery up to the launch station or on board. They have already sent us two enquiries for this client and are losing him to a cheaper forwarder in Dubai. This is the standing route card, not one quote at a time.
2. Delivery on board in Saudi Arabia, Jeddah and Yanbu, where they have no partner at all. They asked how many days it takes and how hard it is. Our answer in the room: the team clears and delivers to Yanbu, it is far from Jeddah, the window there is narrow, so plan the flight in advance.
3. Bonded storage in Dubai for transit spares, about 30 days, small, 300 kg gross at most. Soumya answered straight: our bonded facility is in the Jebel Ali free zone, there is no free storage, only minimum charges and no duty, and she needs the CBM to quote it.

What we promised out loud. A special Emirates rate above 300 kg on their next enquiry; the warehouse minimum once the CBM arrives; an introduction to our UAE import team and the whole GCC pricing team in the loop, with Soumya and Julie staying the single point of contact; and a check with our Abu Dhabi team for live DDP and DDU enquiries into Greece.

What they cannot do, said plainly, and it is worth more than a promise. They are not nominated to deliver spares on board in Piraeus and the Greek government has not given them the permission; only COSCO's own vessels. They can take cargo to the airport, hand the papers to the nominated agent, or truck it. So the on-board leg in Greece is not theirs to sell, and any enquiry of ours that needs it has to go to a nominated agent instead.

The container liner business is not this desk. Their words: at this table they are the air freight department, and container liner sits with COSCO UAE, where an open account would already exist. Manu's 30 to 40 container DDP and DDU story for DUBAL and Emirates Steel was politely moved off the table for exactly that reason.

The call ended with their question unanswered. They asked twice about the MT Sea La Donna export, spares off-landed from the vessel in Dubai which they could not export because they had no company registered in UAE customs and the vessel agent's cost was high. We said we hold in-house customs and do not hand it to an agent. Their air freight manager was coming to explain the case; he never arrived, and our side closed for another meeting while they were still asking. That is the opening for the next call, and it is ours to propose.

• The air freight department of COSCO Greece, Piraeus, inside the logistics and forwarding department and separate from the container liner side. Minas Pappas, ship spares sales supervisor and business development; Panagiotis Sapounakis, sales, air freight and ship spares, Julie's contact.
• 90 per cent of their shipments are ship spares. Their clients are Greek shipping companies, and the job is to move spares to a vessel before it sails.
• Mostly cross-trade: Singapore to Dubai, Shanghai to Los Angeles. Most of their work never touches Athens.
• Their own office at Athens airport. IATA certified and DG certified.
• GSA for Juneyao Airlines in Greece, with a direct connection to China.
• Their own free-zone warehouse inside Piraeus port: no VAT while stored, about 25 cents per pallet per day, the first seven days free.
• They receive spares from China, Japan and Korea into Dubai, sometimes by sea, and do not control the co-loader who takes the container; they asked whether we can pick the cargo up once the container is split. Soumya said yes.
• Katerina is no longer with them ("Katerina, which is not now with us"). She is on our card as a contact; drop her from the thread.

1. The Dubai import and on-board tariff for the ten-vessel client: THC, delivery order, collection by dedicated order pass, delivery to the launch station or on board. Theirs to beat a named competitor with, ours to write.
2. The Jebel Ali bonded minimum, once Panagiotis gives the CBM for a 300 kg shipment. Soumya said she would send figures after checking the warehouse team.
3. Introduce them to the UAE import team and put the GCC pricing team in the loop, Soumya and Julie staying the point of contact.
4. Ask Abu Dhabi for live DDP and DDU enquiries into Greece (DUBAL, Emirates Steel).
5. The Emirates special rate above 300 kg, to be honoured on their next enquiry.
6. Propose the follow-up call, with the MT Sea La Donna case on it, and ask that their air freight manager joins. We owe them the explanation they came for.
7. Their own services presentation, which Panagiotis offered to send. Ask.
8. Our Saudi desk on Jeddah and Yanbu on-board delivery: transit days and the Yanbu window, written down, so the answer stops being verbal.

• Manu was introduced on the call as "our CEO" (our side). Settle the title we give him outwardly; it is on the recording now.
• "We will be soon opening in Fujairah" (ours). No Fujairah office is on the authoritative list of fifteen; it is a plan, not an office.
• "We have a bonded warehouse in Jebel Ali... it is our own warehouse" (Soumya), and "our warehouse is full because we have so many tobacco shipments". The quote she promised rests on that being ours. Confirm the facility before the rate goes out, and keep the tobacco detail internal.
• "If the shipment is above 300 kg with Emirates, we can get you a special rate" (Soumya). A rate commitment made out loud to a carrier group's desk.
• "Our client Dubai Dubcap and Emirates Steel" and the 30 to 40 container DDP and DDU history (Manu). Named clients and a volume figure with no period attached. Check both before they appear in writing.
• "All UAE shipments are coming to Khor Fakkan and Fujairah" (Manu). True of our own routing today; it is a market statement, so date it.
• Sourced and fine: Julie's fourteen years, our offices across the six Gulf countries, our in-house customs clearance.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

A working call with a senior Singapore operator that ended with two live enquiries sent to us the same hour, and with one honest fact we should not talk past: they are happy with the Gulf agents they already have. Margaret was straight about it, those agents have been with them more than fifteen years and give good support. Our opening is not to replace them. It is the ports where they have no cover, Sohar, Abu Dhabi and Salalah, plus Oman, where she said enquiries have picked up, and it is their own container business, where they put a clear commercial mechanism on the table.

Who was on it. Margaret for Fairmacs Multiline in Singapore, with Ashok on their side. For us, Nisarg and Soumya. She is from Chennai and has been in Singapore about twenty years. The recorder could not tell the two sides apart, so almost nothing on this call can be quoted by its label.

What they are, in her words. Fairmacs set up in Singapore in 2002, twenty-four years doing this scope. Import, export, air, LCL and FCL, break bulk, OOG, project cargo, customs clearance and inland transport. They bring cargo in from Batam and re-export it anywhere. Their own containers in Singapore: 20ft, 40ft dry, OOG and 45ft, so they are an NVOCC as well as a forwarder. A separate air import and export department with its own tariff, which can clear, store in their warehouse and deliver. Project cargo people with more than thirty years each.

Their lanes. India and the Middle East are their main trade, Jebel Ali, Oman and Sohar across the whole Gulf. Since the war, carriers stopped accepting OOG, so they are moving dry boxes only for now. They also have cargo whose shipper sits in Dubai and which now moves overland to Salalah to be shipped, booked Salalah to Singapore with the stuffing done in Dubai, and she asked whether we can do that clearance and the haul. We said yes, through WayTrans.

The one thing to be clear-eyed about. They have no customer database in the Gulf. Her words: they do not sell there, they receive. So when Nisarg asked about spares and AOG out of Dubai, the honest answer from her side was that exports from the Gulf are not much. The flow that is real is into Singapore and India from us, and their nominations into the Gulf.

The commercial mechanism they proposed, which is the substance of the call. When Fairmacs sends its own container (SOC) to a Gulf port, the agent collects from the consignee, keeps its expenses, refunds the remaining margin to Fairmacs, and Fairmacs pays the agent a handling fee per box against a tariff, 20ft and 40ft. On COC there is nothing to settle: they consign to us, we release the delivery order and close the file. She asked us to send, by email, our collection and our expenses at every Gulf port we cover, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the rest, so their NVOCC division head can work on it, and then they will consider using us as a nominated agent.

Containers to sell. One side raised moving units from Nhava Sheva and Mundra to Dubai and selling them there, and the other said it would check the market with its NVOCC division because the demand used to be good. Which side owns those boxes cannot be settled from this recording, because both speakers sit under one label. Ask Margaret before anyone acts on it. Our own NVOCC, Winlines, currently runs only a few Indian sectors, and we owe her its port list.

Two live enquiries, given at the end and sent straight after: Sohar to Cochin and Mundra, and a second she read as "Sohar to Mora, 340", which the recording garbles. She said she would forward both immediately, and invited us to show what we can do on them.

What we owe. The email she asked for, summarising what we discussed and what we want them to handle; the per-port collection and expense tariff for the SOC mechanism; quotes on the two enquiries; Winlines's port list; and an answer on container sales in Dubai. She suggested starting small, with a few things, and building from there.

Two live enquiries came out of the room, and she said she would mail them the moment the call ended. Both are ex Sohar, which is our own office:

Her two mails landed at 11:26 and 11:28, three minutes after the call, and they settle what the recorder could not:

1. Sohar to Cochin or Mundra or Chennai, or all three: 1 x 40 FR and 1 x 20 GP. She asks for the carrier, the routing, the transit time and the frequency.
2. Sohar to MUARA, Brunei: 3 x 40 HC, marked "TOP TOP URGENT". The supplier collects the empties from Khalifa Port, Abu Dhabi, stuffs them there, and the laden boxes go overland to Sohar for export loading. Cargo is ready now and the customer is targeting the 10 October vessel.

Soumya put Stina on both threads at 11:30 and 11:32 and asked her to quote the Muara one on priority. Margaret answered Stina at 12:11 that there is no PIC available yet. No rate had gone back on either enquiry by 17:00 on 1 Oct, and the second one carries a vessel date.

What she wants from us in writing, asked twice: a mail covering what we discussed, and then our collection, expenses and margin at every port we hold (she named Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and "whatever the ports you have"). She will put that proposal in front of their NVOCC division head, and future shipments decide whether we become their nominated agent.

Her SOC model, in her own words, because it decides the money. If the box is COC there is nothing to settle: she consigns to us, we release the delivery order and close the file. If it is a Fairmacs own container, the agent collects from the consignee, keeps its expenses and a handling fee per 20ft and 40ft against a tariff, and refunds the remaining margin to Fairmacs. Our proposal has to be written in those terms or it does not answer her.

What she is not asking for. They already have Gulf agents of more than fifteen years and said plainly they are happy with them. The gap she described is Sohar, Abu Dhabi and Salalah and the odd port their own Dubai agent does not cover, plus air. We are an addition, not a replacement, and the opening is the Oman end, where she said enquiries have picked up.

One thing we asked for and did not get. Nisarg asked whether they could source buyers for our containers once they reach Dubai. She turned it round: Fairmacs has containers of its own sitting in Nhava Sheva and Mundra, would move them to Dubai with cargo and sell them there, and will check the current market with their NVOCC division. Nobody closed that loop.

• Twenty-four years in Singapore, which matches the 2002 incorporation on their profile.
• Import, export, break bulk, project cargo, inland transport, customs clearance, air, LCL and FCL, out-of-gauge. Cargo out of Batam comes in through them and goes anywhere from there.
• Their own containers in Singapore: 20ft, 40ft dry, out-of-gauge and 45ft. They will lend equipment if we need it.
• Their market is India and the Middle East. Before the war they covered the whole Middle East, Jebel Ali and Sohar included. Since it, carriers will barely take out-of-gauge, so they move dry boxes only.
• Project cargo people with more than thirty years each, their own words, and senior.
• Their Gulf cargo now routes through Salalah: the shipper is in Dubai, the booking is Salalah to Singapore, the stuffing and the customs clearance happen in Dubai and the box goes overland to Salalah. She asked whether we handle exactly that, which is the WayTrans answer.
• A separate air import and export department with its own tariff: clearance, their warehouse, delivery.
• No customer database in the Gulf, so almost no Gulf export of their own. They are the receiving and nominating end, which is why every enquiry they mentioned flows towards us.

1. The summary mail she asked for, twice. Nothing else moves until it goes.
2. Quote the two Sohar enquiries, Muara first. It is 3 x 40 HC against the 10 October vessel, with the inland leg from Khalifa Port to Sohar, which is the WayTrans piece. Stina holds both threads.
3. The port tariff in her terms: collection, expenses, margin and the handling fee per 20ft and 40ft, port by port, for her SOC boxes. It goes to their NVOCC division head.
4. The Winlines NVOCC port list. We said we would send the PODs and that we run only a few Indian sectors today.
5. Container sales in Dubai: whether there is demand for the units they would bring in from Nhava Sheva and Mundra.
6. Their air tariff and their Singapore tariff, which she offered. Ask.

• "We opened up in 2013" (Nisarg). The authoritative line is twelve years incorporated and more than twenty-five years of experience.
• "Six countries in the Gulf and 13 offices", then "five offices in the UAE, three in Saudi, two in Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait one each" (Nisarg). The arithmetic is right for the Gulf and matches the Gulf-only sheet. The authoritative whole is fifteen offices in seven countries, India included.
• "Winlines is the agent of Messina Lines in Oman" (Nisarg). Not in anything we hold. Same claim as on the Ahead Shipping call of 28 Sep.
• "We do land transport all the way from Europe to the UAE" (Nisarg). The same unsourced claim flagged on the AGS call.
• "FMC registered" and "NPCA filing" (Nisarg). FMC is not on our credentials list; the filing name is a garble, confirm what it is before it is said again.
• "We don't have good support from Singaporean agents" (Nisarg). True to our position, and it is also the reason we are in the room; harmless, but it tells her she is not competing with anyone.
• Sourced and fine: Great Place to Work, top 36 in the UAE and first for parents; WCA, JCtrans, By All Means and PPL memberships; the sister companies.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

The most useful US call of the run, because Yigit set the expectation himself before we could be disappointed by it: he will not be the cheapest on ocean, he will match the target on trucking about 85 per cent of the time, and he sells service rather than price. He also answered the one complaint that started every US conversation we have had. He has a back office in Turkey and another in the Philippines that start at four in the morning US time, so our rates come back before the US working day and before anyone else in our circle has theirs.

Who was on it. Yigit Eren Kocaman for FreightLead in the US. For us, Nisarg and Soumya; Julie did not join, and Soumya dropped out for a few minutes on a network fault near the end.

What they are. FreightLead, founded 2019, 50 people, one office, in the US and nowhere else. Traditional forwarding and e-commerce side by side. Three warehouses in New Jersey totalling 36,000 square metres, a fleet of ten trucks running their own cargo in the Tri-State area, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. Integrated with more than 300 US websites, eBay, Etsy, Amazon. Classified as a CFS, with their own consoles to Turkey, China and Australia, and a Dubai console they ran before and want to reinstate. Their CFS is in Parsippany, New Jersey. For inland points they work with a partner and use their own facilities for the New Jersey ports fifty miles from New York, which means they absorb the CFS handling cost instead of billing it, and the console rate comes out better. Partners in every major hub, Chicago, Savannah, Miami, Houston, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Washington. Intermodal, ocean, air and customs clearance all in-house.

Why he took the call. He is already strong in Qatar, working with one of Qatar's biggest shipping companies, and he wants to extend the same into the UAE. He was clear-eyed that both countries are net importers, so the opportunities have to be found rather than assumed.

What he asked us, and the answer he got. Whether our 110 TEU out and 68 TEU in is freight we control or our agents'. Soumya's answer: it is our own, Walmart USA into New York and containers to Houston, roughly fifty to seventy boxes a month out of Dubai, with the volume lower now, and we also want to handle freehand shipments at destination. She added our Maersk contract on the new Khor Fakkan to Salalah to New York service, 35 days transit, and asked him to check his rate against it.

Where he disagreed with us, which is worth knowing. He has had Maersk boxes on the water for more than four months, so for US exports his most reliable line right now is MSC. He liked WayTrans and said there is real money in the land bridge.

Agreed. Enquiries go to Yigit himself, not to a pricing desk: he wants to understand the need, then bring his pricing manager in with that in mind, because at fifty people they can still give a partner that attention. He will send us whatever he has as it comes, especially on the export side, and look for middle ground on those together. Soumya said we would start sending enquiries from tomorrow and asked him for any Dubai sales leads, offering to work them on a profit share.

What we said about ourselves that must be checked before it is repeated. "Winlines is in Bahrain, it's in Malaysia as well" and "Winlines is an agent of Messina Lines in Bahrain": the Messina agency has been given as Oman on other calls, and Malaysia is not on our list. "FMC registered" again. And the Best Workplaces line, thirty-sixth overall and first for parents, which arrived the same day.

Nothing moved and nothing was priced. What changed is that the US desk now has a named route in: every enquiry goes to Yigit himself, and he puts his pricing manager on the thread rather than handing us to a queue. His reason, in his own words: "since we are a boutique company, we only have 1 office, we have 50 employees, we would like to have the same level of commitment that our partners deserve."

He also made the one promise that answers the complaint we opened with. We said our US agents ghost us or come back too late and too high. His answer was not a discount, it was a clock: a back office in the Philippines and an office in Turkey that start at 4 a.m. US Eastern, so "you're going to have the rates before everyone else in your own circle."

And he was straight about price, unprompted: "I have to be upfront. I'm not going to be the cheapest one all the time... For ocean, we are not going to be the cheap all the time, because that is something that I cannot just promise." On trucking he puts a number on it: he matches the target about 85% of the time. Nisarg's reply is the one to hold him to: a reply that says no is worth more to us than a quote that never comes.

Everything here is from Yigit's own mouth on this call.

• Founded 2019, 50 employees, one US office. "FreightLead is a fairly new company, right? 2019." Their site gives no founding year, so this is the first time we have one.
• Three warehouses in New Jersey, 36,000 square metres in total, and ten trucks of their own hauling in the Tri-State area, which he defines as Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
• A CFS of their own in Parsippany, New Jersey, which is the address on their footer. Because the facility is theirs, the handling and warehousing cost inside a console is shared, not billed: "normally the handling part, the warehousing part of the CFS is usually a cost. For us, it's not... That also helps you to get a better rate on the consoles."
• They run their own consoles to Turkey, China and Australia. They ran a Dubai console before and stopped: "Right now it's not active because of the issues, but we are looking to reinstate that again." He did not say what the issues were. Worth asking.
• Inland points go through CODA. "We also work with CODA for IPIs... Inland Container Locations. For that, we don't have our own facilities, but for ports in New Jersey, which is close to New York, really close, like 50 miles, we use our own facilities."
• E-commerce is a real line of business, not a word on a website: integrated with more than 300 US selling sites, eBay, Etsy and Amazon named.
• Agents, not offices, in the other US hubs: Chicago, Savannah, Miami, Houston, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Washington.
• A Qatar account is what brought him here. He says they work with one of Qatar's biggest shipping companies, related to Qatar Energy, and wants to extend the same arrangement to the UAE.
• Lines, today: MSC is their most reliable for US exports. They have had a Maersk box on the water "more than 4 months" and he is wary of them.
• Walmart is familiar ground to them. When Soumya said our US volume is largely Walmart USA into New York and Houston, his answer was "we are well-versed with Walmart... that's a plus."
• Back office in the Philippines, an office in Turkey. See the correction above: he said both that the US is the only office and that these two exist.

1. Send the first enquiries to Yigit, and copy nobody else until he names his pricing manager. Soumya told him on the call we would start "from tomorrow", which was 30 September. Six days have passed. Owner: Soumya, with the globalsales@ desk. Clock: this week.
2. Answer the question he actually asked and we half-answered: are the 110 and 68 TEU ours to control, or our agents'? His words: "are these the freights that you control, or are these from your agents, from your partner agents?" Soumya answered for Dubai only ("around 50 to 70 containers we are sending export", Walmart, New York and Houston). The Saudi 60 and the rest were never addressed. Owner: Nisarg. Clock: in the first enquiry mail, so it is settled before a rate is discussed.
3. Ask what killed their Dubai console, before we feed it. They want to reinstate it; we would be the Dubai end of it. Owner: Nisarg.
4. Take him up on the Dubai sales leads. Soumya offered: "if you have any sales lead here in Dubai, we can approach the customer, even we can work for, you know, some profit share." He said "That sounds great" three times and nothing was agreed. Owner: Soumya.
5. Put the Khor Fakkan to Salalah to New York service in front of him with the transit, not the rate. Soumya named it on the call: a Maersk service, 35 days. He is wary of Maersk and prefers MSC, so the transit time is the argument, not the carrier. Owner: Soumya.
6. Settle the Turkey office on the record. He has one. The card said to ask rather than assume, and the answer is now in the verbatim. Update the card's about[].

Ours, said on this call, and none of it sourced in the room:

• "We're part of the PPL network where FMC registered, IATA, CAS, ISO." The FMC claim is now on its sixth call: Herco, Anchor, AGS, Empire, Ahead and this one. It is not on our credentials list. Either we hold an FMC licence and nobody has given SCRIBE the number, or we must stop saying it. This one matters more than the others, because Freightlead is an American company and an FMC number is checkable in a minute on the FMC's own site.
• "Winlines... It's there in Bahrain. It's in Malaysia as well." The Malaysia claim was flagged on the Ahead call on 28 September and is still unresolved. Our own list of countries does not carry Malaysia.
• "Winlines is an agent of Messina Lines in Bahrain." The Ahead record has the same claim with Oman as the country. One of the two is wrong.
• "We have experience in the industry for over 25 years." Correct as said: the company is twelve years incorporated, the people carry 25-plus. Said this way it is fine.
• "Best Workplaces... 36 overall... number 1 when it comes to Best Workplaces for parents in the UAE." Announced to a partner the same day we received it, 29 September. Worth having the certificate to hand before it is said again.
• Theirs: "one of Qatar's biggest shipping companies... related to Qatar Energy... They're Emirates-backed." Garbled on the recording. Do not repeat it back to him; ask him who it is.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

The most commercially concrete first call of the run: Francisco gave us 30 days' credit as standard, named the three people who will handle our enquiries, and explained the Brazilian space crisis without dressing it up. He asked nothing of us except our full office list in writing. He also said the one thing a partner rarely admits: if we are shipping out of Brazil now, we are suffering on space, and he would rather tell us how to work around it than promise what he cannot hold.

Who was on it. Francisco Martin for Ahead Shipping in Brazil, with Nisarg and Soumya for us. He joined Ahead in January, started in air pricing and LCL, and has run trade lane development since 15 July, so our account is his job. He had looked Nisarg up on LinkedIn that morning.

What they are. Ahead Shipping, twenty years in the market, part of a group that also exports commodities, with three offices in Brazil: Itajai in Santa Catarina, where he sits, Sao Paulo, and one in Rio Grande do Sul. Fifteen salespeople across the three. Networks: JCtrans, OPCA and Alpha, which is part of the Atlas family; their director is going to the Alpha conference in Barcelona in October, and JCtrans Guangzhou in November is still undecided, with Francisco representing them if they go.

Who we talk to about what. Francisco for anything on the Brazil trade lane, air or sea, and for how the market is behaving, by WhatsApp if we want it quickly. Leandro, their pricing coordinator, for LCL, and he is the project cargo man, with a history of boats in particular. Priscilla for LCL and air. He offered to introduce the whole team by mail with each person's responsibility.

Project cargo. They run export and import projects and are in the middle of a big one spanning 32 countries, mostly offshore work, with photographs to come that he offered to share. Brazil's own wrinkle: every cargo type needs its own certification, pharma, animal, military, each separate, so the certificate decides who can handle what.

The space crisis, in his words, which is the most useful thing on the recording. Four or five months ago the carriers swapped the Latin America and Brazil services onto smaller vessels, cutting export capacity, and Brazil is now in its export peak, with coffee, sugar and soy all booming. So space is very hard to get. His advice: for cargo that is ready, spot rates are the safer route, because they secure the space and the carrier compensates if the box is rolled; his FAK contracts are available for cargo that is not ready yet, but space is not guaranteed on them. He reaches out to partners to find out whether the cargo is actually ready before choosing. And if we need a route he does not hold, he only needs the shipper's name and the monthly volume to go and negotiate, because the group behind them already exports wood, tiles and sugar.

What he gave without being asked. 30 days' credit, which is his standard for network partners and needs no approval, with more possible through his director once there is volume, and a note that a hundred-thousand-dollar project outlay would be discussed first. He promised to put it in writing by mail. He was equally frank that their transport, warehousing and clearance are through third parties, which he said is normal in Brazil because the legislation keeps forwarders out of trucking, and that their pricing team vets those partners hard.

What he told us about OPCA, which is worth keeping. They joined this year and are still struggling to get nominations out of it, the agents are helpful on WhatsApp and the equipment support is good, but the one time he needed something specialised, an Envirotainer for ice cream from China, nobody in the network could help. Soumya's experience matched: her previous company could not get volume from OPCA either, and most of its agents are in WCA anyway.

Where their Dubai cargo went. They had Dubai business until the war. The last one was a perfume shipment held up because carriers stopped booking IMO cargo and the perfume was 40 per cent alcohol, glass and dangerous; they worked it with the customer for two or three months and never got it out. He will ask his fifteen salespeople to gather fresh Dubai enquiries so there is something to match.

What we owe. The one thing he asked for twice: a written confirmation of every country and office we have, which Nisarg answered with the pitch link. Then our introduction of him to our import team and our other branches, which Soumya promised, and his own team introduction by mail.

What our side said that needs fixing. "19 PUs from Brazil into the Gulf and 12 PUs going from the Gulf into Brazil", read off the deck with no period and the unit garbled, TEU not PU. "15 offices in seven countries, but now India isn't operating", which is not how India stands. "Incorporated 13 years ago", which is twelve. "We have Winlines in Malaysia as well", not on our list, with Messina given as Oman here. "It's not able to go through the Strait of Hormuz", ours to stop saying. And again "FMC registered", with the Great Place to Work marks, 36th overall and first for parents.

The most business-like first call of the Brazil push, and Francisco moved first in writing. No cargo or rate changed hands in the room, but within an hour of the call he sent, unprompted: his team by name, 30 days of credit, their company profile and directory, their fiscal residence certificate and their USD bank channel. He also asked us for something concrete.

What he wants from us, in his own words (28 Sep 18:01): the details of the Brazil shipments that reach us today, commodity, ports and volumes, so his team can quote the origin handling straight away. He also asked, on the call, that we confirm again every country and office we work in, because he wrote it down and does not want to get it wrong.

The one correction we owe him. His mail lists our countries as "UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and India". On the call Nisarg had said India is not operating at the moment. Our own signature still lists Cochin and Bangalore. Settle it and answer him plainly.

After the call (Dubai times, measured 29 Sep):

• 28 Sep 18:01, Francisco's mail with the team, the credit, the profile and the bank documents.
• 28 Sep 18:25, Soumya: she will share his details with our sales team and has added the team to the thread.
• Nothing since. The commodity, ports and volumes he asked for have not gone.

A safety note on his attachments. The bank channel document (Banco do Brasil New York, USD) arrived by email, unasked. Nothing gets paid on emailed banking details. If a payment is ever due, the account is confirmed by phone on a number we already hold, exactly as Herco's own mail footer warns.

From Francisco, on this call:

• Ahead Shipping, part of a group, 20 years in the market. Three offices: Itajaí (where he sits), São Paulo, and one in Rio Grande do Sul. 15 salespeople across the three. He said "nine offices" and corrected himself to three in the same breath.
• Networks: JCtrans, OPCA (project cargo, joined at the start of this year) and Alpha, which he called part of the Atlas family. Our deck and the research file call that third one Alfa Global; he says Alpha. Use his word to him. Their director goes to the Alpha conference in Barcelona in October. JCtrans China in November is not confirmed; if they go, Francisco attends.
• The team he named, and who to write to:
• Francisco himself: trade lane development, and all Brazil enquiries, air or sea. WhatsApp +55 47 99735 2728.
• Leandro Jucá, pricing coordinator: FCL, and their project-cargo man, strong on boats.
• Priscila Castro: air and LCL.
• Gustavo, director. Claudio, operations manager.
• No in-house trucking. He was plain that almost no Brazilian forwarder has it, because of local legislation. Warehousing, trucking, customs clearance and special equipment all come through vetted third parties, and Brazil needs a separate certification for each cargo type: pharma, animal, military.
• 30 days of credit is their standard for network partners and needs no approval. More would need his director. Project cargo where they have to lay out money, his example was US$100,000, is discussed first.
• They do project cargo, and are in the middle of a large offshore project spanning 32 countries.
• The group exports commodities itself: wood, tiles, sugar. Give him a shipper name and a monthly volume and he will negotiate a rate.

Worth keeping, because it explains every rate he will send us:

• Carriers moved smaller vessels onto the Latin America and Brazil services about four or five months ago, cutting export capacity.
• It is peak export season: coffee, sugar, soy. Space is very hard to get.
• He recommends spot rates to secure space: if the carrier rolls the cargo, there is compensation. He will offer his own FAK contract rates, but says plainly that space is then not guaranteed.
• Their one bad experience with us: a perfume shipment out of Dubai, IMO because it was 40% alcohol, stuck when carriers stopped taking IMO cargo at the start of the war. They worked it for two or three months and never moved it.
• What OPCA could not do for him: an Envirotainer for ice cream, China to Brazil. Nobody in the network could help.

1. Send him commodity, ports and volumes for the Brazil cargo we handle today. His direct ask, and the only thing standing between this call and a quote. The workbook figures are on the deck: 19 TEU a month from Brazil into the Gulf (UAE 10, Saudi 6, Bahrain 2, Qatar 1) and 12 TEU a month out (UAE 10, Saudi 2), plus 1.8 tonnes of air in.
2. Confirm our countries and offices, and settle India. He asked for it twice and has already written India into his own mail.
3. Give his team to our import desk and our branches. Soumya said she would and told him so; not visible yet beyond her own reply.
4. Introduce Leandro and Priscila to the right people on our side so enquiries go desk to desk, FCL to Leandro, air and LCL to Priscila.
5. JCtrans China: tell him whether we have a booth, since Soumya offered one on the call and was not sure.

• "WorldZone was incorporated 13 years ago" (Nisarg). It is 12; the people carry over 25 years.
• "15 offices in seven countries, but now India isn't operating, so it's only in the Gulf" (Nisarg). Decide the line and use it everywhere: our signature and Francisco's mail both still carry India.
• "FMC registered" (Nisarg). Not on our credentials list, the same claim as on the Herco, Anchor, AGS and Empire calls.
• "One of the fastest growing freight forwarding companies in the UAE and the Gulf" (Nisarg). Not sourced.
• "We are agents for Messina lines in Oman" and Winlines being "in Malaysia" (Nisarg). The Messina agency is not in anything we hold; check it.
• "I guess we do have a booth in China" (Soumya, unsure). Confirm before it is repeated.
• Sourced and fine: 19 TEU in and 12 TEU out a month, from the GCC countrywise workbook (his own answer, 8 Sep); Great Place to Work #36 and #1 for parents; 15 offices; over 25 years of experience.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

A forty-year-old Milan house told us the truth about their market: in Italy the buyer nominates the agent, so most Italian export traffic is controlled from overseas and they have few shipments of their own to give. They have no Gulf agent at all at the moment. That makes this a partnership we have to feed first, with our Italy to Gulf flow, before anything comes back the other way. Giacomo was direct about it and did not pretend otherwise.

Who was on it. Giacomo and Giuseppe for Politrans Srl. Everything from their side, including Giuseppe's Italian, sits under Giacomo's label, so no line on their side can be pinned to one man. For us, Nisarg and Julie. One garble to be careful with: their greeting "good from Italy" is transcribed as "good from Iran", which in this business is not a harmless slip.

What they are. Politrans Srl, founded 1987, forty years next year, near Milan, with a 3,000 square metre warehouse close to the city. Giuseppe spent about twenty-five years with another forwarder before setting it up. They are FIATA associated, not in BAM or the other networks, and the FIATA congress they are attending is in October in Milan; they are not going to Rome in November.

Air freight, in their own words. They negotiate directly with the airlines and can get good rates, but the war has made the market dynamic: a rate used to hold for a month and now has to be rechecked at every booking, because the fuel surcharge moves. They will give an all-in rate, and they were honest that a quote today may not survive a booking a month later.

Trucking, which is a real opening. They asked about our land transport and then named the lanes they want it for: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the Caucasus, where they get FCL-by-truck enquiries and have nobody. We offered WayTrans, including Europe into the Gulf.

What they asked us for, plainly.

1. Our target rate, so they can go and win the business rather than quote blind.
2. Sales leads. They will approach Italian suppliers for our clients and handle that end. "We do this job from many years, we have the know-how, and we can give a quick reply to our agents."
3. To be contacted directly, Giacomo and Giuseppe, not through a pricing desk.

What we put in front of them, and what needs a baseline before it is repeated. Our offices, correctly: five UAE, three Saudi, two Oman, one each in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, two in India, with in-house clearance everywhere and the Jebel Ali warehouse. Then the numbers, read off the deck with no period attached: about 120 TEU on the Italy lane and 13 TEU from the Gulf into Italy, 7 tonnes of air from the Gulf to Italy against 51 tonnes from Italy to the Gulf, and "Saudi itself, like 100 boxes". Also said: Winlines and WayTrans, "FMC registered", and the Great Place to Work marks, given here as top 100 in Dubai and first for parents where the other calls said thirty-sixth.

Where it ended. Both sides said start now: they send Gulf enquiries, we send Italy enquiries, contact direct, and keep in touch for any shipment. Nothing was quoted, nothing was promised on price, and no cargo moved in the room.

They have no agent in the Gulf, and they said so out loud. Giacomo: "at the moment, we have not an agent in your Gulf area. So we don't have many shipments, of course." That is the whole opening, and it is the one thing that changed.

No cargo moved. No enquiry was handed over in either direction, no rate was quoted, nothing was booked. What they asked for is our target rates, and they asked us to send them sales leads in Italy. They said to contact them directly.

They also opened a lane of their own that we did not go in for: truck FCL to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the Central Caucasus, which they get enquiries for and said they would ask us about.

Then the call earned one, 52 minutes after it ended. Giacomo emailed at 15:22 Italy asking for an air rate BOM to Malpensa and Frankfurt, both destinations, FCA, mixed vegetables HS 07099920, carton boxes on 1 PMC pallet, 210 x 220 x 143 cm, 2,900 kg, with the airline options and the transit times, and he put Giuseppe (gdebartolo@politrans.it) in copy. Chargeable weight is the gross 2,900 kg; volumetric at 1:6 on 6.61 cbm is only 1,101 kg. He wrote "Temperature: Ambient" against fresh vegetables, which changes the airline and the rate, so it needs confirming with him rather than assuming. We answered 18 Sep 01:18 Dubai from thunga@, Reply All, with Giuseppe, Julie and Soumya in copy. So the paragraph above describes the call, not the day: the first cargo ask from Politrans is open and unquoted, and it sits with the pricing desk.

From their own mouths, in this call:

• Founded 1987; "next year, we do 40 years." Before Politrans, Giuseppe worked with another freight forwarder "for about 25 years". The "almost 65 years" said in the room is OUR arithmetic on top of their two figures, not their claim.
• 3,000 m² warehouse "very close to Milano" — they confirmed it when asked.
• FIATA, not BAM. "We are not associated to this association... We are associated on FIATA." The FIATA Congress is in October, in Milan, and they are not planning to go to Rome.
• No Gulf agent at present (above).
• Why they have few Italian export shipments, in their words: Italian sellers mostly sell on terms where the overseas buyer nominates the forwarder, so "all the traffics in the end, it's in the end of the agents overseas". Their enquiries come from agents abroad, not from Italian shippers.
• Air: they negotiate directly with the airlines and say they can hold a good relationship and a good rate. Since the war in the Gulf area the rate is dynamic: "one time, we had a rate for 1 month. Now we have to check every time, every booking." They quote all-in, and warn that a rate given today may not stand a month later because the fuel surcharge moves.
• They offered to work our Italian sales leads: approach suppliers in Italy and "take care about your clients in your country with their suppliers in Italy".
• Truck FCL to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, "Central Caucasic area" — they get those enquiries and would ask us.
• Road transport: "Ma 25 anni" — 25 years on the market, answering Nisarg's question in Italian. The antecedent of "compagnie" is not certain in the audio; read it as their road-transport companies, and do not quote it back.

Not established, though it was on the pitch note to ask: their headcount (so JCtrans's 101-500 is still unverified), Giacomo's title, whether the 2005 US agreements are live, and what their own brochure adds. None of the four was asked.

1. Send the target rates they asked for. Their words: "you can send us your target rate to get the business." No lane and no date were agreed in the room, so we name both: Italy to Gulf FCL (Saudi, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait) and Italy to Gulf air. Owner: Julie, pricing5@, with Nisarg.
2. Tell them who to write to. Giacomo asked whether to contact Nisarg directly or a pricing desk, and the recorder garbles the answer, so it is not settled. Owner: Nisarg, in the follow-up.
3. Brochure. Due now the meeting is held. Check the thread first: the 14 Sep exchange already carried one. Owner: Nisarg.
4. Confirm Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the Caucasus before we repeat it. Julie said "yes, we can help you" in the room. Source what WayTrans actually runs into those three, and on what basis, before it goes in writing. Owner: Nisarg with WayTrans.
5. Correct our own BAM line if it comes up again. Nisarg said "next month in November, there is BAM meeting happening in Italy, in Rome" on 17 September; November is not next month. They are not BAM members and are not going.
6. FIATA Congress, Milan, October. They will be there. Whether we go is MEETINGS' call, not this chat's.

• Saudi air was overstated in the room. Nisarg: "Saudi Arabia itself, we have, like, 100 boxes, um, like, 51 tons." The workbook has Saudi at 100 boxes and 35 of the 51 tonnes; 51 t is the whole Italy-to-Gulf air figure, not Saudi's.
• The period was never said out loud. All four lane figures are monthly, from our GCC countrywise workbook and carried on /partners/politrans/: Italy into the Gulf at least 120 TEU (Saudi 100, Oman 8, Bahrain 4, Qatar 4, Kuwait 4, UAE blank) and 51 t air (Saudi 35); Gulf into Italy at least 13 TEU (Saudi 11, UAE 2, Kuwait blank) and 7 t air. If they quote 120 back, confirm it is per month.
• Direction was muddled on the 120: "the business that is going from— I mean, from the Gulf as well, we are getting, like, 120 TEUs." The 120 is Italy into the Gulf.
• Offices and headcount he gave were right. 5 UAE, 3 Saudi, 2 Oman, 1 each Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, 2 India, and "like 200 employees" match the authoritative record (15 offices in 7 countries; ~200 across the GCC, settled 31 Aug 2026). Nothing to correct.
• "13 years" for us is loose. Our formulation is 12 years incorporated, 25+ years of experience in the people.
• Recorder garbles, not facts: "good from Iran" (Italy), "GCTrans" (JCtrans), "CAS" (CASS), "QualityTrans" (Politrans). "By all means members" is NOT a garble and was written up as one here first: By All Means is a real network of ours, named in our own email signature beside WCA Inter Global 89630, ISO 9001:2015, JCtrans 153760, IATA CASS and PPL Networks. The Rome meeting Nisarg raised is the By All Means one.
• One of our claims needs a source before it is repeated in writing: in-house customs "in all of these offices... we won't give it to any third-party broker". The rest of the services list went out wholesale and unsourced too.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder put almost the whole call, both sides, under Julie's label, so every attribution below was worked out from what only one side could have said. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

A big Alexandria group that ended the call naming three things to work on, in their own order: overland trucking first, reefers second, air freight third. They were keen on the trucking, offered a second meeting with their reefer manager, and said they would connect their export dry team to us straight after. Their closing line was the right one for a first call: let us take small steps together and see how it works out.

Who was on it. ESG's side spoke from their head office in Alexandria. For us, Julie and Nisarg, with a colleague from our Oman office and two from Dubai.

What they are. Founded 1993, a group of six companies. ESG itself runs ship agency, freight forwarding and backup services, and forwarding is the part that matters to us: sea and air, with their own in-house trucking and clearance. Head office Alexandria, branch offices in Cairo, Port Said, Damietta and Suez, all their own, which covers every major Egyptian gateway. Their own container depots in Alexandria, Damietta and Sokhna. In the group, EGMOR is the exclusive agent of ZIM Line in Egypt, and ESG itself is agent for a Russian liner, heard as "Ametyst". Apart from those agencies they are a neutral forwarder, tier one with all the lines, with no preferential treatment, working to the client's need.

What they are strong in. Reefers and bulk liquids, said twice and unprompted, with large controlled volumes into the GCC. Their reefer manager was not in the office, so they offered a second meeting for that alone. One company in the group also handles artifacts, with storage, cleaning, maintenance and inspection, which is worth remembering if museum or exhibition cargo ever comes up.

One thing to settle before anyone repeats it. Our pitch said we had found them in the WCA register and that they are WCA members. On the call, their own words as recorded are "we're not WCA". The audio is poor in that stretch, so it may be a mishearing of the opposite, and the register is the place to settle it, not this recording.

What they asked us.

1. Our real volumes out of the Gulf into Egypt, and whether we are still receiving shipments at all right now. Their own picture is brutal: the Egypt trade has dropped to something like one shipment in a hundred, and their customers are holding cargo because the rates are so high.
2. Can we consign our Dubai to Egypt air shipments to them, so they clear and deliver to the door. We said yes and that we would introduce our team, because we do have clearance and delivery requirements in Egypt.
3. Does Winlines carry reefer boxes, and does it have an agency in Egypt. They misheard the name as "Green Line". The honest answer we gave: Winlines presently runs Mundra and Nhava Sheva, Indian sectors only, has no agency in Egypt, and would quote through its line tie-ups. They offered to provide us an agency contact in Egypt and said their own direct rates to Sokhna and Alexandria are good.
4. Any leads in Egypt we want them to chase, and any shippers we cannot get a reply from: their sales team will go and approach them.
5. India. We said India is less active than it was and the focus for now is the six Gulf countries, with Saudi and the UAE the two biggest.

What we told them, and what needs care. Fifteen offices across seven countries, five in the UAE, a hundred people in the UAE and over two hundred overall, in-house clearance everywhere, the Jebel Ali warehouse, chartering, and WayTrans doing Europe to the Gulf through Turkey as well as Dubai to Oman. The lane figures came off the deck with no period attached: 58 TEU Gulf to Egypt and 17 TEU back. Then the ones to fix: "incorporated 13 years ago", which is twelve; "FMC registered"; "the Strait of Hormuz is closed" and "Hormuz is not crossing now", said twice by our side and not ours to state; and "we are sending like 200 containers in a month" to Sokhna and Alexandria, with "100 of 200 containers", which has no source and sits oddly beside their own account of the lane being dead. Winlines was given here as Messina's agent in Oman, where another call said Bahrain.

Agreed. Three threads: overland trucking, which they want to start on; a second meeting on reefers with their manager; and air, where they will consider us as they scale it out of Egypt. They connect their export dry team to us; we introduce our Egypt clearance and delivery requirement, check whether the one clearance enquiry already with another agent is still live and pass it to them if it is, and come back on leads. Console shipments were left open to discuss.

An introduction with two live openings and no cargo. No enquiry, rate or booking changed hands in either direction.

The two openings, both from ESG's side:

• They want our Gulf to Egypt air imports consigned to them, for clearance and door delivery in Egypt ("can you consign such shipments to us, so we can handle your imports?").
• They want a second meeting with their reefer department, because the reefer person was out of the office that day. They said they "control big volumes to GCC, especially reefers" and gave no number.

They also said they were "very interested to move on with the overland trucking" and counted "two or three potential projects" across trucking, reefers and air. And they offered agency in Egypt for our NVOCC ("Agency also, we can provide you").

Since the call, nothing has moved in what I can see. No mail with esgshipping.com in thunga@, globalsales@ or pricing5@ after 16 Sep 12:00; the last message was 9 Sep. Neither side has sent the promised introductions.

From their own mouths, on this call, attributed by content:

• Founded 1993; a group of six companies, ESG being one. Scope: ship agency, freight forwarding, and sea and air freight, with in-house trucking and clearance.
• Head office Alexandria, own offices in Cairo, Port Said, Damietta and Suez ("there are our own offices"). Own depots in Alexandria, Damietta and Sokhna.
• A sister company, "EGMOR" as heard, is the exclusive ZIM Line agent in Egypt. ESG is agent for a Russian line heard as "Ametyst". Both names may be garbled; check before writing either.
• A neutral forwarder, "tier one with all the shipping lines", no preference.
• Specialised in reefers and bulk liquids, and in artifacts: one group company does storage, cleaning, maintenance and inspection of artifacts.
• Air is secondary for now: "more focused on sea freight", with a plan to grow air "in the coming quarter".
• Julie put their size to them from our research: 500-plus employees, five offices, WCA, founded 1993. The "Yes" that follows is on a mislabelled line. WCA is settled by our own register, not by the call: wca_id 127776, confirmed 15 Sep. The later line "we're not WCA" contradicts the register and is most likely "now" misheard. The register decides.

1. Send the follow-up. Five days since the call, nothing in writing from either side. Owner: Nisarg, from thunga@, globalsales@ copied.
2. Chase their reefer-department meeting. It was their promise ("let me contact the department right after we finish our meeting"). Ours to chase, not to wait on. Owner: Nisarg.
3. Introduce ESG to our import side for the Gulf to Egypt air imports they want consigned to them. Julie said she would. Owner: Julie.
4. Check the Egypt clearance and delivery enquiry Julie mentioned ("I'm not sure if one agent was able to handle that") and send it to ESG if it is still live. Owner: Julie.
5. Decide on their offer of NVOCC agency in Egypt. They asked whether our NVOCC could add Egypt; the answer in the room was that it runs Mundra and Nhava Sheva only for now. Owner: Nisarg with Winlines.
6. Overland trucking Egypt to the Gulf. They were keen. Source what Waytrans actually runs before promising it. Owner: Nisarg with Waytrans.

• Two of our own volume claims do not agree with each other. Julie gave 58 TEU Gulf into Egypt and 17 TEU back, the figures on the ESG pitch page, with no period said. Later someone on our side, most likely Deva, said "we are sending, like, 200 containers in a month", "100 and 100" to Sokhna and Alexandria, and that the war has cut it. Neither figure should be repeated until we know which is right and what period it covers.
• "Incorporated 13 years ago": our formulation is 12 years incorporated, 25+ years of experience in the people.
• "We are 36 in that list" (Great Place to Work, UAE). On the Politrans call on 17 Sep it was "top 100 in Dubai". One figure, from the certificate, before it is said again.
• The office list was misspoken: "Bahrain, Manama, Kochin City". It is Kuwait City; Kochi is India.
• "In-house customs in every country" needs a source before it goes in writing, as on the Politrans call.
• Recorder garbles, not facts: "EAZ shipping" (ESG), "BBL networks" (PPL), "IADA CAS" (IATA CASS), "Green Line" (Winlines), "Navishva" (Nhava Sheva), "Dumieta" (Damietta).
• "Out of 100, maybe 1" on Egypt enquiries converting is on a mislabelled line. It reads as our side, with our customers holding shipments to Egypt because the rates are too high. Do not quote it as theirs.
• "Winlines is the official agent of Messina Lines in Oman" was said by Nisarg. Source it before it is repeated in writing.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

A 26-year-old Chinese group with real volume, and they asked us for something concrete before we asked them: a partner in Dammam and Jeddah for their air shipments into Saudi Arabia. That is the opening on this call. They are running close to 30 to 40 tonnes a week from China to Saudi at the moment, mostly mobile accessories, because ocean has gone above ten thousand and customers are paying for time. Their colleague Donna was told a week before our call to find someone in Dammam and Jeddah who can clear and deliver to the customer's warehouse. We said our Saudi team does exactly that, and they agreed to send the request.

Who was on it. Their side ran from Shenzhen and Guangzhou: the boss, with Amy, Donna in Guangzhou and Jimmy. For us, Nisarg, Soumya and Julie. The recorder gave everyone a numbered label and swapped some of them, so "I am the director of this company" sits under Nisarg's label when it is theirs; nothing here can be quoted by its label.

What they are, in their words. A global logistics company in China, 26 years old, about seven offices in China plus offices in Vietnam and the USA, and more than 120 staff across the three countries. Ocean and air, with their own warehouses, trucking and clearance across China. Main markets: the Middle East, North Africa, South America and the USA. Their model is built around the traders who come to buy in China, in the Guangzhou and Yiwu markets: they hold the goods in their warehouse and the buyer, often Middle Eastern or African, comes to their office to close. About 2,500 containers a month from China to the world, and they extend credit on ocean freight to partners they trust.

What they can and cannot do right now. Break bulk: about one shipment a month of 2,000 to 3,000 CBM, China to North Africa and a little to West Africa, construction cargo. Ro-ro and DG: harder than it was. The lines are controlling, and in places refusing, DG cargo from China to the Middle East, so space has to be hunted and delays and extra charges should be expected. He was straight about it rather than promising. Soumya told him we have good numbers of ro-ro and break bulk coming from China and are still looking for an agent our sea import team can rely on; he said to send the requests and they will try.

Where we will see them. JCtrans Guangzhou in November: they have already booked a booth, and so have we. Their office is about five kilometres from the venue and they invited our CEO, Manu Nair, and the three of our sales team who are going, to come and see it. They are not travelling to Dubai for now, with a half-joke about missiles that Soumya answered by saying the UAE is quiet and safe.

What we told them, and what needs a baseline before anyone repeats it. 810 TEU into China against 120 TEU inbound to the Gulf, read off the deck with no period attached, which is also the most lopsided ratio we have shown anyone. Fifteen offices with thirteen in the Gulf, 100 staff in the UAE and 200 overall. Then three claims that keep recurring and are not sourced: "the company was incorporated 13 years ago" when it is twelve, "FMC registered", and "Winlines is biggest in Oman, we have Winlines in Malaysia also" with Messina named as an Oman partnership here and as Bahrain on other calls.

Agreed. We send our company profile and introduce our sea import team for break bulk and ro-ro enquiries. Donna sends the Dammam air request, airport to the customer's warehouse, for our Saudi team to price. Day-to-day goes by email with Donna and Jimmy following our account, and the two sides meet at JCtrans in Guangzhou.

No cargo and no rate changed hands on the call itself. This was a first, introductory call — both sides pitched their own company, no rate was quoted in either direction. Glory said they would follow up with a request for pricing on air freight ex-China to Dammam/Jeddah airport, delivered onward to a customer's warehouse — a request for OUR rate, not a rate they gave us.

They followed through the same evening. Jimmy Zhang emailed at 17:57 Dubai time, 11 Sep, in the existing thread ("Potential Cooperation & Online Meeting"), attaching Glory's own company profile, and the thread carries a live, specific ask: 85 cartons, 25 CBM, 6,500 kg of garments, Dammam or Jeddah airport to Al Balad, Jeddah. That is now an open pricing request sitting with us, not a vague future promise.

His email was addressed "Dear Julie," not Nisarg — check who he thinks he is writing to before replying, so the reply doesn't read as a stranger picking up someone else's thread.

From their own mouths, unverified beyond this call:

• A logistics company based in Shenzhen (this speaker) with a Guangzhou office (Donna) and, they say, offices in Ningbo, Ningbo/Xiamen/Yiwu-area coverage — "26 years" in China, "seven offices in China" plus an office in Vietnam and one in the USA, "more than 120 employees" across China, Vietnam and the USA.
• Main markets, in their words: Middle East, North Africa, and also South America and the USA.
• Volume claims: about 2,500 containers a month loading from China worldwide; roughly one break-bulk shipment a month from China to North Africa and "a little" to West Africa, 2,000–3,000 CBM, tied to a construction-company customer; 30–40 tons a week of air freight from China to Saudi, mostly "mobile accessory" (consumer electronics) cargo that customers want moved by air because of high ocean freight rates.
• They say space for DG (dangerous goods) cargo from China to the Middle East, including Jebel Ali/UAE, has become difficult and can mean delays — this is their explanation for why raw/break-bulk container space is currently constrained, not something we have independently checked.
• New names surfaced, not previously on our contact list: "Neil" and "Leo" — Speaker 4 asked Donna, in Mandarin, to have Neil ask Leo whether their customer needs delivery from a Dammam airport arrival to the customer's own warehouse, and to price it. Roles unknown.

• 26 years in China — this contradicts what our own register carries: WCA 97987 (Oriental International Logistics Ltd., Shenzhen) is verified at eleven years. The card for this meeting already flags a second, unresolved WCA ID (130154) under a similarly-named entity — the 26-year claim may belong to that entity, or to a parent company, not to the WCA-verified one. Do not repeat "26 years" as their tenure without asking which company it is.
• Seven offices in China — our own site/register reading for this meeting counted five desks (Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Ningbo, Xiamen, Yiwu). Seven is their number, unverified.
• Offices in Vietnam and the USA — stated on the call, not on any register we hold.
• "Amy" — a name said once, in a garbled self-introduction, and never confirmed against any contact we have for Glory. Treat as unresolved, not as a real contact.
• Our own numbers were said backwards on this call. Nisarg's pitch said "we have 810 containers, TEUs going into China" and "inbound as well, 120 TEUs into the Gulf." The figures we actually hold (same GCC countrywise workbook cited on the meeting card) are the reverse: 810 TEU China→Gulf (inbound to us) and 120 TEU Gulf→China (outbound). If this call gets quoted anywhere, use the correct direction, not what was said live.
• "Incorporated 13 years ago" — said on this call. Our standing figure elsewhere is the company incorporated 12 years ago, with 25+ years of experience carried by its people. This call adds a third number into circulation; use 12, not 13, until someone corrects it deliberately.
• The CEO's name is garbled in the transcript — rendered as "Mr. Manunayar." Do not print this spelling anywhere outward; confirm the actual name before it appears in writing.
• JCTrans Guangzhou date is unconfirmed on their side too — Speaker 4 says "I think November" then immediately "I don't know... I don't remember," while still confirming they have booked a booth. Treat November as unconfirmed, not a date.

1. Quote Glory's live air-freight request: 85 cartons / 25 CBM / 6,500 kg of garments, Dammam or Jeddah airport to Al Balad, Jeddah. Sitting in the thread since 11 Sep 17:57 Dubai — owner the Saudi/pricing desk, no clock given but it has already waited since the evening of the call.
2. Send Glory the WorldZone profile. Soumya promised this "after this meeting." No date given — owner Soumya, due promptly since it was framed as immediate.
3. Introduce Glory to our sea-import team, so they can be reached for break-bulk and raw cargo requests from China. Promised in the same breath as (2). Owner Soumya, no date given.
4. Check whether our CEO can visit Glory's Guangzhou office during the JCTrans meeting in Guangzhou (Glory says "I think November," unconfirmed). Soumya said she would ask him. Owner Soumya, no date given, and contingent on Glory actually confirming the JCTrans date first.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

This was not a partner call. It was a network selling us membership, and by the end of it the price had moved from USD 3,000 an office to USD 12,000 for six offices with two years of Golden membership and two conference tickets in it. Huilan Yang, who asks to be called Irene, runs the membership desk at GLA in Shenzhen. She came to us through Mr Shi Feng, a GLA member in Dubai and a contact of Julie's, and the referral is what unlocked the discount. Nisarg and Julie Pearl were on our side. We promised her an answer by Monday 14 September, because the next day was a holiday.

What GLA is, in her words. Over 7,000 members. Fourteen conferences in ten years, the last one in Shenzhen in May, plus smaller forums in Munich, Indonesia, Mumbai and Brazil. Every account gets a dedicated account manager and goes into a WhatsApp group of 500 to 600 members, one group per account, so enquiries can be put to the whole network at once. A new member is announced on their LinkedIn to about 50,000 followers. Entry is gated: nothing under one year old, and a company under three years needs three recommendation letters.

The conference she was really selling. Bangkok, 22 to 25 October 2026, GLA's tenth-anniversary meeting: around 2,000 participants and close to 200 booths, at the Centara near the airport (the venue name is garbled in the recording), the sessions on the 22nd floor and the hotel in the same building, hotel not included in any ticket. The one-to-one meeting system opened on 21 September. She shared the booth map live: most were sold, and she pushed B34 and B31 because they sit in front of the one-to-one meeting area and beside the only entrance. The next conference after Bangkok is Shenzhen in May 2027.

The money, in the order it was said. Golden membership is USD 3,000 per office per year, and through Mr Shi Feng's referral we were offered 50 percent off with the second year free. Her final shape on the call: USD 12,000 covering six or seven offices, two years of Golden, and two free tickets (a ticket is 1,500), with a third ticket at about 500 to 600. A booth is USD 5,000 and carries two tickets. Nisarg pushed twice: three free tickets inside the 12,000, which she called hard, and then three tickets if we take the 5,000 booth, which she said she would take to her management. Julie asked for the whole remaining sponsorship list rather than naming a figure; Irene floated 3,000 and 5,000 bands and offered to bring in her conference director, Mr Jeff Dee, on a WhatsApp group for booth and sponsorship pricing.

The one thing she talked us out of. GLA's financial protection sits only at Golden Plus, Diamond and Global Partner: 50,000 of cover, 3,800 in the first year or 800 if added later. She advised against paying for it, since we already carry WCA and JCtrans protection, and said it is bought mainly by companies with no other network cover.

What our own side put on the table. Six Gulf offices and no India on the membership: Nisarg was explicit that India is "only back office, we don't have any operation in India". Our markets were given as China, the USA and Europe, and the budget was described as already stretched by JCtrans in the USA and BAM in Italy, which is why the whole conversation was a negotiation and not a yes.

And a sister company already in the room. Nisarg spotted Winlines on GLA's attendee list during the screen share, listed as an NVOCC. Irene assumed it was a branch of ours; Julie corrected her, it is a sister company. Nisarg said he would ask them about their own experience of GLA, which is the cheapest reference available on this decision and still worth doing.

Said on the call and wrong, before anyone repeats it. "15 offices, 13 in the Gulf and 2 in India, across 13 countries" (the Gulf count is thirteen offices in six countries, and the two India offices are back office), "incorporated 13 years ago" when it is twelve, and Winlines called an NGOCC when the word is NVOCC.

Where it stands today, 5 Oct 2026. The written proposal that followed came in at USD 15,000, not the 12,000 offered on the call, and the messages logged from Irene on 10, 20 and 29 September have had no answer from us. The Bangkok conference is 17 days away and the one-to-one system has been open since 21 September, so the two things being sold here have different clocks: the membership can wait, the conference cannot.

Nothing was signed and nothing was paid. What came out of the call is a priced, time-limited offer and a deadline we did not meet.

The offer, from her own mouth after she checked with management mid-call: USD 12,000 for a two-year Golden membership covering six offices — or seven, at the same price — including two Bangkok conference tickets free. A standard ticket is USD 1,500, so the two tickets are USD 3,000 of the price. A third ticket is "500 or 600". A booth is USD 5,000 including two tickets, and only B34 and B31 were still open on her map, both in front of the one-to-one meeting area. Nisarg's counter was to take the booth at 5,000 if the ticket count went to three; she said "I will convince them regarding this."

The discount exists because of one person: Mr Shi Feng, a GLA member in Dubai of about three years, Golden rank, who referred us and is a friend of Julie's. He will be in Bangkok.

What has happened since, and it is not good. We said we would answer by Monday 15 September. We did not. Her written proposal, which she had already sent on 10 September, is for USD 15,000, not the 12,000 she gave on the call — she refers to "the USD 15000 proposal I shared with you" in her follow-up of 20 September. She followed up again on 29 September, this time steering us to a different product, the GLA Project Cargo Network. No reply of ours is on the thread. The Bangkok conference runs 22 to 25 October, seventeen days from today, and the one-to-one meeting system opened on 21 September.

GLA, from Huilan Yang on this call. She signs as Irene.

• Office in Shenzhen. Their member map is weighted to Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Latin America. Her pitch leans on Chinese members, which is the half of the China lane we are short of.
• Four ways an enquiry reaches a member: the inquiry list in the member centre; emails pushed by their member service team; the WhatsApp groups; and a dedicated account manager, who would be her.
• The WhatsApp groups are their differentiator, and they are rationed by account. One GLA account joins one group; each group holds 500 to 600 members. Seven registered branches means seven groups. If our markets are China, the USA and Europe, she will place us in the groups carrying the most Chinese and European members.
• Two conferences a year, fourteen in ten years. Last was Shenzhen in May. Next is Bangkok, 22 to 25 October 2026, their tenth anniversary, around 2,000 participants and nearly 200 booths. After that, Shenzhen in May 2027. Regional forums last year in Munich, Indonesia and Mumbai; this year at Intermodal South America in Brazil.
• Financial protection is not in Golden. It belongs to Golden Plus, Diamond and Global Partner, covers USD 50,000 a year, and she talked us out of it: we already hold WCA and JCtrans cover, the claim process is slow, and their own disputes team follows unpaid cases anyway. Her example was Mr Shi Feng, three years a member with no claim.
• Marketing is included: a welcome email to the whole membership, a LinkedIn post naming us and our contact details, and what she claims is 50,000 followers across their social accounts.
• Entry is gated: under a year, refused; under three years, three recommendation letters.

Written 5 October. The call was 11 September. Every item below has been open for three weeks and some of them have gone stale.

1. Answer Irene. The deadline we gave ourselves was Monday 15 September. Three of her messages are unanswered: the proposal, the 20 September follow-up and the 29 September pivot to their Project Cargo Network. Owner: Nisarg, with Julie. Clock: this week, and before Bangkok closes.
2. Settle 12,000 against 15,000, in writing, before anything else. The call offer was 12,000 for six or seven offices with two tickets. Her written proposal is 15,000. We should quote her own words back only to the extent of asking which figure stands. Owner: Nisarg.
3. Decide on Bangkok, 22 to 25 October, seventeen days away. Three things hang together: whether we go at all, whether we take the USD 5,000 booth with B34 or B31, and whether the third ticket comes at 500 or free against the booth. Nisarg's own framing on the call: "If you can support us with two or three tickets, we will definitely come for the Bangkok conference." Owner: Nisarg, with the budget already carrying JCtrans in the US and BAM in Rome.
4. Confirm the venue in writing. The recording gives "Centala Centaur Walk", near the airport, 30 minutes by taxi, conference on floor 22, hotel in the same building. That is not a bookable address. Owner: Julie.
5. Find out what Winlines is doing in GLA's system. Our own sister company appeared on their conference screen during the call. Owner: Nisarg. This is cheap and it changes the negotiation: if Winlines is already inside GLA, we are not a cold account.
6. Get GLA to correct our name on their file. They have been calling Nisarg "Manu". Owner: Julie.
7. Ask for the remaining sponsorship options. Julie asked for them on the call, Irene offered to bring her conference director, Mr Jeff Dee, into a WhatsApp group. Owner: Julie.

Ours, said on this call and wrong or unsourced:

• "15 offices of our own, 13 in the Gulf and 2 in India across 13 countries." Wrong on both counts. It is 13 offices in six Gulf countries. India is a back office, which Julie stated correctly later in the same call: "our India, that's only back office. We don't have any operation in India." The deck used on this call needs checking; it is the same error the Gulf-only one-sheet exists to stop.
• "The company was incorporated 13 years ago." Twelve. The people carry 25-plus years; the company does not.
• "Above 200 employees across all the countries, and only in Arabia we have 100-plus employees, only in our UAE office." Garbled in the saying and unsourced. Our headcount note should be the one quoted, not a figure reached live.
• "NGOCC called Winlines." NVOCC.

Theirs, to confirm in writing rather than from this recording:

• The venue and address in Bangkok.
• Financial protection at USD 800 a year against USD 3,800 in the first year.
• Whether 12,000 or 15,000 is the live number.
• Whether the seventh office really is free at the same price.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

A membership sales call, not a partner call: X2 was selling and we were buying, and the one thing they wanted before quoting a price was never given — which vertical, and which of our offices. Tatiana Ageeva runs X2 Logistics Networks' membership desk from Dubai. She called it a discovery call, asked us to present first, then took us through eight verticals, the protection, the dashboard, the conference and the price list. Our side was Nisarg, Julie Pearl and Soumya. Her connection dropped twice in the first ten minutes, which matters because our own side-chat during the gap went into the recording and into the recorder's action list.

What X2 is, in her words. Established 2012. Their founder, Richard, sat on WCA's board and left to build something else because, in her telling, WCA had become "the yellow pages of freight forwarding networking"; Adam still runs WCA, and Richard died three years ago. The pitch is built entirely on that split: a customer-centric network rather than a directory, with a customer service team that introduces members to each other instead of leaving them to a member list. Their director is Christian Nilsson-Melvin (one person; the recorder heard three). More than 1,000 members in 133 countries.

Eight verticals, and the honest part of the call. Elite and Global are general freight, Projects is heavy lift, break bulk, ro-ro and oil and gas, Critical is on-board courier, hand carry and next-flight-out, then Cold Chain, Consolidators (NVOCC licensed), Movers and the new Events vertical. She was straight that Dubai is largely full: one X2 Elite slot open, Global closed for Dubai, and Critical occupied in the UAE (Dubai, Dubai, Sharjah). Abu Dhabi could work for Critical because we have an office there. Projects, Cold Chain and Consolidators are open. In Saudi, Critical already holds two companies at Jeddah, one of them with Riyadh and Dammam branches; the old rule was one company per airport, the new management allows two at most, and she offered to ask them to stretch it for us.

What a member actually gets, as she described it. Financial protection of USD 25,000 per invoice and USD 100,000 a year: invoices go on their dashboard with 30, 60 or 90 day terms, the system chases the other side, and an unpaid case goes to their resolution centre, then a legal adviser, and if nothing settles X2 pays. Every member carries a visible risk and payment rating, so you can see who pays before you book with them. Around it: a new-member announcement to the whole network, quarterly newsletters, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube, a dedicated account contact who calls to check the membership is working and will make introductions inside a chosen industry, 24/7 support in more than fifteen languages, WhatsApp groups per vertical, X2 Pay as a digital wallet to avoid bank charges, and a virtual event where new members present before the physical conference. Julie asked whether they have Filipino staff, and they do.

The conference and the expos. One annual conference every April; 2027 is 5 to 9 April in Thailand, four days of one-to-one meetings, four speakers, workshops (AI this year), sport and festivals. Membership is reviewed if a member misses two consecutive conferences — not a penalty, she said, but the thing that decides whether the membership pays for itself. Through the year they take an X2 stand to the big expos — Breakbulk in the Netherlands, Milan, IACS Mumbai, then Intermodal Brazil and transport logistic — and members can sit at that table under the X2 umbrella.

The price, as said. One year: Elite USD 2,750 for a head office and 1,250 a branch; any other vertical USD 2,250 and 1,000 a branch. Two years: USD 3,375 per vertical. Two verticals means paying twice, "but of course we can make a discount deal", and she promised the two and three-year packages in writing. There is no trial. Julie asked for one twice and got "We don't have trial. We're not a charity network", which Julie answered by saying we are entirely willing to pay the fees and would register all five branches if the network works. Joining needs three international references from outside the UAE, a clean check against the industry's debtor register, company registration, licence, proof of address and the owner's passport.

What our own side said, and what has to be fixed before it is said again. "Almost 13 years" and "incorporated 13 years ago" when it is twelve; "15 offices, 13 in the Gulf and 2 in India, across 7 countries", where the outward line is thirteen offices in six Gulf countries; "2,000 containers import and export" with no period and no source; 200 staff with 100 in the UAE; "IATA member, IATA certified, ISO, IFS", where IFS is on no list of ours; and "we already have 6 networks" against Tatiana's recap of seven and Julie's five named aloud. There is also a lane claim worth sourcing before it is repeated: "we already have a lane to Thailand, and most of it is from Saudi".

And the part that is ours alone. While Tatiana was disconnected we talked about our own target, the GLA call booked for two o'clock the same day, the 136-page WorldZone book and a vessel-chartering course. The recorder filed some of it as meeting content. None of it is, and none of it goes anywhere near X2.

Where it stands. She sent the rosters for Elite, Projects and Critical with the prices within the hour (11 Sep 11:47); Julie replied at 11:51 that we would put it to management; Tatiana chased on 17 September, and as at the last mailbox check on 21 September nothing had gone back from thunga@, globalsales@ or pricing5@. Three weeks on, the ball is still in our court and the decision is a management one: which vertical, which locations. The one Elite slot for Dubai is a single slot, and the conference that would make the first year pay is in April.

The decision is ours, and it is overdue. Tatiana asked for "green light or red light" by the next week: which vertical, which locations. She sent the rosters and prices within the hour (11 Sep 11:47). Julie answered at 11:51 that we would discuss with management. Tatiana chased on 17 Sep 19:01, and nothing has gone back since in thunga@, globalsales@ or pricing5@ (measured 21 Sep).

What the room settled:

• Availability for UAE is thin. "No space for Dubai, UAE" except one X2 Elite slot. X2 Global is closed for Dubai. X2 Critical is full in UAE (Dubai, Sharjah) but Abu Dhabi could work. Projects, Cold Chain and Consolidators are open.
• Saudi Critical already has two companies at Jeddah (one of them with Riyadh and Dammam branches). She offered to ask management to stretch the cap.
• We said we want Projects and Critical, general freight too if possible, and floated joining with up to five branches if it works. We asked for a trial and got "We're not a charity network". No trial.

From Tatiana, on this call, and in her 11 Sep mail:

• Established 2012. Founder Richard sat on WCA's board, left to build X2 on a "customer-centric" model rather than a directory, and died three years ago.
• Eight verticals: Elite and Global (general freight), Projects (heavy-lift, ro-ro, oil and gas), Critical (OBC, hand carry), Cold Chain, Movers, Consolidators (NVOCC), Events (new). She named seven aloud; the mail names Movers as the eighth.
• "More than 1,000 members in 133 countries." Critical used to be one company per airport; under new management, two at most.
• Fees, as said and written. One year: Elite $2,750 for the head office, any other vertical $2,250; a branch $1,250 (Elite) or $1,000 (other). Two years: $3,375 per vertical, $4,400 Elite. Three years: $4,400 per vertical, $6,200 Elite. A discount for several verticals was offered, to be negotiated.
• Financial protection $25,000 per invoice, $100,000 a year, through a dashboard with 30, 60 or 90 day terms, a resolution centre and a legal adviser.
• Conference every April, 2027 in Thailand, 5 to 9 April. Membership is reviewed after two consecutive years of not attending.
• Joining needs three international references outside the UAE, company registration, business licence, proof of address and the owner's passport.

1. Give Tatiana the green or red light: which vertical, which locations. She chased on 17 Sep. Owner: Nisarg with management. This is a membership decision, not a follow-up SCRIBE can draft; when it is made, the reply goes from pricing5@, where the thread lives.
2. Read the three rosters she attached (Elite, Projects, Critical) for the one number that decides it: how many members they already hold where we have offices. It was not answered in the room.
3. If Projects, compare today's price with February's. Miya Qu quoted Projects on 4 Feb at $2,250 for a UAE head office, $1,500 for Oman and Qatar, 20% off for two years and 25% for three. Today it is $2,250 and $1,000 per branch, and the two-year price of $3,375 works out to 25% off. Internal only.

• "2,000 containers import and export" (Julie, no period, no source). Do not repeat it.
• "We already have 6 networks" (Nisarg), "7 networks" (Tatiana's recap), and five named by Julie: WCA, JCtrans, PPL, WFN, BAM. The card lists WCA Inter Global, JCtrans, PPL, WFN and GLA. One list, from the record, before it is said again.
• "Almost 13 years" and "incorporated 13 years ago": our formulation is 12 years incorporated, 25+ years in the people.
• "IATA certified, ISO, IFS": IFS is not on any list of ours. Check it.
• "We can guarantee" was said twice, about support and about shipments exchanged. Not a promise to repeat in writing.
• "One of the fastest-growing forwarding companies in the Gulf" is unsourced.
• Garbled by the recorder: the management names ("Christian Nilsson-Melvin", heard as three people from the Philippines, Canada and Dubai), "FDRS" and "deep- centered adapter company" in the vetting line, and "VSDC division".

Hamdy Gaber, unprompted, within ten minutes of joining:

• One of the biggest Italian construction companies has just finished a project in Oman.
• All of it moves Oman → Egypt by road: equipment, generators, building machines, construction items.
• 15–20 trucks, possibly more. Normal trucks or flatbed, depending on the piece.
• Route crosses at Rub' al Khali (the Oman–Saudi border), then onward; Safaga named as the Egyptian end, with Alfa Trans taking over from there.
• Our scope, in his words: arrange the trucking including customs clearance at BOTH borders — Oman side and Saudi side — plus the transit/fair charges, all inside one price. He noted we would need the authorisation in Saudi to clear on behalf of the company.
• He has been working this for months and is at the final stage. He said he had been talking to a local contractor and would stop that to start with us instead.
• He will send packing list and commercial invoice by email.
• What he actually asked for: "the quotation for this big project. Put the net price and tell us how much we have to put as profit for both of us." Net rate plus an agreed joint margin, so he can build the client quotation.
• His timing: he wants to work Friday and Saturday and submit to his client early next week.

He was explicit about why: "if we make a good start, this will encourage us to be your eyes here, and to make two-way traffic for the benefit of both companies."

• Founded 1977, confirmed on the call. Nisarg said 1977, Khaled confirmed. Second generation running it, third generation already in the office. This settles the founding-year conflict the research note flagged — 1977 is the answer, and it is the group date.
• Khaled has been in the company since 1986 — his words, "over 40 years now".
• Their full list, from Khaled: protecting agents and general agents, ship suppliers, forwarding, customs clearing, warehouse owners, and survey work — condition survey and ship survey.
• Their customs clearing department is specialised in the PETROLEUM sector.
• They have been Halliburton's agent for more than 27 years. He also named Pathfinder and NOV, and said "all the petroleum companies in Egypt are working with us."
• Their own office at Cairo airport, with their own staff — not hired contractors — doing forwarding, customs clearance, crew mail and time-critical spare-parts delivery. Own staff also at Alexandria and across Egyptian ports.
• Authorised and licensed agent at all Egyptian ports, and Suez Canal agent, with long-standing connections to the Canal authorities. Said they had worked for a large Dubai company before.
• Khaled raised spare-parts delivery to vessels transiting the Suez Canal as immediate business worth putting on our files.

Hamdy, directly: we do not yet know each other, and a project this size should not start on trust. He asked whether we have our own agency agreement; if not, they will draft one. Mr. P is their owner and general manager, and he and Hamdy would both sign as authorised signatories. Ram said it would be shared after the meeting.

He described how he wants the commercial relationship to work: full transparency, nothing hidden on either side, costs declared, and the margin split between the two companies — and he wants that as the fixed policy between us, in both directions.

• Ram: Winlines is the Messina Lines agent in Oman; two vessels handled this month, next vessel 20 September. Offered vessel/NVOCC/liner agency work in Oman and Malaysia.
• Ram offered to take sales leads — old customers Alfa Trans cannot reach, passed to Dubai.
• Nisarg named WayTrans (trucking) and Winlines (NVOCC, Messina partnership) as the sister companies that make the overland leg possible.

1. Send Hamdy the email addresses he is waiting on — Ram's (Oman), Nisarg's, and whoever goes in CC. He said twice he cannot send the project file until he has them. He wants to work on it Friday and Saturday. This is the whole meeting; nothing else matters until it is done.
2. The quotation: Oman → Egypt by road, 15–20 trucks, customs clearance at both borders, to Safaga. Net price plus a proposed joint margin, not a single all-in number.
3. The agency agreement. They asked for it and Ram promised it after the meeting. If we do not have a template, they will write one — better that we send ours first.
4. Saudi clearance authorisation — confirm we can clear at Rub' al Khali / Batha on the client's behalf before we price it.
5. Put Suez Canal ship-spares delivery on the file as a standing service they can run for us.

• "Offices in Bahrain, Malaysia and Saudi" was said on the call. Our authoritative office list is seven countries — UAE, Saudi, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, India. Malaysia is not on it. Same class of thing as the HERCO call's unsourced "500 shipments". Resolve it before it is said to a partner again. (Memory: [[worldzone-offices-authoritative]].)
• Several company names in the petroleum list are transcription guesses (Pathfinder, NOV, "Quantic"). Halliburton and the 27 years are clear; the rest should be confirmed with Khaled.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

The oldest company we have met, and the only first call that put a whole project on the table within fifteen minutes. An Italian construction group has finished a job in Oman and wants all of its equipment moved from Oman to Egypt by road: generators, building machines, construction items, more than fifteen to twenty trucks, across the Rub al Khali border between Oman and Saudi Arabia and on to Egypt through Safaga. Hamdy has been working it for months, is at the last stage, had local contacts lined up, and said he would stop all of that to start with us instead.

Who was on it. Khaled Al Awwa and Hamdy Gaber for Alfa Trans in Egypt. For us, Nisarg, Julie, Deva from our Oman office, and Ram, the head of our Oman office, who joined partway. The recorder put every word Ram said under Julie's label, so nothing on our side can be quoted by its label. Their line dropped for several minutes in the middle. The first ten minutes of the recording are our own team waiting to admit them, including Nisarg and Julie agreeing to cap the day at three or four meetings; that part is internal.

What they are. Alfa Trans, founded 1977. Second generation running it, third generation already in the office. Khaled has been in the company since 1986, over forty years in the trade. Shipping agency at the Suez Canal and every Egyptian port: protecting and general agents, ship suppliers, forwarding, customs clearance, their own warehouses, and condition and ship surveys. Their clearance department is specialised in the petroleum sector and has been Halliburton's agent for more than twenty-seven years, with the other oilfield names in Egypt on their books. They have their own staff, not contractors, at Cairo airport and Alexandria and across the Egyptian ports, which is what makes time-critical spare parts deliveries possible. They are a licensed, authorised canal agent with long-standing connections to the canal authorities, and have worked for large Dubai houses before. They would welcome introductions for canal agency work.

The project, as Hamdy scoped it for us. Our side arranges the trucks, normal or flatbed, to lift the equipment out of Oman, with customs clearance at both borders, the Omani side and the Saudi side at the Rub al Khali customs area, which needs a party authorised to act on the company's behalf in Saudi Arabia. The quotation has to include the truck charges up to Safaga and the ferry charges; from Safaga onward Alfa Trans takes over, and they handle the clearance at the Egyptian border. He will send an email with the full details, the packing list and the commercial invoice so the calculation can be made, and he wanted to work on it over the Friday and Saturday to put his quotation to the client at the beginning of the following week.

What he asked for commercially, in his own words. The net price, and then tell him how much profit to add for both of us, so he can build one complete quotation for his client. His stated way of working: transparency, win to win, the profit defined openly, nothing hidden, charges collected at each end and the benefit divided between the two parties, as a fixed policy in both directions. He also asked for an agency agreement or written contract before the first job, to guarantee the payment obligations on both sides, and said their owner and general manager would sign ours or help draft one. Julie said we would send it after the meeting.

What Ram added. He heads WorldZone Logistics and Winlines in Oman and is a partner in both. Winlines is Messina's agent in Oman: they handled two Messina vessels that month, one of them the Jolly Rosa, with the next vessel on 20 September. He asked to be told about anything moving through Messina, and about anyone looking for a vessel, NVOCC or liner agency in Oman. Hamdy's view was that a project this size is best handled from Dubai or Oman directly, and he asked for Ram to be copied so he could quote it.

What we owe, and it was time-critical. Our email addresses, Ram's and Soumya's included, so the project file could come; the quotation with a net price and the profit to be added; the agency agreement; and sales-lead help, which Julie offered for any old Egyptian customers they cannot reach.

What our side said that needs care. "We have offices in other places like Bahrain, Malaysia and Saudi" and Winlines as "biggest in Oman": Malaysia is not on our list of offices, and the Messina agency has been given as Bahrain on other calls and as Oman here, by the man who runs it.

Khaled's audio broke up badly and Hamdy carried the second half. Khaled drops to single words from about 00:12 on ("wait", "hold", "okay", "40"). Their video went black at 00:06:32 mid-sentence and they were gone for roughly three minutes. He never finished the sentence he was most interested in — see the ship-spares item below. Worth calling him to close it.

Ship spares to vessels transiting the Suez Canal. Khaled raised this himself as the thing we could start on immediately: "I would like also to talk to you about something which you can start on… for the time being this is very good business — delivery for ships passing Suez Canal." He then named the parties that currently have to carry it, and the transcription of those names is unusable. The business is real and he asked us to put it on file; the mechanism was cut off when his line dropped. Ask him to repeat it.

Their own words on why the airport office matters: they did not hire a contractor for forwarding, customs clearance, crew mail or spare-parts delivery — their own staff at Cairo airport, Alexandria and across the Egyptian ports — "especially for this company which has the critical sensitive time for deliveries."

They are open to more than the project. Hamdy: "we will be very open here to make any arrangement for you for any of your shipment from Egypt, or any ship calling Egypt, whatever."

On the agency agreement, his exact reasoning: "You still don't know us, and we have to have some way of written contract or agreement just to guarantee your payment, and we guarantee our payment, we guarantee our obligation." He does this with colleagues worldwide and would rather sign ours than write one.

Their commercial model, stated as policy: "We work always win-to-win. We define our profit. We didn't hide any expenses. Whatever you spend, whatever we spend there in Egypt, we collect all our charges and then the benefit will be divided between the two parties" — and he wants that fixed in both directions, not just on this job.

They know Messina. When Ram raised the Winlines/Messina agency in Oman, Hamdy answered that of course they know Messina Lines and named their Egypt agent. So the Messina card is not new information to them.

Sokhna and Alexandria were named by our side as where a lot of our shipments already go.

We offered them sales leads — old customers Alfa Trans cannot reach, passed to Dubai. Hamdy deferred it politely: "Let us start with the serious job. Then you will have our task and you will see our seriousness, and then we can go ahead." He wants the project done before anything else.

Petroleum client names beyond Halliburton are not readable. "Pathfinder", "figuro", "n ov" (possibly NOV) and a Dubai client heard as "Quantic". Halliburton and the 27 years are clear and repeatable; nothing else on that list is.

Julie and Nisarg agreed the meeting load is too heavy: three to four partner meetings a day maximum, and nothing past 17:00 — Julie's words, "for the time being you can keep till five". The reason given was that four meetings a day leaves quotes pending. Worth honouring when the next week is booked.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

This was not an introduction. It was a live project quote, on a signed agency agreement nobody on our side remembered. Rifa said it plainly: she had sent the agency agreement, it was signed between WorldZone and Sri Logistic, and that is why their pricing desk sent this enquiry straight to us, because she had told them we are their agent in Jebel Ali. The cargo is real: 40 flat racks of boats on cradles, Jebel Ali to Port Victoria, Seychelles, for a customer of theirs who wants an agent that has done it before.

Who was on it. For Sri Logistics Indonesia: Stefano from their agency desk, Rifa from the same department, and a colleague who spoke mostly Indonesian, with a colleague named as "Demanda" behind the three vessels. For us: Nisarg, Soumya, Julie, Deva from our Oman office, and, once the link finally worked, Millat, our project manager, who ran the technical half. The first minutes of the recording are private office talk in Telugu and are no part of this meeting.

The operational answer Millat gave, which is the substance of the call.

• Jebel Ali cannot be the port of loading at the moment. Very few vessels are calling for break bulk, and the ro-ro and break bulk options are not there. The mainline operators are not calling, because of the Hormuz situation and the war that began in February. That option has to be ruled out, not worked around.
• What is being used instead: the Northern Emirates, Khor Fakkan and Fujairah, temporarily for break bulk and ro-ro, with ro-ro mostly landing in Oman and trucking into Dubai on a transit document.
• For out-of-gauge and flat racks: move the laden box by road out of the UAE under a transit-out document, to Sohar (about 220 km), Duqm, or Salalah (about 1,600 km) in Oman, or to Jeddah and King Abdullah Port in Saudi Arabia, where most flat racks are moving now.
• The quotation already with them is on that basis: the port of loading is in Oman, Duqm, with free-on-trailer at Jebel Ali and CFR Port Victoria. Millat read it out and corrected his own first reading: empty container pickup and placement at Jebel Ali, and the lashing and securing, are all in our scope and already in the price. The road leg is the extra cost, and he was honest about why he does not like it: in Jebel Ali we control everything, in Oman the trailer waiting and detention are outside our hands.
• How OOG freight is priced: on slot kills, eight, ten, eighteen, depending on how far the cargo is over length, width and height.
• Why the dimensions matter more than the rate. At Jebel Ali a company called Boxco examines the laden container, checks the lashing and securing, and matches the physical dimensions against what was declared to the carrier. A mismatch and the box does not go in. The carrier quotes on the declared dimensions and rejects the cargo if they change, and we have been caught by that at the last moment before.
• So he asked for a survey. Our survey team goes to the shipper, measures the boats on their cradles or trolleys and gets the real dimensions before anything is booked. He asked for the shipper's address and details, which they do not have yet from their customer.

Where it stands with them. Their customer has seen the rate rise against an earlier, cheaper quote and is asking why. They want a cheaper option so they can win it. Our side said two useful things: the vessel schedule in the current quote can no longer be caught, and the project manager will look for a better rate and an earlier vessel and come back. Once the customer accepts the charges they will send the documents and the shipper details and work with Millat direct.

What we owe. A revised quotation with an earlier vessel and the best rate we can find, a clear breakdown of the inland leg so they can explain the increase to their customer, and the survey once the shipper details arrive. They also still owe us the shipper's address.

What our side said about us that needs fixing. "We also have an office in Ajman", which we do not. "Oman, 2 offices, Muscat and Doha", where Doha is in Qatar and the second Omani office is Sohar. "Incorporated around 13 years ago", which is twelve. "FMC registered". And the Great Place to Work line, given here as top 100 with us 36th and first for parents.

The enquiry is 40 flat racks of boats, to Port Victoria, Seychelles.

Jebel Ali cannot load it. Millat: carriers stopped calling Jebel Ali for break-bulk and out-of-gauge in February, over the Hormuz situation. All OOG now moves through Oman — Sohar (~220 km), Duqm, or Salalah (~1,600 km) — or Saudi — Jeddah and King Abdullah Port. He ruled Jebel Ali out on the call and Rifa accepted it.

A quotation from Soumya was already with them, and it is built the right way: POL Duqm, free-on-trailer at the shipper's Jebel Ali free-zone location, CFR Port Victoria. Millat first read it as lashing being the shipper's scope, then corrected himself against the document: empty container pickup and placement at Jebel Ali, lashing and securing all arranged by us — "basically, we will do everything." The shipper's only job is to load the boat onto the trailer and shrink-wrap it.

Their customer's 8 Sep demand for evidence came up twice on the call. Rifa: "Have you ever done this kind of shipments?" Millat shared a photograph of boats he has loaded, explained the one-arm-upright rig used to hold the centre of gravity during the lift, and described the water-to-water method for larger boats — divers down, lifting gear on, hatches closed, lashed on deck.

That is the reference we could not produce in writing yesterday. It should now be sent in writing too, with the photo, because the person who has to be convinced is their customer, who was not on this call.

• We are already their agent, with a signed agency agreement. Rifa: "I have sent you agreement, and we already signed the agreement with WorldZone and Sri Logistic" — which is why their pricing desk sent this enquiry straight to us.
• Rifa is in their agency department. Demanda set the meeting up. Stefano joined from their side and mentioned three vessels planned.
• They have moved this cargo before, but out of Jakarta, not the Gulf. Jebel Ali is the leg they have no one for.
• They do not yet have the shipper's address from their own customer.

1. A cheaper option, and an earlier vessel. The schedule in the current quote cannot be caught. We promised to check other carriers and come back. Rifa's own rate has already gone up once and her shipper is asking why — this is the item the deal turns on.
2. Send the flat-rack evidence in writing — Millat's boat photographs and the loading method — so Rifa can put it in front of her customer.
3. Survey the boat before loading. Millat asked twice. Blocked on shipper details, which Sree owes us. He gave the reason plainly: Boxco checks every dimension against the carrier's declaration at the port gate and rejects on any mismatch, and we have far less control over that in Oman than we do in Jebel Ali.

Three things said from our side that our own records do not support:

• "An office in Ajman" — our authoritative list is five UAE cities: Dubai, Jebel Ali, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah. Ajman is not one of them.
• "Oman, we have 2 offices, Muscat and Doha" — Doha is Qatar. Oman is Muscat and Sohar.
• "Incorporated around 13 years ago" — the agreed honest sentence is twelve years incorporated, 25+ years of experience.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

The most generous first call of the run: Gary offered us US export sales leads, his own marketing flyers to sell with, and an agency agreement, unprompted. Then the agreement never came, and neither did a chase from us. He answered every question before it was asked and told us exactly how to get a quote out of him the same day.

Who was on it. Gary Syner alone for GlobalWise, up since five that morning. Nisarg alone for us: the colleague who was to join was held up, and it was after working hours in Dubai.

What they are, in his words. Around twenty years old, with two divisions. E-commerce: a fulfilment centre in Chicago for goods shipped into the US to consumers, sporting goods, supplements and the like, bought online or sold consumer to consumer. The model is that the shipper sends many parcels in one bulk shipment instead of couriering each one; GlobalWise breaks it down, rescans and hands it to UPS or the US Postal Service for the final mile. Global forwarding: IATA and FMC certified, pickup and delivery anywhere in the United States, an in-house customs broker who can clear DAP and DDP with bill-backs to us, rates into Amazon and similar, and on the export side relationships with all the airlines, the steamship lines and the NVOs for FCL, LCL and air.

How to get a fast quote out of him, which he spelled out and we should follow. Send the target rate; name the airlines if we want specific ones looked at; give the commodity, any temperature control, any special requirement, the dimensions with the units stated, inches or centimetres, the weights and whether it is palletised. With that he answers the same day, and if something is missing he messages back at night rather than letting it sit. The one exception he flagged: large ocean projects needing flat racks take longer, because the steamship lines are slow to come back. He carries RJ, EK, TK, QR and EY among others into the Middle East. And he asked for feedback on his numbers: "we never know what the sweet spot is", so if the client says he is a hundred dollars short, he can usually do something about it.

The process he set. Everything comes to his address, he passes it to his group and answers us himself the same day. He asked how our side works and was told enquiries come to Nisarg with the pricing team copied, and that for global sales agents the rate goes back from global sales directly.

What he offered us. Sales leads on US exports, where the routing sits on our end, from his own specialised programmes: medical equipment and supplements, which he called a big export market into Dubai, and cosmetics. Vertical-industry flyers we can use when calling on a customer, so we can say our US partner specialises in that trade. And, without being asked, his agency agreement: "even though we're WCA, we'd like to have an agreement." Email for quotes, WhatsApp for anything urgent, his cell in his signature.

What happened after, and what is owed. The same evening at 21:30 he sent four flyers, medical, cosmetics, apparel and aerospace, and wrote that he would send the agency agreement the next day. It has never arrived in any of our three mailboxes, and nothing has gone from us either. The whole relationship is one unanswered promise away from being live, and the chase is ours to make.

What our side said that needs fixing. The mailbox was given on the call as "globalsales@wispr.zonee"; it is globalsales@worldzone.ae, and getting our own address wrong to a man who wants to send us enquiries is the worst of the lot. Nisarg introduced himself as the son of the director of "Wispr", which is the recorder's garble of WorldZone, and said he lives in the US when he lives in Dubai. The sister companies were rendered "Weytons" and "Windlines" for WayTrans and Winlines, with Winlines described as "biggest in Oman, but we started it in Dubai". Twelve years was said correctly here, against Gary's own "around 20 years" and our research showing a 2015 incorporation, which is a contradiction nobody resolved. "FMC registered" was claimed again, and the Great Place to Work line was given as 36th of the top 100 and first for parents.

Agreed to work as each other's agent on the US and Gulf lanes, and Gary offered to put it in an agency agreement of his own. "I'll send you our agency agreement because even though we're WCA, we'd like to have an agreement." No cargo, enquiry or rate changed hands on the call.

He also offered us US export leads that need a Gulf partner: medical equipment, supplements and cosmetics, which he called "a big export market to Dubai", from companies where "the routing is on your end".

Since the call: Nisarg sent the follow-up the same evening (9 Sep 19:59 Dubai, thunga@, globalsales@ copied), with the brochure, the pitch page and the working method in writing. Gary replied at 21:30 with four flyers (medical, cosmetics, apparel, aerospace) and "I will send you an agency agreement tomorrow to review." The agreement has not arrived in thunga@, globalsales@ or pricing5@ as of 21 Sep, and nothing has gone either way since.

From Gary, on this call and in his signature:

• "We've been around 20 years." Two divisions. E-commerce: a fulfilment centre in Chicago that takes bulk inbound, breaks it down and hands the parcels to UPS or USPS for the final mile. Global forwarding: IATA and FMC certified, pickup and delivery anywhere in the US.
• In-house customs broker, so DAP and DDP with bill-backs to us, including deliveries into Amazon.
• Airline relationships named: RJ, EK, TK, QR, EY. Relationships with steamship lines and NVOs for FCL, LCL and air.
• Same-day answers on quotes, except big ocean projects needing flat racks. He asks for full details up front, a target rate, and feedback on price ("The client may say, 'Oh, you're $100 short'").
• One inbox: enquiries to him, he passes them to his group and answers.
• Signature: offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Miami. WCA Member ID 131629, his own claim, not yet checked against our register.
• WhatsApp is the cell in his signature, for urgent things only. Quotes go by email.

1. Chase the agency agreement. He promised it for 10 Sep; twelve days on it has not come. Owner: Nisarg, in the same thread from thunga@. Worth reading it closely when it lands: our own agent agreement went to Politrans on 18 Sep (Julie, pricing5@), so compare the two.
2. Send him the first live enquiry that fits his coverage. This has been standing since the 2 Sep reply. Owner: Soumya, from globalsales@.
3. Take up the US export leads he offered (medical, supplements, cosmetics) when he sends them. His move first.
4. The WhatsApp text Nisarg said he would send after the call. Not visible from here; confirm it went.

• "I saw that you got incorporated in 2015" (Nisarg) against Gary's "we've been around 20 years". Both can be true, a newer company with older people, but do not put either year in writing without a source.
• "If Kuwait has an inquiry... they send it to me." Said by Nisarg about how our offices route US enquiries. It is a promise about process; make it true or do not repeat it.
• "Maybe this will be much cheaper if it would go from Oman... cross-country trucking" for Gulf to US cargo. Unsourced routing claim.
• "We are 36 in that list" of Great Place to Work: the same figure said to ESG, and "top 100 in Dubai" to Politrans. One figure, from the certificate.
• "I will be accompanying my dad... to that meeting" (the BAM meeting in Italy, November). A plan, not a booking.
• Recorder garbles, not facts: "director of Wispr" (WorldZone), "globalsales@wispr.zonee" (globalsales@worldzone.ae), "Weytons" (Waytrans), "Windlines" (Winlines), "PersonalFex", and "I live in... US", almost certainly UAE.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

A young US arm of a Korean house, honest that they have almost no Gulf business today and want a partner to build it with, and the one call where the person on the other side already knew our market better than most. Wade runs the project vertical for OCL in the US and asked for project cargo to come straight to him. Within half an hour of hanging up we sent them our first live air enquiry, and they quoted it.

Who was on it. Wade Stiles, who heads their project vertical, and Ted Roumell in Atlanta, who was greeted on the call and speaks under no label of his own. For us, Nisarg, Soumya and Julie, who introduced herself but whose words sit under Soumya's label.

What they are, in his words. OCL USA, which he called OneCircle Logistics, about four years old in the US, with sister offices in Korea and Australia. OCL began in Korea, and the parent is a long-established Vietnamese group, heard as "B Logistics". The US company stands on its own: its own book of business, its own way of working, separately domiciled. Headquarters in Los Angeles; Wade is in Savannah and Ted in Atlanta, with an Atlanta office opening soon, then Chicago, and Houston or Miami later. IATA certified and FMC registered. No in-house US customs broker: they outsource it to partners on the East and West coasts depending on the customer's need. No 24-hour AOG desk, though they handle AOG, and air export is a real part of their business. Air, ocean, LCL consolidation and project cargo, plus perishables, cosmetics and general cargo. WCA members, and Wade has worked inside WCA and WCA Projects at previous companies.

Where their project work is. Oil and gas out of Texas and Louisiana and the Gulf region, and the manufacturing returning to the US: press machines, plant relocations, wind and renewables. He read our project capability as the useful half of the fit.

What Soumya already knew, which gave the call its weight. She has worked with OCL Korea for years at her previous company and coordinates with Joe, who founded OCL and heads it there; she said their Korean FCL rates are good and their response is fast, and that OCL Korea is, she believes, in the PPL network. Wade confirmed Joe is the man who started it.

The honest answer to the only question that matters. Asked how their GCC to USA business looks today: "not very much right now". They see the opportunity and want a strong partner there, but they need the right people to work with. Soumya's answer was that we can send plenty of enquiries.

Agreed, and this is the working arrangement. Wade sends us their agent quoting desk for general cargo, with him and Ted copied; project cargo goes directly to Wade, because he handles that quoting himself even though their operations team can run it; WhatsApp for day-to-day rather than mail; and we send our branch and pricing contacts and the presentation. What we asked for and have not yet had: their destination charges, their air export desk, their sales and pricing addresses, and what cargo they mostly move into the Gulf.

One exchange worth remembering. Wade asked a sharp operational question, how the Oman land bridge actually works, inbound or under a special permit. Our answer was "we have a company, we have a license to do it". That is not an answer a US forwarder can act on, and the next person asked should have one ready.

What our side said that needs fixing. Our own company name was given as "Welson Services" by the recorder throughout, and the question "did you hear about Welson before?" is how the call opened. Then: "five offices in the UAE... and Ajman as well", which is wrong and makes six; "a bonded warehouse in every single country", corrected in the same breath to Jebel Ali, where even that needs a source; "incorporated 13 years ago", which is twelve; "the United States is our fourth largest country in our directory", unsourced; "FMC registered"; "we are 36 on that list, in small workplaces"; and Soumya's "via Sohar, via Salalah, because we have our own offices", when we have no office in Salalah, together with "there will not be any additional expenses if you compare with other companies".

The first live enquiry went to OCL within half an hour of the call. Soumya wrote at 17:33 Dubai with the thanks and Reshma (pricing6@) in the loop; Reshma sent AIRIMP359: air import, Gilroy, California to Dubai, green tripe packed with dry ice at -18°C, 49 cases on one pallet 54 x 42 x 51 inches, about 1,894 lb, via EK with alternatives, ready for pickup. Wade handed it to OCL's agent rates desk by 19:56 and sent the documents on at 19:59.

What happened next is not visible from here. The quote conversation runs in pricing6@, which is not one of the three mailboxes this record can read. Nothing from globaloclog.com has reached thunga@, globalsales@ or pricing5@ since 9 Sep 19:59 (measured 21 Sep). Ask Reshma whether OCL quoted and whether it moved.

Also agreed in the room: general cargo goes to their agent quoting desk with Wade and Ted copied; project cargo goes straight to Wade, who heads the project vertical for OCL in the US. WhatsApp for day-to-day.

From Wade, on this call:

• "OneCircle Logistics": about four years in the US. OCL started in Korea; sister offices in Korea and Australia. The parent, heard as "B Logistics", based in Vietnam and "well-established all throughout Southeast Asia" (possibly Bee Logistics; check the name). OCL USA says it runs its own book, "domiciled individually".
• No in-house US customs broker. They outsource to partners on the East and West Coasts. IATA certified, FMC registered.
• Air, ocean, LCL consolidation and project. Wade's own specialty is project and AOG. AOG is handled, but there is no 24/7 desk.
• HQ in Los Angeles. Ted is in Atlanta, Wade in Savannah. Plans: an Atlanta office soon, then Chicago, then perhaps Houston or Miami.
• WCA member; Wade has worked WCA and WCA Projects at earlier companies. Project work now: oil and gas out of Texas and Louisiana, reshoring (press machines, plant relocations), wind and renewables.
• GCC to USA today: "not very much right now." They want a strong partner here.
• One of ours, speaking under Soumya's label, knows OCL Korea and its founder Joe from a previous company and called their FCL rates very good.

1. Find out what became of AIRIMP359. Owner: Reshma (pricing6@), asked by Soumya. If OCL never quoted, that is the first thing to know about them.
2. Send Wade the presentation by email, as promised in the room by Nisarg and Soumya. Not visible in the three mailboxes; confirm it went.
3. Exchange WhatsApp numbers. Wade gave his on 5 Sep (+1 404 358 0614).
4. Research OCL properly. The card has said since 8 Sep that none was done. Check our WCA register for them, and the parent's real name.

• "Five offices in the UAE: Dubai, Jebel Ali, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Ras Al Khaimah, and Ajman as well." Six names. Ajman is not ours. The authoritative list is five, without it.
• "Via Sohar, via Salalah, because we have our own offices." Oman is Muscat and Sohar. We have no office in Salalah.
• "A bonded warehouse... in every single country." Corrected in the same breath to Jebel Ali. One warehouse, and whether it is bonded needs a source.
• "United States is our fourth largest country in our directory." Unsourced.
• "Incorporated 13 years ago": our formulation is 12 years incorporated, 25+ in the people.
• "We are 36 on that list, in small workplaces." This one adds the category, which may reconcile the "36" said to ESG and GlobalWise with the "top 100" said to Politrans. Settle it from the certificate.
• "Cheaper to send it to Oman and then to the US... we have a license to do it." Wade asked how; the answer was thin. Source it before it is repeated.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

The one call where the other side answered our actual complaint with a person rather than a promise, and then walked us round their warehouse on camera. Our grievance with US agents is that they take five or six days to come back. Ali's answer: he sits in Pakistan on Middle East hours while Miami works US hours, so a Gulf enquiry gets a reply inside our day. "I can be the bridge between the Middle East and the US." Nobody else we have spoken to has offered that.

Who was on it. Ali Farhad Butt, who covers the Middle East, India and Pakistan for Herco from Pakistan, and Marcio Freitas, their VP Global, who joined partway and gave the tour. For us, Nisarg and Soumya, the latter on her phone because her laptop would not connect.

What they are. Herco Freight Forwarders, headquartered in Miami, Florida. Ali would not give a founding year, only "way too long" and "one of the pioneers in Miami". Thirteen years in WCA, which is longer than we have been incorporated. They already work regularly with several agents in the UAE, moving containers, parcels, cars and complex shipments, and Ali says their Miami team has a strong hold in the Middle East.

The facility, seen live. Marcio carried a camera through it: a bonded facility inside a free trade zone, with the cargo division and security, the air freight floor, which is a big part of what they do, a courier and e-commerce division sending bags to Delhi daily and pallets every day, temperature-controlled storage, a small package area, and the ocean freight section at the back. Every piece of cargo is photographed and measured on receipt. They have offices across the United States but manage everything from Miami, and the licence lets them operate anywhere. His summary: "we can help you with imports all over United States", import and export both, with collection, storage and onward despatch.

One claim of theirs worth holding carefully. Ali says Herco is a member of a network he called "MI Expert", which he described as being like WCA or JCtrans but for aerospace, military and aid cargo, where the member has to be large, authorised in the US and able to produce a lot of documentation. We hold no register with that name in it, and Soumya's question, whether they take care of the approvals themselves, was answered yes. Their verified credentials, from their own mail footer, are FMC-OTI 024958NF and WCA 84443.

What was agreed. We send enquiries to Ali directly and he gets the best fit from Miami; he will email us so the address is on our side too, and he asked to be added to our sales team's list. Anything they have into the Gulf comes to us. A meeting with our directors was offered and accepted, and Marcio asked for our Instagram so he could see the company.

What we said about ourselves that needs fixing. Our age came out three ways in ten minutes: "incorporated 12 years ago", Soumya's "almost 13 years" and "the 12 years or 13 years", and Nisarg's "incorporated around 13 years ago". It is twelve, with the people carrying over twenty-five. "500 shipments every three months" to the US is not in the workbook. "We are using our own FMC license... I think only 15 companies have that facility, so we are one of them" is unsourced, and "FMC registered" is not on our credentials list at all; nor is "One Family", which was read out as one of our networks. Our offices were given correctly here, five UAE, three Saudi, two Oman, one each Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, two India.

What came of it, which is the part no recorder could know. The next day our first live enquiry went to them, AIRIMP359, Gilroy California to Dubai, frozen green tripe on dry ice, 49 cases, about 1,894 lb. Their pricing desk worked it for five days, read the FDA and APHIS papers, and quoted on 14 September: total USD 13,935.31 on Emirates SkyCargo Miami to Dubai, of which USD 9,700 is a five-day reefer pickup, expiring 18 September. No answer from us is visible since. Their agent terms, printed on that quote: 50:50 profit share on cost, and they may decline air shipments making under USD 35 profit.

A warm call that turned into our first live enquiry to them the next day. No cargo or rate came up in the room. What mattered: Ali works Gulf and subcontinent hours from Pakistan while Miami works US hours, and he offered to be the bridge. That answers the complaint we opened with, that our US agents take five or six days to reply. Marcio then walked us round the Miami facility on camera.

After the call (all times Dubai, read from globalsales@ on 21 Sep):

• 8 Sep 20:46, Nisarg's thank-you from thunga@: sales team to be briefed that week, asked for their pricing address and Ali's WhatsApp, sent Marcio our Instagram and LinkedIn.
• 9 Sep 12:18, Ali: pricing enquiries to pricing@hercoinc.com with him copied; WhatsApp +92 339 2163337.
• 9 Sep 17:35, Soumya brought Reshma (pricing6@) in with a live enquiry: AIRIMP359, Gilroy, California to Dubai, green tripe at -18°C on dry ice, 49 cases on one pallet, about 1,894 lb, via EK with alternatives. The same enquiry went to OCL and Seaboard on 9 Sep. Seaboard declined it on 11 Sep, so Herco is the one that quoted.
• 9 to 12 Sep, Herco worked it hard: Aline Santos (pricing) and Alex Hoyos asked about an FDA permit, got the documents, and read them. Alex found it is frozen natural dog food with a USDA APHIS export certificate and a New Jersey Certificate of Free Sale. He asked us to confirm the UAE import permit, the dry-ice quantity, and the route, because the certificate names Newark and the pickup is in Gilroy. Reshma said the shipper would not supply dry ice or let the pallet be reworked on site, and asked for a reefer truck to their warehouse instead.
• 14 Sep 19:10, Aline quoted, quotation 7102325: Emirates SkyCargo Miami to Dubai, perishable, chargeable 859.5 kg. Air freight about US$3,455.81. Origin charges US$10,479.50, of which US$9,700 is a reefer sprinter pickup over five business days. Total US$13,935.31. Rate expiry 18 Sep 2026. She called the rates "only referential", with an airline backlog of up to about two weeks.
• Since 14 Sep: nothing from hercoinc.com, and no answer from us is visible in thunga@, globalsales@ or pricing5@ (measured 21 Sep). Reshma copied globalsales@ on every message she sent in this thread, so a reply would likely show. pricing6@ itself is not synced.

From Ali and Marcio, on this call, and from their own mail:

• Herco Freight Forwarders, Miami. Ali would not give a founding year ("way too long"), only "one of the pioneers in Miami". Their mail footer gives FMC-OTI #024958NF and WCA #84443.
• Bonded and free trade zone facility in Miami, seen live: air freight floor, courier and e-commerce (bags to Delhi daily), temperature-controlled storage, small parcels, ocean freight, photo-and-measure on receipt. Offices across the US, run from Miami. Import and export.
• Ali Farhad Butt is in Pakistan and covers the Middle East, India and Pakistan on those hours. Marcio Freitas is VP Global.
• A second network they claim, heard as "MI Expert", for aerospace, military and aid cargo. Not in any register we hold.
• How they price with agents, from the terms printed on their quote: 50:50 profit share on cost, not a flat fee, and they may decline air shipments making under US$35 profit (LCL or FCL under US$75) unless agreed in writing.
• They say they already work with many UAE agents.

1. Answer quotation 7102325. Herco worked five days on AIRIMP359 and quoted on 14 Sep. No answer from us is visible. Owner: Reshma (pricing6@). Ask her what the customer decided and tell Herco either way. A no with a reason keeps them quoting.
2. Brief the GCC sales team on Herco as our Miami answer. Nisarg wrote on 8 Sep that he would, that week. The first enquiry did go (9 Sep), but a briefing to the sales team is not visible.
3. A meeting between Ali and Naga Prasad. Offered by Soumya, accepted by Ali. Ours to schedule.

Done since the call: our social pages to Marcio (8 Sep); Herco's pricing address and Ali's WhatsApp (9 Sep).

• "Around 500 shipments every three months" to the US (Nisarg). Not in the countrywise workbook and nobody has sourced it.
• "We are using our own FMC license... only 15 companies having that facility" (Soumya). Unsourced. "FMC registered" (Nisarg) is not in our credentials list either.
• "One Family" as one of our networks (Nisarg). Our credentials list is WCA, JCtrans, BAM, PPL Networks, DF Alliance and UAF. One Family is not on it.
• "Incorporated 12 years ago", then "around 13 years ago" in the same call, and Soumya's "almost 13 years". The line to use: incorporated 12 years ago, with people who carry over 25 years of experience.
• "15 offices in GCC, in six countries, and then India." The 15 includes the two in India. Nisarg gave it correctly later: 5 UAE, 3 Saudi, 2 Oman, 1 each in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, 2 India.
• Ranked 36 and number one for parents are sourced: #36 Best Workplaces UAE 2025, #1 Best Workplaces for Parents 2024 (Great Place to Work Middle East).
• Their quote is internally mixed: header validity "2026-03-31", rate expiry 18 Sep 2026, and general conditions saying the rates do not apply to perishables. It is expired either way. Ask for a fresh one before quoting a customer off it.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

Keith opened with the admission that makes this worth following: the Gulf is about 15 per cent of AGS's volume and they have no reliable agent there, so they do not even offer local charges to their clients on that lane. He already receives a lot of Dubai air cargo, food supplies and medical goods, and he put WorldZone on his top list of Middle East partners before the call ended. He and a colleague are the network team, so this is their job rather than a favour.

Who was on it. Keith Lin for Accelerated Global Solutions, from near Long Island, back from the Labor Day weekend; his colleague was in Vienna for their annual meeting. For us, Nisarg and Soumya.

What they are, in his words. Bonded CFS warehouses of their own at JFK, Boston, LAX, Chicago O'Hare, San Francisco and Alaska. The point of them is money: an airline gives one free day and then charges about a dollar per kilo per day, so they transfer the cargo into their own CFS to stop the clock. They always transfer an LTL shipment; on a full load they may skip the transfer to save the client the handling. On ocean they have their own drayage company for port pickup and door delivery. In-house licensed customs brokers, all AGS staff, no third party. Their own box-truck fleet for airline pickups and drop-offs, because a third-party rate would make their quote uncompetitive, with a brokerage and some linehaul trailers for long distance. Competitive air rates out of the US to Dubai, Asia Pacific and Africa. Offices beyond the published list: Shenzhen and Amsterdam.

Their own rate, which must not be read as ours. Asked about the US lane, Keith said "export is about 3.50 to 4 dollars" for high-density cargo. That is AGS's US export air rate per kilo, theirs, not a figure we gave.

Their networks and their read on them. WCA, OLO and JCtrans. OLO is smaller and Asia-focused. They went to GLA this year and found it useful precisely because it is small: at WCA, four days is not enough to meet everyone. He went to the WCA roadshow in Chicago the month before and rated WCA strongest for benefits and protection. He is going to JCtrans Guangzhou in November and hoped to see us there; our CEO was at JCtrans Las Vegas as we spoke.

What he can send us, and when. Right now, DDP and DAP work into the Gulf where he needs our customs and delivery support. Not yet, US export ocean to Jebel Ali: many carriers are refusing it because of the war, and he was explicit that once the market normalises he will come to us with those enquiries, because there is still plenty of cargo wanting to move US to Gulf. He also asked whether we have ocean rates from China to Dubai for his Shenzhen colleague's cargo; Soumya said she would rather recommend one of our trusted WCA partners for that. And when we mentioned Amsterdam, Soumya noted we have a lot of air imports from the Netherlands, which nobody turned into an action.

What he asked of us, and what we answered. A local warehouse in Dubai, yes, Jebel Ali; our own customs broker, yes, in-house; and Soumya added that we can cross-stuff in the Jebel Ali free zone without duty and re-export. He will share our company with his internal teams so their enquiries needing local help come to us, and will pass on sales leads. We offered the same, and also to recommend reliable agents in China and Europe, which is worth something to a network man.

What we asked for and have not had. Their CFS gateways, destination charges, air export desk and sales team addresses. His answer: send everything to his address with their US network mailbox copied, and he would email all of it back. For now his pricing desk is himself and his teammates, passing to the local team once volume moves. Rates by email, WhatsApp or WeChat for day-to-day. The gateways and charges never came.

What we said that needs fixing. "I promise you that you will be getting responses within 24 hours", which is a promise we do not make. "From the Gulf to the US we have 111 [TEU]" and "2.5 tons of air, excluding Kuwait", read off the deck with no period, alongside Soumya's "hundreds of shipments, containers, we are sending to USA on a monthly basis", which has no source and does not sit with the 111. "The US lane is already ours, what is missing is your end", a line worth retiring. "We started land transport all the way from Europe into Turkey and then into Dubai", not on our service list. And "FMC registered", with IATA CASS, ISO and UAF, plus the Great Place to Work marks, 36th of the top 100 and first for parents. Twelve years was said correctly here.

A good call with a clear offer on both sides, and our half is now 12 days overdue. AGS has no reliable Middle East agent, and Keith said the Gulf is about 15% of their volume. We have no reliable US agent. Keith put WorldZone on his top list of Middle East partners. He asked for Jebel Ali to USA ocean rates, and he can send DDP and DAP work into the Gulf at once. US export ocean to Jebel Ali is on hold because carriers are refusing it during the war.

After the call (Dubai times, the three mailboxes, measured 21 Sep):

• 8 Sep 20:50, Nisarg's thank-you, with the deck link and brochure. It said Soumya was putting together our Jebel Ali to USA export ocean rates, checking the GCC sales team for shippers with US destinations, and would come back on the China to Dubai cargo with a partner to recommend. It asked Keith for his CFS gateways with destination charges, the air export desk, and team emails.
• 9 Sep 03:30, Keith: WhatsApp +1 718 502 5919; enquiries to keith.lin@agslogistics.com and us.networks@agslogistics.com. The CFS gateways, destination charges and air export desk did not come.
• Nothing since, in either direction, for 12 days. None of the three things promised in Soumya's name is visible. Note the domain: AGS writes from agslogistics.com, not acceleratedgsi.com.

From Keith Lin (HQ Global Network Expansion Manager), on this call:

• Accelerated Global Solutions, New Hyde Park, New York. Keith and a colleague are the network team. For now the pricing desk is Keith himself; once volume moves it passes to the local team.
• Bonded CFS warehouses at JFK, Boston, LAX, Chicago O'Hare, San Francisco and Alaska. Airlines give one free day, then about $1 per kilo per day, so a CFS transfer saves storage. They always transfer LTL. On FTL they may skip the transfer to save the client cost.
• In-house licensed customs brokers, their own local trucking fleet for airline pickups and drop-offs, a linehaul broker for long distance, and drayage for ocean containers.
• Already moving Dubai-origin air into the US: food supplies and medical goods.
• Offices beyond their published list: Shenzhen (a colleague there has China to Dubai cargo) and Amsterdam.
• Networks: WCA, OLO (Asia-focused), JCtrans. Keith rated GLA as smaller but easier for meeting people; WCA as stronger, with more protection.
• Rates by email. WhatsApp or WeChat for day-to-day.
• JCtrans Guangzhou in November: Keith hopes to meet us there.

1. Jebel Ali to USA export ocean rates to Keith. Soumya said on the call she has them ready. Promised in writing on 8 Sep. Not sent.
2. Shippers in the GCC with US destinations, passed to AGS as leads. Soumya. Not visible.
3. A WCA partner in China for their Shenzhen colleague's China to Dubai ocean cargo. Soumya offered it. Not visible.
4. Netherlands air imports through their Amsterdam office. Soumya said we have a lot. Nobody took an action.
5. Ask again for their CFS gateways, destination charges and air export desk. The one thing of theirs still missing.
6. JCtrans Guangzhou, November: decide whether anyone from us goes (card).

• "Hundreds of shipments, containers, we are sending to USA on a monthly basis" (Soumya). Not sourced. The AGS deck gives 111 TEU and 2.5 tonnes of air from the Gulf to the US, excluding Kuwait, with no period (card).
• "The BAM meeting, which we are attending next month" (Nisarg, on 8 Sep). BAM Rome is 1 to 4 November.
• "We started land transport all the way from Europe into Turkey and then into Dubai" (Nisarg). Not in our credentials or service list. Check before repeating.
• "FMC registered" (Nisarg). Not on our credentials list, the same claim as on the Herco and Anchor calls.
• The 24-hour promise (Nisarg): "you will be getting responses within 24 hours for any inquiries". It binds the desk for AGS, as the card says.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. Only the meeting itself is summarised here; the first 325 lines of the recording are our own team talking before Riham joined and are internal. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

She offered us a rate instead of asking for one, which no other first call has done. Poseidon, Empire's sister NVOCC, has 20ft boxes sitting in Mundra, and she can give us a special rate Mundra to Sokhna for rice, "around 4,000 now" with no currency or terms attached. She also explained why her old house, EGL, has gone slow on us. Riham is the most senior operator we have met on these calls and she was late by half an hour; it was still the call Nisarg rated highest.

Who was on it. Riham Owees, General Manager of Empire Logistics Services, Alexandria. For us, Nisarg, Soumya and Julie. She travels to Dubai often and follows English well, but asked for our introduction in Arabic, which we had ready and sent by mail.

What they are, in her words. Two companies: Empire Logistics and Poseidon Shipping Line. Poseidon is an NVOCC with its own containers. Empire has chilled and frozen cold storage, for food, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, which is rare among the Egyptian agents we have looked at, and they work directly with other forwarders with nobody in between. Her team works 24 hours, seven days, and her closing line was that if anyone there gives us trouble we should call her.

Her picture of the lane, which is the operational meat. Because of the situation, there are no vessels from Sokhna to Jebel Ali. Her cargo now routes via Jeddah, Khor Fakkan and Fujairah, and her customers want the trucking and the customs clearance done at Jebel Ali. We said we clear at Khor Fakkan, Fujairah, Jebel Ali and every UAE port, and Soumya added the useful detail: a Fujairah box gates in at Jebel Ali, so there is no extra haul to Fujairah and the carrier takes it from there.

EGL, which she knows from the inside. Soumya raised EGL, whom we have worked with and who have become slow to reply. Riham's answer: she spent 23 years at EGL and more than 20 of them as acting GM, and knows the El Qadi family by name. Her read on why they have gone quiet on forwarding: they are now more interested in their NVOCC side and are looking for another principal. That is worth more than anything else said on the call.

The membership detail nobody should flatten. Soumya asked whether she is in WCA. Riham asked back which WCA, "or Infinity or what". We are in WCA Interglobal; she is in WCA Infinity. Two different WCA families, not the same membership, and our own research had her down as AFAM, which she never claimed; what we verified of hers is EIFFA no. 663.

Air. She has some air shipments out of Dubai. Soumya told her Julie handles air and asked her to send the enquiry with a target rate; Riham agreed that giving us a target rate is the better way.

What we asked for. Her destination charges at Alexandria port, her volume into the Gulf, how much space her cold storage holds, and her pricing addresses. She said she would add her pricing team.

Agreed. She creates a WhatsApp group with her pricing team in it, since she prefers it to mail and so do we; she sends her number and her company presentation by mail; a second meeting with our directors was offered and accepted. We send our enquiries from the Gulf into Egypt, where we already have regular door-delivery requirements.

What our side said that needs fixing. "All the seven countries of GCC", where there are six and the seventh is India. "We have Ajman as well. I will write that down next time", which is wrong and should not have been written down at all: we have five UAE offices and Ajman is not one. "We have already 40 TEUs only from Saudi Arabia to Egypt", with no period attached. "How much we are moving by sea and by freight over the last few months, across 43 countries", which is our whole book and must never go in front of a partner. "Thousands of containers we are exporting and importing", unsourced. And "FMC registered", with IATA, CASS and ISO, plus Best Workplaces 36th and first for parents.

The call nearly did not happen (Riham was over half an hour late), then it was the one Nisarg rated highest. She is a senior operator: 23 years at EGL, acting GM there for more than 20. Empire has a sister NVOCC, Poseidon Shipping Line, with its own containers. She offered us a rate rather than asking for one: Poseidon has 20ft boxes in Mundra, and she can give us a special rate into Sokhna for rice ("around 4,000 now", her figure, no currency or terms stated). She wants air enquiries out of Dubai to go to Julie with a target rate. A WhatsApp group, "Egypt X GCC Network", was set up after the call.

After the call (Dubai times, the three mailboxes, measured 21 Sep):

• 8 Sep 20:46, Nisarg's thank-you in English and Arabic. It asked five things about the Mundra offer (rate, whose equipment, what it covers, how many boxes, rice only or not). It also asked for Alexandria destination charges, their pricing emails and Riham's presentation, and said we would start sharing our enquiries "from this week".
• 9 Sep 18:10, Riham passed it to Mohamed Haron at Poseidon (mohamed.haron@poseidon-line.com): "Please assist our agent with Poseidon's rates for import containers."
• Nothing since, from Empire or Poseidon, for 12 days. No Mundra rate, no destination charges, no pricing emails, no presentation. From us, no enquiry to Empire is visible in the mail either. The WhatsApp group is not visible from here.

From Riham, on this call, and from our research (card):

• Empire Logistics Services, Alexandria, founded 2018. Ocean FCL and LCL, road, air, warehousing, cold storage (food, pharma, chemicals, chilled and frozen), container depot, own customs team, own trucks.
• Sister company Poseidon Shipping Line, an NVOCC with its own containers, 20ft in stock in Mundra.
• Riham Owees, General Manager. 23 years at EGL and knows the El Qadi family. Her read on why EGL has gone slow with us: they are now more interested in their NVOCC side than in forwarding.
• Membership: our research verified EIFFA no. 663 only. On the call she said she is in "WCA Infinity". Not yet checked against the register.
• The Gulf lane today, her words: no vessels from Sokhna to Jebel Ali, so cargo goes via Jeddah, Khor Fakkan and Fujairah. Her customers want clearance and trucking at Jebel Ali, which we do. Soumya added that Fujairah boxes gate in at Jebel Ali.
• She has some air shipments out of Dubai. Her team works 24/7.

1. Send Empire our first Gulf to Egypt enquiry. We told her "from this week" on 8 Sep. None is visible in the mail. Our side said on the call there are regular DDP door-to-door moves into Egypt, mainly from Saudi.
2. Chase the Mundra to Sokhna rate from Poseidon (Mohamed Haron), then take it to our India offices to find rice cargo. It is their offer; we owe nothing on price.
3. A second meeting with Naga Prasad. Offered by Soumya, accepted by Riham. Not scheduled.
4. Still owed by Empire: Alexandria destination charges, pricing emails, their Gulf volumes, cold-storage capacity, and Riham's presentation.
5. Settle the UAE question. Julie first said Empire has offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, then that "Empire Logistics Storage and Shipping" is a different company. Empire is empire-logistics.co.

• "40 TEUs only from Saudi Arabia to Egypt" (Nisarg). No period attached, and the workbook states none (card).
• "Thousands of containers we are exporting and importing" (Soumya). Not sourced. The deck's whole Gulf book is about 3,900 TEU, with no period.
• "We have Ajman as well" (Nisarg). Wrong. Five in the UAE: Dubai, Jebel Ali, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah.
• "All the seven countries of GCC" (Nisarg). Six GCC countries plus India make the seven.
• "FMC registered" and "land transport from Europe to the Gulf" (Nisarg). Neither is on our credentials or service list, the same as on the AGS call.
• "You are AFAM member" (Nisarg). What we verified is EIFFA no. 663.
• Riham's "WCA Infinity": check the register before anyone repeats it.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's labels are wrong for much of this call; every attribution below was worked out from what only one side could have said. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

A warm, honest call in which Anchor told us not to expect much volume from them, and we should hear it. Their biggest trade lane is Europe. What they do send to the Gulf is mostly nominated cargo, and they have no customer shipping to us month after month, so Nelli would not promise how often they would come to us for a rate. What they offered instead is the thing our other US agents fail at: speed. 24 hours a day, a team awake overnight, and about fifteen minutes to answer on air. The flow, for now, is ours to start.

Who was on it. Nelli Grzes for Anchor Express. For us, Nisarg and a second voice, Soumya. The recorder heard two people and gave them one name each, then put half of each person's words under the other's label: the WhatsApp number "ending in 9365" filed under Nisarg is Nelli's own cell, +1 630 888 9365.

What they are. Anchor Express, since 2012, owner and operator Jacob Legesa, still in the day-to-day. One office, in Bensenville, Illinois, forty-five minutes from downtown Chicago and fifteen from O'Hare, but they work the whole country, East Coast, West Coast and Dallas. About 60 per cent air to 40 per cent ocean, because time-critical cargo is the specialty. Pharma, dangerous goods, personal effects. Inland drayage and trucking, bonded drivers and a bonded warehouse for temporary entry, ATA carnets, and an in-house customs broker, so A to Z in one house. They hold FMC and IATA. Every cell number in their signatures is on WhatsApp.

How they want to be worked, and it is the best part of the call. Not through Nelli: through the desks. Each has its own group address, air export, air import, AOG, next flight out, hand carry, trucking, ocean export, ocean import, projects and sales, all marked 24/7, so nobody waits for a middleman to pass an enquiry on. She sent the list unprompted the same evening. When they send us an enquiry they want a target rate and to be told whether price or speed decides it, and on general stackable air cargo they can quote almost at once, by text if we like.

Networks. They are not going to JCtrans, and there is clearly a sore point there. They are going to the WCA specialty conference at the end of September, "I think it's in Bangkok", with Jacob and Dima, their air import manager. Our side said we would fix a meeting there, which we should only offer once we know who of ours is going. Nelli had not heard of BAM and asked us to write it in the chat; our description of it, a subsidiary of Airline Network and African Logistics Network, is unclear and should be checked before it is said again. She noted they do little to Africa.

What we asked for. Four things: their strongest US gateways, their import charges, their rates, and pricing team to pricing team, plus who answers a rate request on each side. We got the gateway desks and the promise of the profile; the charges and rates are still to come.

What we said about ourselves that needs care. Fifteen offices and five in the UAE, two hundred people across the GCC with a hundred in the UAE, incorporated twelve years ago, which was said correctly here. Then the ones to fix: "out of that we have 50 salespeople, so you will have a quote within 24 hours", which is a promise we do not make; "hundreds of containers going to USA and also coming from USA", where the deck says 80 TEU out and 116 TEU in with no period; "2,000 inquiries just from Saudi Arabia, from 700", which is all of Saudi's enquiries, April to August, not a US figure; "both of our owners, Naga Prasad Thunga and Manu Nair, have been in freight forwarding for 30 years", where the approved line is over twenty-five; and "we have our own FMC filing", which is not on our credentials list.

Agreed. Anchor sends their company profile and adds their sales and import teams, who start sending enquiries and nominations. We share their details with our air export and air import managers, since this will mostly be air, and send our desk addresses in the follow-up. WhatsApp for anything quick. Nothing was quoted and no cargo moved in the room, and eighteen days later no enquiry had gone to them from our side.

A friendly, honest call with no cargo in it, and nothing has moved since. Nelli gave a clear picture of Anchor and one plain warning: their biggest lane is Europe. What they send into the Gulf is mostly nominated cargo, and they have no customer who ships to us every month, so they cannot say how often enquiries will come. The flow, for now, is ours to start.

After the call (Dubai times, the three mailboxes, measured 21 Sep):

• 2 Sep 19:19, Nelli sent their department group addresses, unprompted.
• 3 Sep 08:33, Nisarg sent the company profile, the brochure and the Anchor presentation link (globalsales.worldzoneglobal.com/partners/anchor/).
• 3 Sep 20:21, Nelli: "Looking forward to building a close, long-lasting, and mutually beneficial partnership."
• Nothing since, in either direction, for 18 days. No enquiry has gone to Anchor. AIRIMP359, an air shipment out of California, went to OCL, Herco and Seaboard on 9 Sep, but not to Anchor.

From Nelli, on this call and in her signature:

• Anchor Express, since 2012. Owner and operator Jacob (surname heard as "Legesa", unconfirmed), still in the day-to-day.
• One office: Bensenville, Illinois, 15 minutes from Chicago O'Hare (ORD). Works anywhere in the US: East Coast, West Coast, Dallas.
• About 60% air, 40% ocean. Specialty is time-critical cargo. 24/7, with an overnight team. On air, about 15 minutes to reply.
• Pharma, dangerous goods, personal effects. Inland drayage and trucking, bonded drivers and a bonded warehouse, ATA carnets. In-house customs broker.
• Group addresses, 24/7 marked: airexport@, airimport@, obc@ (hand carry), aog@, nfo@ (next flight out), trk@ (trucking). Also oceanexport@, oceanimport@, projects@, sales@, all @anchorexpressinc.com. They want enquiries sent to the desk, not to Nelli.
• They use WhatsApp; every cell number in their signatures is on WhatsApp. Nelli: +1 630 888 9365.
• Not going to the JCtrans event, and there is a sore point with JCtrans (the card's care note). Going to the WCA conference at the end of September, "I think it's in Bangkok, if I'm not mistaken": Jacob and Dima, their air import manager.
• When they send an enquiry, they want target rates and whether it is price or speed that matters.

1. Send Anchor a first enquiry. On the call we said the air export and air import managers would get Anchor's details, and the sales team would start sending enquiries. Neither is visible, and no enquiry has gone in 18 days. Anchor is 24/7 on air, AOG and next flight out, so time-critical air into the US is the natural first test.
2. The WCA conference at the end of September. Our side said "we will fix a meeting with the company there". Who from WorldZone is going, if anyone, is not recorded. Settle that before offering a meeting.
3. No follow-up draft is due. The last word was Nelli's, warm, on 3 Sep. The next mail should carry an enquiry, not a check-in.

• "Both of our owners... have been in freight forwarding for 30 years" (Nisarg, about Naga Prasad and Manu Nair). Director-approved wording is "over 25 years of experience". 30 is not sourced.
• "Hundreds of containers going to USA and also coming from USA" (our second voice). The Anchor deck's own figures are 80 TEU Gulf to USA and 116 TEU USA to Gulf, from our book, with no reporting period.
• "We have our own FMC filing" (our second voice). Not in our credentials list, same as the FMC claim on the Herco call.
• BAM described as "a subsidiary of Airline Network" and "African Logistics Network". Unclear, possibly garbled. Check what By All Means is before describing it to anyone.
• "Naga Prasad attending the meeting in Rome, which is via Teams": unclear. The Rome BAM meeting is in November.
• Sourced and fine: 15 offices in 7 countries, incorporated 12 years ago with 25+ years of experience, 200 people across the GCC and 100 in the UAE, about 50 in sales, a quote within 24 hours. The deck's Saudi figures: 2,010 enquiries from 730 customers, Apr to Aug 2026 (Nisarg said "2,000... from 700").

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

Jose was the most generous talker and the most exacting buyer we have met: he spent most of the call explaining his group, then told us he has a strict screening process, that he can work with only four of our offices, and that our WCA membership expires in November. He also told us, plainly, that he has almost nothing to quote today: "I don't have any shipments right now to quote. I did have three last month." What he is buying is speed, so that he can go and build the market he cannot currently serve.

Who was on it. Jose Lopez for Seaboard Solutions in Miami. For us, Nisarg, with Soumya and Julie sharing one microphone and one label, so no line from our side can be pinned to either of them.

What they are, in his words. Seaboard Solutions is the logistics arm of Seaboard Corporation, a publicly traded US company he described as "a $15 billion a year" business whose core is food production, beef, pork, seafood, with its own sugar and rice mills. Butterball and Hormel are group brands. The sister company is Seaboard Marine, a regional carrier with about 40 vessels and 26 or 27 ports in the US Gulf, Latin America and the Caribbean, the oldest tenant at the Port of Miami, operating its own private, non-union terminals, which is why they kept working through the East Coast port strike. Miami to Honduras in four days, where the nearest global carrier, CMA, takes thirteen, with no rolled sailings and no blanked capacity.

Seaboard Solutions itself. Two US corporations run as one company, separating the forwarding from the NVO. Incorporated about 20 to 24 years ago. A neutral agent: they book Crowley, CMA and Maersk as readily as their own sister line. Licensed in-house customs brokerage, specialised in food. CTPAT certified with their own dedicated customs officer, priority release and priority inspection. Food logistics is the strength: frozen, refrigerated and cool warehousing, licensed for USDA and FDA inspection. They are the exclusive agent for Walmart in Central America, handling the US suppliers for the Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico stores through Miami, and they run an 807-style loop for a car-cable maker, raw goods out to a Honduran factory and finished harnesses back to Detroit. Their own in-house programming team connects by EDI or custom API, and Jose is a systems engineer by background.

Their footprint. Miami: 192,000 sq ft, 96 dock doors, three temperature zones, and a bonded CFS with 11 rail-side doors, so heavy cargo transloads straight from the box onto the railroad without going to a rail ramp. Also Newark, Los Angeles, Savannah, and Houston, where the warehouse sits inside the port terminal, so a container consigned to them comes off the vessel and into the shed without touching a road. Their own office in the Honduras free trade zone, where Gildan, Fruit of the Loom and Hanes manufacture. No Boston office: it is served from Newark, eight to ten hours by road, except overweight cargo, where crossing three state lines means a permit and a cost in each, so heavy boxes should land in Boston itself.

The constraint that binds us, and it is the most important thing on the call. Jose verified our WCA membership before the call and found we are WCA members in only four of our offices. Because of company policy he can work only with those four, and he saw that the membership expires in November; we said we would renew. He is frustrated by it himself, having come from a background of three or four networks, but management will not join any network besides WCA, and they joined WCA recently precisely to develop markets outside Latin America. On top of that, he has his own strict agent screening, and the group's size means the onboarding requirements are heavy: "as long as we can slowly develop this until we're fully onboarded".

What he asked for and what he promised. Send the presentation and the company profile, and he introduces us to his pricing team at once, because he does sales only and the pricing desk is who we will actually work with. We offered to introduce our separate import and export pricing teams in return.

What we said that needs fixing. The 24-hour promise, made twice: "you'll be getting responses within a day, within 24 hours, like you said. So we will match the US response time." He had just said the opposite, that a quote delivered in 24 hours is probably last in. "2,000 inquiries just from April to August to the US" from Saudi Arabia: the deck's 2,010 is all Saudi enquiries, April to August 2026, from 730 customers, and Saudi's US lane is 90 TEU. "The United States is our largest export lane" with no period. "Vessel chartering, which we are getting into now" sits oddly beside how we sell chartering elsewhere. And our networks were listed as "PPL, WFN, BAM, JCTAMS", where JCTAMS is JCtrans and WFN needs checking against the register.

What came of it, which no recorder could know. Onboarding started on 4 September with Castell Chavez, who asked for the Agent Profile Form and Credit Application; we took thirteen days to return it, and the OFAC screening is still open. Jose declined our first enquiry, AIRIMP359, on 11 September for want of an air solution and asked instead for customs brokerage, ocean, warehousing and inland work. Then on 19 September they sent us a customer bid: rates and origin costs for final destination Mexico, our region India, 304 TEU a year of which 63 are buyer's consoles, four parts, deadline 21 September at 20:00 Dubai, with booking and consolidation first if time was short.

Onboarding is under way, and Seaboard has already sent us a customer bid. Jose is plain about the problem: he has almost no volume to the Middle East yet, and WCA agents take five or six days to quote him. He will build a market only with a partner who answers fast. We promised 24 hours, and Nisarg put it in writing the next day ("you have my word on the 24 hours").

After the call (Dubai times, the three mailboxes, measured 21 Sep):

• 3 Sep 08:33, Nisarg sent the presentation link and the company profile.
• 4 Sep, Jose started Seaboard's screening and vetting and brought in Castell Chavez (NVOCC manager, SSI Ocean Services). Castell asked for their Agent Profile Form and Credit Application, plus a company presentation.
• 9 Sep 17:38, Soumya brought in Reshma with AIRIMP359 (air, Gilroy, California to Dubai, frozen green tripe on dry ice). Castell pointed us to sales@seaboardsolutions.com. Diego Elicegui (inside sales) took it on.
• 11 Sep 22:09, Jose declined AIRIMP359: no suitable air freight solution. In the same mail he asked for customs brokerage, ocean, warehousing and inland work instead.
• 17 Sep 13:43, Soumya returned the onboarding form, 13 days after Castell asked. Castell, 17 Sep 20:11: their compliance team will be in touch to finish the OFAC screening and any other requirements.
• 19 Sep 02:20, Seaboard sent us a customer bid. "RFP for Rates & Origin Costs, final destination Mexico", our region India (RFP-5343-04_India.xlsx), 304 TEU a year, 63 of them buyer's consoles. Four parts: booking service, buyer's consolidation, FCL, LCL. Deadline Monday 21 Sep, 12:00 noon US Eastern, which is 20:00 Dubai. If time is short, Jose wants booking and consolidation first. To globalsales@ and pricing5@, Nisarg copied.
• 21 Sep 09:15, Soumya acknowledged it (AGT0983): "working on this". No rates are visible yet (21 Sep, 13:50 Dubai). The reply desk (PILOT) owns it.

From Jose, on this call:

• Seaboard Solutions, the logistics arm of Seaboard Corporation (NYSE; Jose called it "a $15 billion a year" company). Its sister company is Seaboard Marine, a regional carrier: about 40 vessels, 26 or 27 ports, the US Gulf, Latin America and the Caribbean. Seaboard Marine is the oldest tenant at the Port of Miami, has its own non-union private terminal, and kept working through the East Coast port strike.
• NVOCC and forwarder (two US corporations, one company), licensed customs broker, and neutral: they book Crowley, CMA and Maersk as well. Incorporated "about 20, 24 years ago".
• Food logistics is their strength. Frozen, chilled and cool warehouse, licensed for USDA and FDA inspections, CTPAT certified with priority release. Jose says they are the exclusive agent for Walmart in Central America. They also run an "807" loop for a car-cable maker: US to Honduras for assembly, back to Detroit.
• Miami: 192,000 sq ft, 96 dock doors, three temperature zones, a bonded CFS with 11 rail-side doors. Also New Jersey (Newark), Los Angeles, Savannah, and Houston, inside the port terminal. Own office in the Honduras free zone. An in-house programming team that connects by EDI or API.
• WCA only, and new to it. Management will not join any other network.
• A limit that binds us. Jose checked the WCA register before the call. He said we are WCA members in only four of our offices, that he can work only with those four, and that our membership expires in November. Soumya said we will renew.
• He researched us on Descartes and saw we work with Interport; he offered customs brokerage as the easiest place to start.
• Boston: no office, served from Newark (8 to 10 hours by road), except overweight cargo, which should land in Boston.
• Jose has 25 years in the trade, starting at 14 at EconoCaribe (now ECU Worldwide). He offered an early-morning call with our MDs.

1. The Mexico RFP, due 20:00 Dubai today (21 Sep). Booking service and buyer's consolidation first if the rest cannot be ready. Owner: Soumya and Julie (pricing5@), on the reply desk.
2. Finish onboarding. OFAC screening and compliance are with Seaboard since 17 Sep. When they write, answer the same day.
3. Which four offices are on the WCA register, and who renews in November. Seaboard can only work with those four. Check the register, not memory.
4. A call between Jose and our MDs. Soumya offered it on the call and Jose accepted. Not scheduled.
5. Customs brokerage, ocean, warehousing and inland: Jose asked for these on 11 Sep. Nothing of that kind has gone to them yet.

• "2,000 inquiries just from April to August, to the US" (Nisarg, on Saudi Arabia). The deck's 2,010 is all Saudi enquiries, Apr to Aug 2026, from 730 customers. Saudi's US lane is 90 TEU.
• "We are sending almost hundreds of containers in a month" (the shared label). The deck gives 196 TEU on the whole US lane (80 out, 116 in) and about 3,900 TEU for the whole Gulf book, with no reporting period.
• "Winlines... doing really well in Oman" (Nisarg). Our own note has Winlines as an NVOCC in Malaysia. Check before repeating.
• "One of the fastest growing companies" (Nisarg) and "now we started doing the Amazon delivery" (the shared label). Neither is sourced.
• Jose's claims, his to stand behind: $15 billion a year, and "Butterball is one of our brands, Hormel one of our brands". Hormel Foods is, as far as we know, its own listed company. Do not repeat either as ours.
• Our own mail slips on this thread: Reshma's 10 Sep mail opened "Dear Himanshu", and no one at Seaboard has that name. Soumya's 17 Sep mail opened "Dear Lopes".

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. Part 2 of the call has its own. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

Our first meeting with a large northern Vietnamese group, and the most useful thing in it is what Gemmy told us we cannot have. There is no direct LCL console from Vietnam to the Middle East, hers or anyone's: it transits Singapore or Hong Kong, and she said plainly that few companies in Vietnam can open a direct box because the LCL volume out of Vietnam is not there. A direct console is possible only if the FOB volume justifies it. That is a straight answer from someone who could have sold us a story.

Who was on it. Gemmy for Khai Minh Groups in Hanoi, with Ms Hien, their vice director. Nisarg alone for us: the colleague from sales who was due to join had work at the last minute. He introduced himself as the director's son and, in the second half, said he is nineteen and learning the business as he goes.

What they are. Khai Minh Groups, established 2008, nearly twenty years in logistics. Four branches: Hanoi, which is head office, Ho Chi Minh City, Haiphong and Da Nang. More than 500 staff. Eight core services: LCL, FCL, AOG, air freight, cross-border trucking, packing and moving, warehousing and trucking. They are a sea freight master consolidator with more than twenty direct consoles out of Vietnam, with their own FCL contracts with the well-known carriers, and they quote both import and export. The only member in Vietnam of the AOG Freight 24/7 Network, since 2014. Cross-border trucking from China and Vietnam into Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia.

What we showed them. The pitch, which they already had in Vietnamese. Twelve years, fifteen offices across seven countries, the full service list, the Jebel Ali warehouse, chartering, AOG round the clock, and the Great Place to Work marks: first for parents, fifth for millennials, thirty-sixth overall in the small-organisation category. Our Vietnam flow as the deck shows it, 44 to Haiphong, air to Hanoi, some to the south, which Nisarg read out as shipments and the deck counts as enquiries.

What they want from us. Gemmy summarised it herself at the end of part 2: rates and charges on three lanes, FCL from the Middle East to Haiphong, ocean from Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh to Jebel Ali, Jeddah and Doha, and air from the Middle East to Noi Bai in Hanoi. They are the ones quoting; we send the enquiries. Ms Hien is their key contact and they will send her number and address.

What we owe. Our sales team's and pricing team's addresses, which Nisarg promised on the call and again in writing on 31 August and which have never gone. The name of the Vietnamese agent who handled our cargo before, which Gemmy asked twice and nobody has answered. The company profile and website, which did go the same afternoon.

One more thing worth carrying. Gemmy asked, twice, who handled our Vietnam cargo before us. It is a reasonable question from a prospective agent and we could not answer it in the room. The team knows; it has simply never been written down.

A friendly first meeting, and the first overseas partner meeting that came purely from our own outreach. We still owe KMG what we promised them. Nisarg ran it alone, since the sales colleague due to join had work at the last minute. Gemmy and Ms Hien (Vice Director) presented KMG and then set out, in their own words, what we want quoted: FCL from the Middle East to Haiphong; ocean from Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh to Jebel Ali, Jeddah and Doha; and air from the Middle East to Noi Bai, Hanoi. Nisarg agreed. Ms Hien is their key contact.

After the call (Dubai times, the three mailboxes, measured 21 Sep):

• 28 Aug 12:30, Gemmy (ngoclb@kmg.vn) sent a summary the same afternoon: "We are very interested in developing this cooperation with World Zone... All you need, we can do!" Enquiries to inquiry@kmg.vn.
• 31 Aug 07:29, Nisarg replied in English and Vietnamese with the brochure, the corrected sales figure (about 26 in sales in the UAE office, about 200 people across the GCC), and: "Soumya will send you the email addresses of our sales team very soon."
• Nothing since, in either direction, for 21 days. The sales-team addresses never went. The follow-up is ours.

From Gemmy and Ms Hien, on this call:

• Khai Minh Groups (KMG), established 2008. HQ in Hanoi, branches in Ho Chi Minh City, Haiphong and Da Nang. More than 500 staff.
• Eight core services: LCL, FCL, AOG, air, cross-border trucking, packing and moving, warehousing, trucking. Sea freight master consolidator with "more than 20" direct consoles out of Vietnam. Their own FCL contracts with the major carriers.
• No direct service from Vietnam to the Middle East. LCL goes via Singapore or Hong Kong, which Gemmy called the best option. A direct console is possible if the FOB volume is there. She was frank that few companies in Vietnam can run one.
• The only member in Vietnam of the AOG Freight 24/7 Network, since 2014.
• Cross-border trucking from China and Vietnam to Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia.
• They raised it themselves: ocean service from Vietnam to the Middle East was suspended because of the war. Nisarg agreed that the lane was running on air.

1. Send KMG our sales team's addresses. Promised on the call and in writing on 31 Aug ("Soumya will send..."). Not sent, 21 days on. This is the follow-up, and it should carry the addresses themselves.
2. Tell KMG which Vietnamese agent handled our cargo before. Gemmy asked twice. Nisarg said the team would know and he would text after the call. Not in the mail. Ask the team first.
3. The "10 to 12 enquiries a month" reading of our deck. That figure is the whole Vietnam flow, not the air lane alone. Still uncorrected (card).
4. Send KMG a first enquiry on any of the three lanes they set out.

• "We have seven offices in UAE... Ajman and Umm al-Quwain... offices in all states in UAE" (Nisarg, part 2). Wrong. We have five in the UAE: Dubai, Jebel Ali, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah. No Ajman, no Umm Al Quwain.
• "Around 50 [in sales]... a total of 100 employees in Dubai" (Nisarg, part 2, "I'm not sure"). Corrected in writing on 31 Aug: about 26 in sales out of about 100 in the UAE; about 50 in sales and about 200 people across the GCC.
• The BAM meeting in Rome "next month" (part 1) and "in November" (part 2). November is right.
• "A total of 44 shipments we have sent to Vietnam already" (Nisarg, from the deck). Say "enquiries", not "shipments", for the Vietnam flow (card).
• Sourced and fine: 12 years, 15 offices in 7 countries; Great Place to Work #1 for parents, #5 for millennials, #36 overall; WCA, JCtrans, UAF, IATA CASS, ISO 9001.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The summary of the whole call is in part 1, 2026-08-28-kmg-gemmy.md; this covers what only this half contains. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

The second half is where the business got named. Gemmy closed by reading back exactly what she understood we wanted, and it is the clearest statement of the lanes in either file: charges for FCL from the Middle East to Haiphong; ocean freight from Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh to Jebel Ali, Jeddah and Doha; and air freight from the Middle East to Noi Bai, Hanoi. Those are rates they will give us. Nisarg agreed to each one.

Their last pieces. Cross-border trucking from China and Vietnam into Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, run by their own team. Their certificates and the networks they belong to, shown on screen. And the question they asked us first: which networks are we in.

The war, raised by them. Gemmy said she understood that some service from Vietnam to the Middle East is suspended because of the war. We agreed, and said ocean is suspended and we are living on air freight. Nisarg then added, as a question, that the Strait of Hormuz is closed. That is not ours to say and it should not be repeated; the suspension was hers and the Hormuz line was ours.

The two questions we could not answer. Which Vietnamese agent handled our cargo before, asked twice, with "I'm not sure, but the team will know, so I'll text you after this". And our own headcount: about fifty in sales out of a hundred in Dubai, given with "I'm not sure", and corrected in writing three days later to about twenty-six in sales in the UAE and about fifty across the GCC. He also said seven UAE offices including Ajman and Umm Al Quwain, which is wrong: five, and neither of those two.

Their shipping terms question, answered. They asked whether our cargo into Vietnam moves CIF or DDP. We do FOB, CIF and DDP, through our own Gulf offices and agents, so the term follows the origin.

Agreed, and still owed by us. Ms Hien is KMG's key contact; they send her phone number and email, we send our sales and pricing team addresses, and both sides work direct from there. The addresses have never gone. Nisarg said at the end that this was his second partner meeting and it had gone well.

Outcome, what KMG is, what we owe them, and what to check before repeating are all written under part 1: 2026-08-28-kmg-gemmy.md. The points from this half: KMG's networks and certificates, the Vietnam to Middle East ocean suspension, the three lanes KMG will quote, their question about our previous Vietnam agent, and our sales headcount (corrected in writing on 31 Aug).

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. This is an internal call, not a partner meeting. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

Nisarg and Soumya, the day before the KMG call, and it turned into two decisions: how to pitch Vietnam, and how to approach Morocco. It is the first time the local-language letter was argued out, and it is why Morocco was worked by mail before anyone asked for a call.

On Vietnam, the angle. Nisarg had built the HTML pitch that morning for the next day's meeting. Soumya's steer was to point it at their imports, not our exports: show what we already move into Vietnam for our own customers, so the agent sees a partner who feeds them import shipments rather than one asking for favours. She added that Saudi carries significant imports too and that she still had to study the other branches; Nisarg had the Vietnam figures from Balu.

On Morocco, two agents from Soumya's own book. "Kaim and Group", as the recording has it, with five to seven slots a month and about ten containers, who were not replying to anything. Her read on why: they are not comfortable in English, they stay with whoever they already trust, and they will not switch for a letter. "Global Cargo Leader", with regular air export shipments, who do speak English, so she could simply ring them. She wanted three Zoom meetings set up and said she would call both herself.

The decision that mattered. Nisarg's answer to the language problem was to write the pitch in their own language and email it first, then ask for the Zoom once they can read who we are. Soumya agreed that it was the better way to earn the trust. That is the origin of the local-language letter rule.

One piece of context from Soumya worth keeping. Since the pandemic, WCA runs its matchmaking online rather than in person, so the volume of messages is what produces meetings: you send a hundred or two to get a handful back. It is the plainest statement of why the outreach has to be big to work.

Not part of the meeting. The last lines of the recording are room chatter in Malayalam with nothing to do with the work. They are not quoted here and should not be filed anywhere else.

No agent was on this call, so nothing was agreed with anyone outside. What came out of it is a method, and it is Nisarg's: for a Moroccan agent, the written pitch goes first and the call comes after, because a page they can read at their own pace earns trust that a cold Zoom does not. His words: "I can make a pitch which they can read also... Once they start trusting us, they'll give those 7 to 10 containers to Worldzone itself."

Soumya's read, in her words, was that these customers stay with whoever they already trust and that English is a barrier for one of the two. Her phrasing on the recording is blunt and is internal only. It must never reach outward copy, a letter or a deck. What is usable from it is the operating fact: one of the two agents handles English comfortably and can simply be called; the other should be written to first.

That method is now how Morocco is run, and the Morocco campaign has since been completed.

Written 5 October, five and a half weeks after the call. Each item is marked with where it stands today.

1. Name the agent behind the 5-to-7 slots. The name is garbled on the recording. Until it is resolved from Soumya's own records, the figure has no owner. Owner: Soumya. Still open.
2. Global Cargo Leader, regular air export, English-speaking, call them. Soumya said she would. Owner: Soumya. No record of the call since.
3. The three Zoom meetings Soumya asked for. Owner: Nisarg. Not traceable to any card in partner-meetings.js.
4. Kaim and Group, who were not replying. Both a WhatsApp message (Nisarg) and a phone call (Soumya) were proposed on the call. Still open.
5. The Saudi import figures Nisarg was going to pull from Balu for the pitch. Open at the time of the call; the Gulf lane figures have since been built from the countrywise workbook, which supersedes it.

• The agent name behind "5 to 7 slots, almost 10 containers" is unreadable on the recording. It is a gap, not a number to quote.
• Those volumes are from Soumya's previous company, not from our books. They are an indication of what the agent moves, nothing more.
• Soumya dates the pandemic to 2019 on the call. It does not matter to the decision, but the year is wrong in the verbatim.
• There is no "What they are" section on this record because no partner was present. Everything about KMG is in 2026-08-28-kmg-gemmy.md, the call this one was preparing for.

Ours, written from the whole transcript on 5 Oct 2026. The recorder's version is listed and corrected in the next section.

The first partner meeting WorldZone ever held from its own outreach, and the recording holds almost none of it. Terry's audio failed again and again, the screen share of the pitch never landed, and he finally left the Teams call and rang Nisarg on WhatsApp, which was not recorded. What is on the tape is the introduction and the offer; everything that followed is in the mail.

Who was on it. Terry Ngo for Viet Hoa Logistics Connection in Ho Chi Minh City. For us, Soumya, who opened and introduced the three of us, with Julie present and Nisarg presenting.

What was actually said. Soumya introduced the global sales desk and told him we were impressed by his company. Nisarg put the offer in one sentence, the one thing this call did achieve: exports and imports both ways, their cargo to the Gulf handled by us, our Gulf cargo to Vietnam handled by them, as an alliance rather than a one-way nomination. Soumya asked twice whether they have exporters shipping out of Dubai and the wider GCC. The answer never came through the line.

One line that must not be repeated or acted on. Asked whether he has shipments from Vietnam to Dubai or Saudi Arabia, Terry's reply as recorded is "going to Dubai on behalf of Iran", followed by "we have rations" and "ration size", and later "we have Korean and Korean". It sits in a stretch of plainly garbled audio, so it may well be a mishearing. If it is not, it is a sanctions question. Nothing moves from Viet Hoa until the cargo, the consignee and the consignee's country are in writing and through the gate.

What we know about them, all of it from his own mail rather than this call. Viet Hoa Logistics Connection, part of Viet Hoa Holding Corp, Ho Chi Minh City. Terry Ngo is in overseas and inland sales. Main port Ho Chi Minh, branches in Haiphong and Da Nang. No dangerous goods and no cargo with batteries: general cargo only. They answer fast, within about two hours each time, and prefer mail to live calls. WhatsApp +84 866 750 677.

What happened after, and what we owe. The same day he re-sent their profile and asked which services we want him to handle from Vietnam. The next morning Nisarg replied in Vietnamese and English with the pitch page, which surprised and pleased him, and he asked to be kept updated both ways. Then, on 28 August, he asked for rates: "Do you have competitive rate for this week? If have please send me, let my customer can refer." No lane was named and we have never answered. That question, plus our sales team's contacts and a note of what we have moving to Vietnam, is the whole of what is owed here.

What our own side said that needs fixing. Soumya's "with 15-plus years of experience" is not the line: twelve years incorporated, and the people carry over twenty-five.

The first overseas partner meeting WorldZone held from its own outreach, and the partner is still waiting on us. On the recording, little got through: Soumya introduced the three of us (Soumya, Julie, Nisarg), and Nisarg put the two-way offer (their exports to the Gulf to us, our Gulf cargo to Vietnam to them). The rest was on WhatsApp. Soumya's notes that afternoon (card): "they have shipments" and "he needs the discussion in email".

After the call (Dubai times, the three mailboxes, measured 21 Sep):

• 27 Aug 11:39, Terry's own recap: he re-sent Viet Hoa's company profile, asked which services we want him to handle from Vietnam, no dangerous goods and no cargo with batteries, general cargo only, main port Ho Chi Minh with branches in Haiphong and Da Nang. "Let contact me when you have any shipment."
• 28 Aug 09:28, Nisarg replied in Vietnamese and English with the Viet Hoa presentation, in Vietnamese (globalsales.worldzoneglobal.com/partners/viet-hoa/).
• 28 Aug 10:56, Terry: "I really surprise when you reply by Vietnamese", and asked us to keep him updated both ways.
• 28 Aug 11:27, Terry asked for rates: "Do you have competitive rate for this week? ... If have please send me, let my customer can refer." No lane named.
• Nothing from us since. 24 days. His rate question is unanswered.

From Terry, in his own mail (the call itself carried almost none of it):

• Viet Hoa Logistics Connection, part of Viet Hoa Holding Corp, Ho Chi Minh City (No 60, Street 17, Binh Trung Ward). Terry Ngo is Overseas and Inland Sales; duong.tk@viethoalogcon.com is copied on the thread.
• Main port Ho Chi Minh; branches in Haiphong and Da Nang.
• Will not handle dangerous goods or cargo with batteries. General cargo only.
• They prefer email to live calls, and they reply fast: Terry answered each of our mails within about two hours.
• WhatsApp: +84 866 750 677.

1. Answer Terry's rate question of 28 Aug. He has a customer waiting for a figure. Ask the lane, cargo, volume and ready date, and give him the pricing desk that will quote. That also puts the cargo, consignee and country in writing (see the warning at the top).
2. Sales-team contacts for Vietnam, in writing. Asked on the call (card). Not sent.
3. Tell Terry what we have moving to Vietnam. He asked us to "update continuous" both ways.

Done: the pitch in Vietnamese went on 28 Aug.

• "Going to Dubai on behalf of Iran": see the warning at the top. Not a fact.
• "With 15-plus years of experience" (Soumya). We were incorporated 12 years ago; the people carry over 25 years. Use that line.