The Export Shipping Manager in the UK

The place of the international physical distribution function (or shipping function as it is conventionally called in the United Kingdom) has been largely neglected in the area of logistics or physical distribution studies. This neglect, in particular of the export shipping function, is surprising in a country such as the United Kingdom which is so dependent upon international trade. The export shipping function cannot be regarded as merely an extension of the domestic physical distribution function. In many instances it has separate personnel who undertake a range of functions which may, individually, be just as closely associated with finance and accounting as with physical distribution. The separate tradition of the export shipping function means that it may not be conveniently accommodated into a logistics framework which attempts to integrate the domestic and international movement of goods .