One of the challenges faced in this data collection exercise was the identification of the universe of freight forwarding firms in Serbia from which a representative sample of firms could be drawn.
The research team initially obtained a list of 36 firms that are members of the Serbian Freight Forwarder Association, and firms identified by logistics experts in the field as relevant in providing freight forwarder services. Additionally, a list of 1,311 registered firms in transport and trade related activities (i.e., rail and road transport, cargo handling, etc.) with information on size measured by their number of employees was received from the National Bank of Serbia. The team conducted a screening of the firms in both lists to identify those that qualify as international freight forwarders and found that 31% of the firms complied with the screening criteria. Of those 61% were surveyed.
The final survey sample consisted of 92% small firms (with less than 50 employees) and 8% medium/large firms (with 50 or more employees). Based on the employment data from the Bank of Serbia, the typical (median) small freight forwarder in the final sample had five employees, while the typical (median) medium/large freight forwarder had 66 employees.
