Manage Risk in Freight Forwarding with End-to-End Visibility

In the age of dynamic customer demand, ‘ignorance is not bliss.

According to a recent study, 75% of shippers rank freight visibility as a major concern next to cost reduction.

Customers today require end-to-end freight visibility that brings real-time transparency in the following aspects.

• To know how their shipment is moving

• If the vessel left the port of departure?

• Where is the vessel?

• Identify bottlenecks in their supply chain and the estimated arrival time at the port of destination?

• Has the vessel arrived at the port of destination?

Customers are now intolerant of late deliveries or not reporting late deliveries in advance. The late shipment or unreported delay can have a ripple effect on the entire supply chain. Moreover, in an age when customers are influenced by e-commerce, global marketing and digital shipping trends, providing limited visibility or no visibility is not an excuse. As freight forwarders, you can face the following common issues surrounding limited visibility within freight forwarding networks.

Disruptions like traffic delays, extreme weather conditions, driver issues, lost packages, failed delivery attempts, and customs can affect your supply chain without strong visibility.

Although there is a plethora of technology in today’s global supply chain industry, still many jobs are done manually. Manual errors while conducted manually by carriers, customs, or any other stakeholders can have an adverse effect if not identified and addressed due to the lack of visibility.

Visibility challenges can cause a lack of communication and collaboration between stakeholders and third parties can negatively impact the supply chain and slow down critical processes.

So far, most freight forwarders offer only the data when cargo reaches certain milestones. In between checkpoints, companies lack the visibility to know

• where their shipments have reached

• if there are any bottlenecks

• if an action plan is needed for any discrepancies

Even today, many freight forwarders lack the complete, accurate, and real-time view of what we call ‘highly reliable data’ that prevent them from managing exceptions proactively.

Thankfully, more granular freight visibility has become possible with advanced technologies like IoT and big data that facilitate a constant flow of reliable and independent data.

With 70% of customers expecting real-time visibility to track their shipments and gain complete and updated details, freight forwarders are turning to the latest freight software solutions like the Logi-Sys that provide real-time visibility. Combining real-time status information and predictive data produces end-to-end visibility that can help you meet rapidly growing customer demands for faster, best, and more transparent delivery.

Modern freight ERP platform provides data and insights with increased visibility and allows better collaboration and communication between your team members, managers, customers and others. This makes it easier to plan and execute even the most critical forwarding tasks smoothly.

Best practices to manage freight forwarding risk with enhanced freight visibility

When you embrace technology like Logi-Sys digital ERP platform and integrate digital tools and processes into daily forwarding practices and routines to get real-time freight visibility of your every movement.

With end-to-end freight visibility, you can provide complete transparent freight visibility to your customers, which allows them to plan and be more prepared to face the impacts of any discrepancies. When your customers are automatically notified, with system-generated updated of every milestone covered and with every change of shipment in time, you help them reduce the risk of detention & demurrage fees. So with increased visibility, you can provide exceptional customer service and innovative customer support options.

With real-time visibility, it provides transparency not only to you or shippers but also to all the other third-party partners and 3PLs involved. This can help you maintain communication among the team members, customers, vendors, 3PLs, and management. Also, you get a complete shipment picture across all modes of transportation and geographies that help you monitor all the shipments in the supply chain.

Real-time tracking and monitoring of cargo shipments give accessibility for on-demand data. By using the freight visibility data, you can leverage the data for business intelligence in real time. And with accurate application of visibility data, you can take prompt forwarding decisions, evaluate the entire supply chain network, know the areas for the scope of improvement and manage disruption with predictive planning.

In the current state of disruption in the freight forwarding industry, customer expectation has changed drastically, influenced by globalization and digitalization. Demand for visibility in freight forwarding will continue to influence and remain the critical cornerstone for shippers, freight forwarders, truckers, and other stakeholders in supply chain management. More than ever, the need for real-time visibility in freight forwarding has increased as it can not only help you with a clear vision of past, current, and future forwarding trends but is crucial for your survival in the competitive environment. So to conclude, with the right freight ERP platform like Logi-Sys in place, you can leverage the power of real-time visibility to transform your supply chains.