Freight forwarders don’t have it easy in 2015: freight rates and oil prices are highly volatile; the market is undergoing structural changes as patterns of demand evolve and opportunities disappear as quickly as they arise; and an uncertain global economy means that forwarders need to be attuned and responsive to macro-trends.
As such, the importance of technology to freight forwarders cannot be overstated.
Our report looks at the challenges freight forwarders face in overcoming these deep-rooted issues.
Key trends that could influence new technology adoption in order to keep costs and competitors at bay include:
In addition to the above, our report also found that as logistics operations evolve into leaner, more agile services, the functional boundaries between different systems are likely to break down.
As a result, a new generation of application services will emerge that perform the same functions of existing applications, but as a continuous service.
In other words, freight forwarders who resist new technology adoption and continue to work with legacy systems may fall behind the competition.