Can forwarders and NVO’s Survive the Digital Logistics Revolution?
Change is coming to the cargo freight industry, and its being brought in by a wave of digital transformation.
This, according to American Shipper author, Eric Johnson, is the change that all freight forwarders and NVO’s will have to adjust and adapt to.
In an article written for the long-time logistics news source (subscription required to read, but recommended), Mr. Johnson spoke to multiple logistics leaders to get a sense of what the digital revolution in shipping means for the industry’s regulars.
With the entry of massive retailers into the logistics arena and a burgeoning crop of developers taking aim at freight forwarding as their next technological achievement, Mr. Johnson wonders where this leaves the “hundreds of thousands of freight intermediaries around the globe”.
But he notes that the technological boom today isn’t meant to put forwarders and NVO’s out of business. At the end of the day, the technology being developed is meant to augment the existing shipping business, not cull it.
As CoLoadX’s own co-founder, Fauad Shariff, notes, the technology is mostly useless without the assets that forwarders and NVO’s excel at: local knowledge and relationship building. “The key value proposition of market knowledge and expertise is not going to be easy to replace by technology,” Mr. Shariff notes. Ultimately, he says, freight forwarders can ensure a smooth transition through the digital transformation by using technology/digital platforms to enhance their unscalable talents, not replace them.
Otto Schacht, Executive Vice President of sea logistics at industry giant Kuehne + Nagel, agrees. Ultimately, Mr. Schacht says, what makes the technology work is the service around it.
But is there a disruption coming with the arrival of retail giants into the logistics world? And exactly what should freight forwarders and NVO’s do as the digital transformation expands?
Read the complete article here at American Shipper.
