Freightos recently hosted its seventh annual FreighTech conference, bringing together top minds in freight technology and digitalization – from carriers to forwarders, BCOs, and tech providers – to tackle the challenges shaping the future of global logistics. In a landscape defined by constant disruptions and volatility, one message emerged loud and clear: visibility isn’t just a tool, it’s a strategic necessity.
From trade wars to the pandemic, labor strikes, and more, the freight industry is plagued by so-called “black swan” events. But, as Bjorn Vang Jensen of Nanooq Consulting reminds us, most of these aren’t unpredictable – they’re just business as usual in today’s supply chain chaos.
And it’s exactly this turbulence that’s been accelerating tech adoption. Forwarders and BCOs alike are turning to digital solutions to unlock the transformative power of visibility – empowering smarter decisions, proactive planning, and ultimately, greater resilience in an unpredictable industry.
From Disruption to Control: The Power of Visibility
Visibility isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a critical edge in a volatile market. Whether it’s managing freight rates or preparing for the next inevitable disruption, actionable insights are the key to thriving in a turbulent market, turning data into strategy.
Visibility lets you act – proactively. According to Freightos 2024 research, hybrid rate solutions and tools like WebCargo’s Volatility Index can be leveraged to offer real-time insights into rate trends and fluctuations, empowering forwarders to quote dynamically and safeguard margins. No more flying blind.
When rates spike, lanes close, or capacity vanishes overnight, those with the best data don’t just survive – they thrive. The pandemic proved this in spades: during the height of container rate fluctuations, Freightos research revealed that broken contracts wasted an average of 3,000 man-hours for some companies over just three months. Imagine the gains if those contracts had been tied to market-indexed rates instead.
This is where digitalization rewrites the rules. Platforms like WebCargo’s Volatility Index give freight forwarders real-time insights into volatility levels and historical rate patterns, enable forwarders to adjust margins proactively and craft quotes that reflect both market realities and customer needs. Meanwhile, Freightos Terminal provides benchmarks across thousands of lanes, helping forwarders spot opportunities before competitors even notice the shifts, for sharper quoting decisions that mean a 20x improvement in booking time.
Dynamic quoting further amplifies this power. By enabling real-time rate refreshes within sent quotes, forwarders keep pace with changing markets, offering customers unparalleled transparency and flexibility. It’s a win-win: customers lock in the most competitive rates, and forwarders fine-tune strategies that safeguard their margins, boosting win rates by up to 3%.
Forward-thinking forwarders are embracing tools that blend data visibility, automation, and actionability, and in today’s logistics landscape where disruption is the norm, your ability to collect, analyze, and act on data isn’t just helpful – it’s redefining what’s possible.
