The freight logistics market continues to grow despite strains on the economy, with forecasts predicting expansion outpacing global GDP. This makes sense. Moving goods is a continuous need for B2B operators, and improvement profitability opportunities abound for every link in the chain. But increasing cost savings shouldn’t come at the expense of service and reliability, which is essential to goods movement coordination. This is where the freight broker agent comes into the picture.
Freight Brokers and Web-Based Tools
Non-asset based freight brokers, who do not own the assets for shipping but provide services to the process to ensure successful completion of delivery, have consistently been essential to freight movement and necessary expenditure. These freight broker agents have already harnessed web-based tools to augment traditional relationship-based processes, to improve their offering to businesses needing goods moved efficiently and through customs/borders.
It’s been suggested that the entire freight brokerage service could be taken over by automated online technology, which would mean a huge overhaul to an over $150 billion a year market. Would it mean a streamlining of an existing service provision, or the forgoing the benefits of a trusted industry standard?
Personalized Service is Still Important
The relationships built by the freight broker agent are accepted to be the differentiator. When a shipment is held in customs or needs rush service, these agents leverage existing contacts and networks to get the job done. Good shipments and movement are often complex, needing more than an algorithm to complete effectively. Completing these requests is usually done by personal contact. However, a phone call – in an age when emails and instant clicks have become the expected form of communication, and phone/fax contact is regarded as antiquated.
Comparisons have been made to the travel industry: where a traveler used to go to a travel agent for personal service, now they utilize websites analyzing their trip and get price-compared options served up by digital analysis.
Despite start-up investors touting the benefits of completely web-based freight brokerage services, market acceptance has not been nearly as quick and absolute as with travel websites. While advanced, web-based tools offer easier and quicker initial tasks to be completed, the intricacy and scrutiny needed to provide a complete freight brokerage service (especially in urgent or unsafe situations that an automated service may not anticipate) means a human freight broker agent will likely continue to be an essential part of the process.
