Logistics Industry Spending Extraordinary Time Wrestling with Routine Processes

Padmesh Prabhune

PIC: CONTAINER CRANES

Container xChange, an online container logistics platform, has published its recent research report titled ‘The benefits of digitalizing container operations’ highlighting the advantage of adapting digitalization. The report based on a market survey of over 1000 logistics professionals suggests freight forwarders spend almost half of their working days fixing problems manually.

According to the report, a staggering 93% of logistics professionals are spending nearly half of their working day solely dedicated to addressing problems whereas, 92% of logistics professionals are spending an average of 3-4 hours to source just one new partner when needed, and 53% of logistics professionals spend 3-4 hours within the week discussing terms and conditions with new partners.

The report has also revealed that one-third of logistics professionals are spending a significant amount of time on manual transactions, with an average of 10 minutes per transaction, highlighting the need for digital adoption for even the simplest operations in the container operations industry.

Commenting on the state of digitalization of the maritime, supply chain, and logistics industry, Nikolaus Sievers, Director of Logistics Optimisation Solutions at Solvo.ai said, “Supply chains consist of tangible and intangible flows: on one hand you have physical cargo flows and humans handling documents, and on the other, you have digital flows of data. The business of international freight forwarding is all about the intersection of people, processes and technology.”

Logistics professionals face a multitude of challenges, among the most common problems are incorrect or incomplete documentation, and miscommunication and misunderstandings in international deals. Other challenges include payment delays, discrepancies in container quality or quantity, undetected damage, and unexpected events such as weather-related disruptions or port strikes.

Marex Media

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Without Digital Tools…

• Container xChange survey of 1000+ logistics professionals reveals glaring inefficiencies of container logistics companies who are spending hours trying to fix problems manually 
• 92% spend 3-4 hours to source one new partner and 53% spend 3-4 hours discussing T&Cs with new partners; 93% spend 2-4 hours contacting depots for release + drop off references 
• Digitalizing just 3 processes: Online marketplace for equipment and partner sourcing, Container tracking, release references of live ETAs, and Online chat for negotiating terms and conditions could save 8+ hours per week or 4 full working days per month 
• Freight forwarders using online marketplaces spend only 5-10 minutes sourcing partners, saving 170 minutes per new partner compared to non-digital counterparts