It’s well known how price-driven and competitive the logistics marketplace can be for freight forwarders. This means that when you get any chance to improve your margins, you need to capitalize on it. Considering the fact that time constraints place such huge pressure on logistics operations, everything regarding shipping is outlined with urgency.
While you may not experience every single one of these issues, you’ll probably recognize most of them. Addressing at least one of them will help your company improve its operational efficiency.
Are Your Rates Up to Date?
It’s important to have correct rate data in order to give your customers accurate quotes. This can be really hard to do in logistics because companies are typically presented with outdated information. Freight rates are constantly shifting, especially if they’re applied to international shipments, which is why accuracy is so hard to come by when you’re trying to calculate your freight costs.
How Long Is Your Quoting Process?
You don’t want to take too much time to respond to your customers when they ask you about pricing for a complex shipment because they probably don’t have any time to waste either. This will happen though if you don’t have a system in place to find and calculate all of your rates in a centralized location. During the time you take to figure out your pricing, your customer will have already reached out to your competitors for quotes. This competition is more about who can be the quickest to offer a price point.
What System Are You Using to Manage Your Product?
When your operations are spread all over the place, you’re already losing out on efficiency from a rate management perspective. Freight forwarders want to avoid unnecessary work, but this will be virtually impossible to accomplish when your company uses different operating procedures and manages carrier tariffs individually. Leveraging software that allows you to manage freight rates in one location will allow you to more effectively control your processes on a consistent basis.
Are You Sacrificing Service for Cost?
The most optimal solution for your company is not always the cheapest option. A lot of freight forwarders will give customers a larger time frame and higher quotes for shipments because figuring out what’s best is less simple than it may seem. This is where companies need the ability to optimize both service and cost for their quotes to remain competitive.
Have Invoice Inaccuracies Led to Profit Loss?
Shipping invoices aren’t the most exciting part of the business. They can be really complex at times and also pretty draining due to common errors like overcharges. If you don’t have an automated system that verifies them for mistakes or the employee time to manually review them, then you may need to consider making an investment.
How Can You Address These Problems?
Blinkfreight’s technology helps forwarders book shipments instantly from anywhere depending on your company’s needs. With real-time management, you can follow your freight’s movement and learn information as it happens. These capabilities paired with 24/7 customer service can help companies prevent these issues from impacting your bottom line.
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