Over the past years, our expectations as consumers have exploded. We expect same-day-delivery, transparent tracking and digital interfaces. When I speak with forwarders today, many of these expectations have started to make their way into the business world as well. 

When shippers enquire for transportation services with freight forwarders today, they expect near-instant and accurate quotations, as the basis for their decision-making. As a result, more than ever, freight forwarders need accurate, instant visibility on their end-to-end buy rates to be able to create attractive and market-aligned quotations in real time. 

Forwarders need to quote a customer request as fast and accurately as possible. The duality of speed and accuracy is vital, because both elements sustain each other. Quoting speed requires reliable transparency of every cost component or buy rates (trucking, ground handling, customs clearance, air freight rate, airport fees, storage) and the ability to bring all buy rates together in real time to quickly return a profitable sell rate and quotation to the customer.

The challenge of speed

Many cost elements involve challenges for a quoting agent – while trucking charges are fairly standardized, air freight rates today can be highly dynamic, and both long-term and short-term rate commitments can interfere. Today, forwarders need a solid view of rates from all suppliers, and strong technology to bring it together. 

Freight forwarding companies of all sizes still struggle with mapping all their local charges and dynamically piecing these together to generate a valid sell rate. This ability is exactly what digital procurement with cargo.one can deliver.

Digital procurement – a game changer

cargo.one’s solutions provide all the building blocks needed for future-proof rate procurement, buy rate management, sell rate management and quoting. 

Our Rapid Rate API allows agents to effortlessly access all static buy rates, while our Offer & Book API delivers fully-live rates from more than 50 airline partners. 

Integral to success is being able to benchmark your offers versus what the prevailing market has to offer. cargo.one’s Live Estimates solution delivers real-time insights into carrier-specific buy rates on an O&D, weight break and product level, derived from millions of data points on the cargo.one platform. cargo.one’s Dynamic Rate Module enables agents to effortlessly calculate costs, apply their margin and compile into a clear sell rate within seconds.  

When speaking with freight forwarders, their concerns often revolve around the buy rate visibility, as the first step to being able to instantly quote. While some trade management systems (TMS) allow the storing of static rates, none allow for the ingestion of live or dynamic rates. 

However, to create a market conform quote, current market information must become part of the calculation. In order to quote swiftly and accurately, one must be able to derive and deliver a sell rate digitally in real-time. Freight forwarders should now ask whether their current internal systems allow their teams to achieve the following capabilities:

• Global buy rate management for all cost components at destination and origin, including trucking and carrier rates; 

• Management of all air freight product options (including long-term contract rates, short-term rates, and allotment rates);

• Access to real-time carrier rates and rate benchmarking data;

• The setting of dynamic and intelligent pricing mechanisms to provide the optimal dynamic sell rate for every shipment;

• Comprehensive management of sell rates and digital quotation capabilities;   

• Digital booking with carriers, for long-term, but more importantly ad-hoc shipments.

cargo.one delivers all these elements using the delivery methods tailored to any organization’s needs. These capabilities combine to provide the critical difference of being able to both quote first and quote most accurately, meaning you are best positioned to beat your competition.

The building blocks of success 

Every enterprise forwarder can unlock powerful competitive advantages by ensuring they have the components needed to turn buy rates into sell rates with speed and accuracy. cargo.one for enterprise is the go-to partner for delivering on your unique needs, with fully customizable and scalable quoting infrastructure and pain-free implementation to elevate your performance. 

Leading freight forwarders globally use the cargo.one platform to achieve a best of breed set-up for end-to-end quotation. These forwarders are supercharging their win rates and growth by leaving their competitors standing. Speak to our experts today to explore how we can help your teams and customers prosper with digital air freight procurement.

Stay tuned! In our next installment, Moritz examines the performance impacts that a transformed quotation capability has delivered to forwarders, large and small.‍