Forwarders warm to logistics portals

Recent contract wins prove freight forwarders and 3PLs are becoming increasingly willing to use third-party logistics portals to attract customers, rather than seeing them as threat, according to one solutions provider.

Greg Johnsen, co-founder and executive VP of GT Nexus, said that over the past 18 months, there had been an increase in the number of forwarders and 3PLs using its online trade portal and it would soon be announcing new wins from this sector, which would be among the most significant in the company’s history.

The news that Panalpina had signed up to use the portal for rate management was evidence of this trend, he said.

Meanwhile, DHL is trialling rival portal Inttra’s e-invoice solution.

Johnson said: "To me it feels that over the past 18 months we have seen a significant shift in the mindset of 3PLs and freight forwarders in their appetite and urgency to embrace technology like this to better connect them with their customers.

"It’s down to a combination of the timing being right - they understand the technology and are asking for it - and the economy - they are looking to get this kind of technology in a way that makes economic sense."

He added: "They have realised the old way of buying a bunch of software, installing it and trying to hook it up over two or three years - spending US$25-30m to do it - is no longer necessary."

Johnsen said that initially forwarders had viewed logistics and trade portals with a certain amount of fear and scepticism.

"Anytime you’ve got an emergence of something new, the stakeholders have to warm to it.

"But in fact, what we are talking about is progress, and forwarders that learn to adopt and leverage this kind of technology, which is very customer-centric, actually become more competitive and attractive to customers."

He said forwarders had also come to realise that portals provided an industry standard, something a single company could not develop.

"What customers want is a standard way of working with the forwarders they prefer to work with," he explained.

"This is where this type of technology really starts to make sense - they can give the community a standard way of working together without displacing the basic business, economic and structure, in the community."