Frictionless Freight Forwarding: the Future is Now

Supply chain friction costs businesses as much as 6,500 hours a year, much of which is preventable. And that’s just direct labor costs: the indirect costs of friction in freight forwarding reach much further.

It’s not hard to see that freight forwarding processes have traditionally been wrought with friction, for both the customer and the freight forwarder. There’s a lot of back-and-forth, a TON of paperwork, plenty of waiting, and the industry has long lacked standards to help streamline communications and normalize data. That’s slowly changing, but there remains an enormous opportunity to improve processes and remove friction in the field of freight forwarding.

 Key Takeaways

• Waiting for email replies and phone calls for quotes, tracking, and other questions and answers is one of the leading sources of friction from the customer’s perspective. 
• On the flipside, gathering rates across multiple carrier sites is perhaps one of the most cumbersome parts of the freight forwarder’s job given that data needs to be pulled from various sources in a timely manner.
• Technology can help eliminate friction for both employees and customers. By leveraging the Magaya Digital Freight Platform, customers get goods across borders more quickly, share information more readily, and operate more productively – the keys to creating a frictionless supply chain.

Frictionless: buzzword or buzz-worthy?

The word frictionless isn’t new: Oxford Dictionary defines it as “not impeded by or creating friction; smooth,” or, “achieved with or involving little difficulty; effortless.” More recently, though, it has become somewhat of a buzzword in the business world, used to depict just about anything that wastes businesses or customers time or money.

Our world is packed with conveniences. We can microwave dinner in sixty seconds, or simply order from our favorite restaurant from the palm of our hand and have it delivered to our doorstep. So many little everyday tasks have gotten faster and easier with technological advancements.

That’s not to say that technology alone can solve everything. Sometimes technology creates friction. We’ve all used self-service checkouts by now. Sometimes they work great and help avoid long lines. But if you get the dreaded, “please place the item back in the bag,” or, “SKU not found,” errors, going the self-service route can actually cause delays and frustration. Friction.

Sure, you can call frictionless a buzzword. It’s made its share of headlines in the business world. But is it also buzz-worthy? Without a doubt. Read on to see how friction costs businesses and customers time and money.

What causes friction in freight forwarding?

Clunky processes negatively impact both the freight forwarder and your customers. Removing friction benefits everyone, and sometimes one simple change can actually make life easier for both employees AND customers alike.

For customers:

• Waiting for email replies and phone calls for quotes, tracking, and other questions and answers. This adds up to a lot of time wasted, and can also lead to lost revenue for freight forwarders, as customers requesting quotes from multiple companies may not wait for all to respond.
• Following up on delayed shipments can be quite the drag for customers, especially when they have to wait on hold or speak to multiple people to get answers.
• Re-explaining needs to multiple teams is irritating, to say the least. Companies that operate in silos put added burden on customers to speak up for themselves and explain what they’re looking for to sales, operations, customer service, accounting, and management teams.
• Paying invoices by check is another time-waster when digital payments are so much simpler and faster.

For freight forwarders:

• Gathering rates across multiple carrier sites is perhaps one of the most cumbersome parts of the freight forwarder’s job given that data needs to be pulled from various sources in a timely manner.
• Composing emails with formatted quotes after gathering rates and answering calls from customers with questions about their shipments can also be made smoother, faster, and easier with the right technology in place.
• Data silos leaving teams disconnected not only leads to a poor, inconsistent customer experience, but it also takes more time, costing more and killing productivity.
• Manual data entry is often avoidable with the right processes and technology in place. From customs forms to required shipping documents, in freight forwarding, data is so important. Manual keying opens up the possibility of errors, which can lead to delays and fines, not to mention that it takes time and is one of the least-liked tasks for employees.

These are just a few examples of how friction can impact both customers and freight forwarders. Take a critical look at your processes, speak to customers and staff, and you might be surprised at the efficiency you can gain with some strategic changes.

How Magaya Enables Frictionless Freight Forwarding

Magaya Digital Freight Platform

The Magaya Digital Freight Platform is a flexible, connected, and completely customizable logistics platform that removes friction across your origin-to-destination freight forwarding processes, making life easier for everyone, saving you time, lowering costs, and accelerating your growth.

Magaya Digital Freight Portal

Go digital with the Magaya Digital Freight Portal, a branded and customized web portal for online schedules, quotes, bookings, tracking, and reporting. Your customers will appreciate the transparency, control, and ease of use of interacting with you online, and you’ll enjoy the dramatic time savings you get by eliminating countless email and phone calls. Friction in quoting, booking, and tracking will be a thing of the past – for both you and your customers.

Magaya Supply Chain

Exchange information across all teams and stakeholders in real-time, eliminating the silos that cause delays and errors and manage all your multimodal logistics operations in a single system.  From freight quotes and customs documents, to warehouse receipts, shipments, invoices, and more, Magaya Supply Chain has you covered.

Magaya CRM

Put your customer data in the spotlight with Magaya CRM. When used with Magaya Supply Chain, this time-saving solution eliminates redundancies and fosters customer-centric collaboration across teams with greater visibility, streamlined processes, and built-in business intelligence.

Magaya Customs Compliance

Keep compliant in a fraction of the time with the connected features, intelligent automation, and intuitive interface of Magaya Customs Compliance. With real-time visibility into all your transactions, duties, fees, and CBP response messages in a single window, you won’t miss a beat when it comes to compliance.

Magaya Rate Management

Eliminate the inefficient process of using spreadsheets to manage complex rates, quotes, and contracts and take total control of your rates with Magaya Rate Management. No matter where or what format your rate data lives in, Magaya can digitize and centralize it for you to easily access and share with customers and across teams.

Container Tracking by Magaya

Eliminate wasted time and manual processes with just one click to track all your containers worldwide using the Container Tracking by Magaya extension. Track your ocean shipment containers across more than 100 sealines faster and more efficiently than ever, all within Magaya Supply Chain.

Quote Automation by Magaya

Leverage the power of AI to transform the way you quote US domestic freight with Quote Automation by Magaya. Receive quote requests, gather rates from multiple carriers, and bring everything back into an email in an instant. Plus, enjoy access to the best LTL and FTL rates on the market all in an easy-to-use, simple interface. It’s the ultimate frictionless experience for inland freight quotes.

A Frictionless Future For Freight Forwarding

Magaya believes that its customers deserve to operate without friction by delivering:

• Accurate rates that can be accessed instantaneously.
• A work life that enables you to focus more on your customers’ needs, and less on the tedious process of maintaining and securely sharing accurate rates.
• A customer portal that gives your customers access to clear, accurate schedules and quotes — fast, so they can quickly make their booking decisions, plus on-demand tracking information to answer all their questions about en-route shipments.
• Automation capabilities that make it faster and easier to stay compliant, even when customs regulations and tariffs change.
• A single source of the truth, so all teams are operating with up-to-date, accurate information, enabling better decision-making and customer service.

By leveraging the Magaya Digital Freight Platform, customers get goods across borders more quickly, share information more readily, and operate more productively – the keys to creating a frictionless supply chain.