Our Top 5 Takeaways from Breakbulk Americas

We had a great time at Breakbulk Americas last week at the George R. Brown Center in Houston, Texas! It was so invigorating to enjoy a safe return to in-person events and network with leaders in the logistics services industry at the largest networking event of its kind for the project cargo and breakbulk market in the Americas and the Caribbean. 

We had great discussions with many attendees about the future of logistics, current challenges and opportunities, and the state of the industry. Here are our top five takeaways from the event:

1 – Customer Experience is the Key

The Magaya booth was abuzz with excitement about our new Digital Freight Portal, marking a trend we noticed with attendees looking for ways to improve the digital experience for their customers. As digital forwarders continue to “rock the ship” in the industry, others are looking for ways to digitize operations and provide the interactive customer experience that modern shippers want. Attendees were also thrilled to discover the time savings and productivity gains they can get by digitizing quotes and shipments right from the start. 

2 – Forwarders are Seeking a Single Source of the Truth

The freight forwarding industry is inherently complex. Forwarders visiting the Magaya booth were seeking ways to eliminate silos and streamline operations to increase efficiency and reduce costs. The Magaya Ecosystem, consisting of Magaya Supply Chain, the Digital Freight Portal, Magaya Customs Compliance, and Magaya Rate Management, delivers flexible, interoperable, modular, cloud-based solutions that when used together as an integrated logistics software platform deliver a single source of the truth and enable data-driven decision making.

3 – Warehouse Productivity is Part of the Package

Whereas specialized warehouse management systems were once the norm, we noticed that a lot of attendees were seeking solutions to manage their end-to-end operations, from quoting and shipping to the warehouse floor and beyond. Visitors to the Magaya booth were particularly impressed with the built-in WMS with smart warehouse capabilities and the integrated productivity and automation solutions like the Magaya Dimensioner and Flow WMS, our new mobile WMS designed for Android and iOS.

4 – Container Shortages and Rising Costs are Top-of-Mind

We weren’t surprised to hear plenty of lamenting about ongoing port congestion, container shortages, and astronomical shipping costs. Attendees were on the lookout for intelligent and creative solutions to help them navigate these choppy waters and circumvent some of the biggest related challenges. Magaya solutions for rate management and self-service tracking and visibility were of particular interest when this topic came up. 

5 – Value is as Important as Ever

Given the rising rates and surcharges, Breakbulk attendees were especially keen to find ways to work modern technology into realistic budgets and cut costs in other areas. A lot of attendees were seeking alternatives to freight software that’s billed on a “per transaction” basis and were pleased to learn about Magaya’s flexible pricing options.