- 84% of freight forwarders and NVOCCs surveyed by Container xChange still use email and phone to get quotations and book a slot
- Shippers distrust their counterparts due to a lack of transparency in digital transactions
- Players are upbeat about future development of infrastructure for digital vessel schedules and an intuitive booking interface
Digital adoption challenges leading to a lack of transparency, visibility and trust emerge as three of logistics shippers’ SOC booking pains, container online platform Container xChange has found in a new survey.
To examine the pain points of the current state of ocean freight booking, Container xChange cooperated with the Copenhagen Business School to survey 137 freight forwarders and non-vessel-operating container carriers (NVOCCs) across the globe.
The results showed while most forwarder-shippers and NVOCCs use online quotation solutions, 83% seek better digital infrastructure, pointing to digital ship schedules and intuitive booking interfaces as the most impactful digital transformations in future.
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“Lack of transparency and standardized digital processes has fueled inefficiency and mistrust for a very long time in the logistics industry. These struggles are further worse for shipper-owned containers where no carrier takes care of processes,” said Christian Roeloffs, co-founder and CEO of Container xChange.
He said this hinders the adoption of shipper-owned containers (SOCs) in the market. The survey corroborates the present state of the industry, but it is encouraging to understand how so many players are looking forward to digital vessel schedules and intuitive booking interface for instance, Roeloffs added.
“With the adoption of digital tools, all of this could be streamlined in a manner that there is a standardized procedure for all users. With digitalization at the crux of the whole booking cycle, the industry could become more efficient with streamlined vessel schedules, intuitive booking process, avoid scammers and gain trust in counterparties with vetted partners,” he said.
Compared with carrier-owned containers (COCs), in principle SOCs provide more flexibility and can help users avoid hefty fees like demurrage and detention. The market has yet to adapt fully to SOCs in the same way as COCs do to digital solutions. SOCs, a fairly new concept, don’t have digitalized slot booking processes and have a huge opportunity to connect to the fragmented ocean freight marketplace.
For ocean freight slots, shippers’ SOC booking pains include how to get accurate quotations and confirmation of available capacity, so they end up booking with 5-10 shipping or feeder lines as there is no schedule reliability. COC users, in contrast, get administrative tasks like trucking, offloading, unstuffing and so on taken care of. But despite digitalized slot booking solutions in place, many players still book manually with loads of emails and phone calls.
The main findings of the survey were:
- More than 70% of the respondents find a lack of trust in their counterparts
- Of the companies surveyed, 83% ranked digital vessel schedules 4 or 5 in importance, while 77% ranked intuitive booking interface in the same way. But industry players want their document checklist and uploads visible and easy to use, and their operational contact information ready at hand.
- 84% of the respondents still source quotations via email and phone, while 78% use the same outdated processes to place a booking.
- That 60% also use online quotation solutions such as shipping companies’ online booking interface (e.g. Maersk’s platform) shows a market for digital SOC ocean freight booking exists.
The ocean freight market is still using slow manual processes. To get quotations and bookings, the industry struggles with swift and easy processes while outdated manual processes are prevalent with companies still booking slots via e-mail and phone, Container xChange said.
Instant booking and capacity confirmations are deemed most important, yet, many players are less than satisfied with the service they receive.
Adrian Degode, senior product engineer at Container xChange, said: “The shipping industry is becoming increasingly digital but the biggest thing missing is trust. The caveat remains to be bringing all the solutions under one platform that simplifies the lifecycle of ocean freight spot booking while ensuring trust and transparency.”
Degode said to provide with an end-to-end solution, Container xChange is building a dynamic Ocean Freight Marketplace with transparent rates and trustworthy partners for SOCs, where users get guaranteed slots on the vessel and supplier-guaranteed payments.
For full insights into the survey, visit: https://www.container-xchange.com/reports/ocean-freight/
