CEO and Co-Founder of Vector.ai, James Coombes, explores how new supply chain disruptions must not distract from old productivity problems
For freight forwarders, the operational disruption that has defined the past two years shows no sign of abating. No sooner is one crisis averted than another hones into view and, right now, it’s the holiday season that is firmly in the spotlight.
According to Robert Keen, Director General of the British International Freight Association, “freight forwarders across the world, that are responsible for managing the supply chains that underpin global trade, are moving hell and high water” to ensure that Christmas gifts make it under the tree on time.
Nevertheless, the queues of container ships outside Californian ports make for worrying images – all while the US’s vast domestic logistics infrastructure is left impotent.
The situation is not much better in the UK, where container build-ups at ports are forcing major shipping companies to divert their container vessels elsewhere.
With almost 600 container ships reportedly idle outside the world’s ports, some outlets have even questioned whether the current disruption portends the death of globalisation. While this may be hyperbolic, there’s no question that things need to change – and fast.
Admittedly, some of the issues are a direct result of increased demand. Around 25% more cargo was shipped from Asia to the US between January to August 2021, compared with the same period in 2019. That’s a vast amount of extra processing for freight forwarders at a time when many are still reeling from other pandemic-related disruptions.
But in truth, the problem has deeper roots. Even before Covid hit, freight forwarders were already losing billions of hours to cumbersome and time-consuming administrative tasks, to the detriment of the wider supply chain.
Same old processes, same old issues
An alarming number of arduous tasks and processes are necessary to move goods around the world. Operational staff at freight forwarders typically spend one-third of each day hunting through customer emails, attachments and legacy computer systems. They’re painstakingly gathering information via siloed systems such as email, phone, texts, spreadsheets and even fax. It’s slow, dull and inherently inefficient work at the best of times.
As the volume of shipments increases, so does the amount of data gathering and processing – everything from cross-border customs to shipment tracking. Our legacy freight forwarding systems and processes aren’t designed to cope with the current volumes. Open the ports for longer (as the US Government is currently planning), and the problems will only exacerbate further.
Context-driven automation holds the key
Right now, freight forwarders are spending far too much time gathering data rather than analysing it, when new technologies are more than capable of doing this job for them.
Advanced machine learning tools can be quickly taught to automate a wide range of information gathering and data input tasks. For example, self-learning tools can fill in customs and freight dockets in a fraction of the time taken by humans without getting bored or making mistakes. One freight-forwarder we spoke to cited a reduction from 40 minutes to four minutes once they introduced technology to automate the processing of import/export checks.
Not only that, but these workflow tools can provide greater visibility into ongoing operations so that when significant disruptions happen, the response is speedier, better informed and lower risk. The technology can be used to automatically verify live data and help flag potential discrepancies, assigning actions to team members so that everyone knows who needs to do what and by when.
Media contact
Rebecca Morpeth Spayne,
Editor, International Trade Magazine
Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 922
Email: editor@logistics-buyer.com
