Good planning: The foundation of successful forwarding companies

How can logistics companies prepare themselves for these upticks in demand?

Short answer: prepare a plan.

Let’s explore which points should be considered in the plan.

1. Forecast potential spikes in demand

Shipping demand varies from season to season and usually spikes around holidays like Christmas. It’s also widely known that on Black Friday, sales on e-commerce platforms increase substantially. To secure fast delivery times, forwarders have to proactively search for carriers with availability, this can mean booking transport services in advance. Because activity in the logistics industry booms during these busy holidays, both forwarders and carriers stand to make a large portion of their yearly revenue during these periods and it’s important to be prepared for them.

2. Consider using digital platforms

Digitalisation brings many benefits to businesses and especially in logistics. We recently covered this topic in our blog “How digital platforms improve logistics companies”.
One of the points to consider is that by securing a digital presence and equipping themselves with digital tooling, logistics companies not only improve their current workflows and operations but also are prepared for a technological shift in coming years.

3. Find the reliable transport partners

Finding the right partner for transportation can be a time-consuming task. Forwarders need to do background checks to qualify their potential carrier partners and make sure that they’re capable of completing the order and that the carrier has all necessary documentation and licenses. This process is called “Qualification management”. Forwarders require particular documents from carriers such as EU license, insurance certificate, dangerous goods license. These documents are submitted by email, fax or even post which takes much time.

But what if you could qualify partners digitally? This will save time and effort on administrative tasks. You can find out how TrustedTrucks enables Carriers to share documents digitally and securely and how forwarders can qualify Carriers digitally here.

4. Optimise order process through digital RFQ’s

You can complement traditional efforts for getting a quote from Carriers. You can create a digital RFQ and send it to a list of carriers in a few seconds. Some of these Carriers may have also been pre-qualified already, which already puts you a step ahead in the planning process.

All the quotes that are submitted are shown in a compact table, making it easy to compare and choose the best offer.

Good planning in logistics operations is significant to maintain company growth and competitive advantage. TrustedTrucks can help you to realise benefits for your business by digitising key operation processes. Optimise your search for reliable transport partners, reduce your administrative workload and start processing orders faster!
Try TrustedTrucks today!