Logistics Trends & Insights has published its 2018 Evolving Freight Forwarding Market report, revealing that 54 percent of respondents think that shippers bringing their logistics functions in house is the biggest threat to the market.

 

Digital disruption, however, was not high on the list of threats facing forwarders. Only 2 percent of respondents classed 3D printing as the biggest threat to the market, while blockchain technology and autonomous shipping ranked second in the list, each with 12 percent.

While digitalisation was not the biggest concern for freight forwarders, 54 percent of those asked said it is “extremely important” to their strategy, although responses varied when asked how they plan to invest in digitalisation.

30 percent of respondents said they would build their own solutions, while 28 percent said they would utilise off-the-shelf platforms. Only 18 percent of respondents planned to invest in digitalisation through partnerships, while 16 percent of those surveyed plan to achieve digitalisation through acquisitions.

Tight margins, meanwhile, continued to be the most critical “pain point” for freight forwarders. 46 percent of respondents selected this issue over capacity concerns, uncertain global environments, and rates.

Only 6 percent of respondents cited the uncertain global environment as the most critical “pain point”, compared to 22 percent of respondents in the 2017 Evolving Freight Forwarding Market report.

logisticstrendsandinsights.com

Topics