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Sales Automation

freight ratesheets quotiss

How to Simplify Freight Ratesheets in 2020?

Digital Freight, Freight Rate Management, Freight Ratesheets & Tariffs, Sales Automation / By

Three years ago, I wrote a blog post about the complexity of freight ratesheets distributed by the shipping lines to the market and the problems they create. This year, it remains one of the most popular posts on the Quotiss blog.

Turns out, a lot of logistics companies are still looking for ways to simplify and digitize their freight rate management process. So, I decided to study the changes in the industry of the last 3 years and update the article.

 

Ocean Freight Rates Online

 

The biggest step in the digital direction has been taken by some shipping lines – they finally started to offer instant freight quotes online.

Maersk Line, Safmarine, Hapag Lloyd, CMA CGM, and a few other carriers now offer ocean freight rates online. These rates are no longer some random unusable indications – they are workable, and ‘bookable’.

It became possible with the personalization of the inquiry. Each person (company) needs to register and create an account on the carrier webpage. The algorithm checks the company profile and knows what rate level to offer. The rate obtained online is the same rate that would come via email request. The online rate is faster. The choice is simple.

It’s, of course, very good news for the industry, and this trend will continue with more carriers offering their (workable) rates online.

The downside, however, is that each carrier is developing its own platform for online freight quotes, making it difficult for the freight forwarders to compare the offers. A person has to open each carriers’ webpage, enter login / password / shipment details into different forms on several platforms to choose the best rate.

It is also more difficult for tech companies to integrate the spot rates, as they have to integrate each platform separately.

 

What About the Freight Ratesheets?

 

Well, here nothing changed much in three years. Freight forwarders still receive large Excel files with freight rates, spend their days analyzing and maintaining their ‘own’ Excel files with the selling rates. Even the largest global freight forwarding companies struggle to set up an electronic exchange of buying rates with the shipping lines.

Wondering, what about the online freight quotes? Well, online spot rates are good for spot shipments. The majority of the world’s cargo is moved on contracts, which are negotiated individually and are not available online. The progress is not there yet.

 

What About the Digital Freight Forwarders?

 

Freight forwarders get access to more and more digital tools each year. There is a big interest in digitizing the customer interface: offer online freight quotes, online bookings, online tracking, etc. All these customer-facing digital initiatives are very necessary, but hardly possible without digitizing the back office of the freight forwarder.

It’s not possible to offer online freight quotes if your selling rates are maintained in Excel. You run a big risk of low data accuracy, which can cause financial loss and/or reputational risks.

It is necessary to start from the basics – automate and digitize your freight rate management internally, and after that integrate your automated freight quotes online.

 

Sales Automation Software for Logistics

 

Quotiss software could be the right solution to digitize freight ratesheets using a simplified upload mechanism. Quotiss is a practical tool, which automates all kinds of freight ratesheets in a smart and simple way. All freight rates from all suppliers in one place, available instantly to everyone in the organization.

With Quotiss, you can increase your sales productivity without increasing headcount. When your business is driven by efficiency, it directly impacts the company’s bottom line.

 

Would You Like a Quick Start with Quotiss?

 

Click here to register your company. We’ll activate your company’s profile and help with the initial settings and user onboarding. You can start uploading your freight ratesheets and quoting freight from Quotiss on the same day we sign the deal.

How to Choose the Right Freight Software?

Automation & Digitalization, Digital Freight, Logistics Software, Sales Automation / By

Is there anything in common between choosing a freight software for your freight forwarding business and choosing a hotel for your holiday? 

 

Imagine, you make plans for a long weekend, about to book yourself a nice hotel. Most likely, first, you will go to an online platform that offers a selection of deals. Then you would apply some filters to define search criteria. The most common criteria would be price, location, and convenience (in the order of your personal preference). Once you have a shortlist, you’ll definitely look at the reviews before making the final decision.

We usually trust the opinion of people like us who have already tested the service/product we are interested in: friendly advice or input by an independent reviewer from a trusted source.

 

Another example: you want to download a mobile app to edit pictures from the App Store. There are more than 1000+ options there, which one would you choose?

Usually, the description given by an app developer will not be trustworthy enough. You will look at the ranking and the review score, maybe read a couple of user reviews to make sure this app is what you really need. Obviously, advice from a friend works well too.

85% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Excellent or bad reviews on the hotel’s page can be the deal maker or breaker when you compare the available options. We are ready to trust and oftentimes even pay more to stay in the hotel with a rating of 9 out of 10.

Would you follow the same selection process when you choose the right freight software for your business?

 

From Hotels and Mobile Apps to Freight Software?

 

In the same way, as there are platforms to review hotels and mobile apps, there are platforms to rate B2B software. Nowadays, leaving a review online has become the best way to express your satisfaction level with the service or product. We no longer live in a world where the brand is in control of what to communicate to its audience – users now have the ability to broadcast and amplify their voice with one click. A great motivation for vendors to get better in customer service.

Review platforms want businesses to use them. And businesses want to use review platforms too. It all comes down to trust.

Scummy companies can hire fake reviewers to praise products and boost sales. Unfair competition can result in a number of 1-star reviews left by the people who never used the product. Most review platforms have guidelines prohibiting reviews that don’t reflect true business transactions.

 

Have You Heard of Capterra?

 

Capterra is one of the well-known platforms for business software rankings. Every product is categorized based on many parameters: industry, functionality, convenience, and price. This allows for easy comparison.

Capterra ensures that each reviewer is verified. Either by connecting to their LinkedIn profile or by collecting their credentials and consent to follow the portal guidelines. If a user didn’t provide their credentials, the review will not be published.

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, you have to be sure which software you trust to make your business more efficient. Many software companies can promise you digitization, cost reduction, and quick profit growth.

By looking through independent reviews of business software, you can learn the real feedback from the real users:

Learn how Quotiss can help your business and improve your efficiency from our user opinions on Capterra.

 

Quick-Start with Quotiss Freight Software

 

Click here to register your company online. We’ll activate your company’s profile and help with the initial settings and user onboarding. You can start uploading your freight ratesheets and quoting freight instantly from Quotiss on the same day we sign the deal.

2 Faces of Freight Digitalization

Automation & Digitalization, Digital Freight, Online Freight, Sales Automation / By

The term “Digital Freight Forwarder” has become the synonym of Freight Digitalization, and Flexport is the first company name that comes to mind. Flexport secured the largest amount of venture capital money ever invested in the logistics startups to date. With over 1 billion USD to spend on IT and business development, Flexport is definitely the most popular name on the forwarding horizon when it comes to innovation in logistics. Everyone is watching them, waiting for their next step.

The hype around digital freight is on for the last 5 years or so. The top tier carriers and forwarders invest in expensive custom-made software solutions, blockchain technology, online platforms, etc. However, to date, there was no major breakthrough that would turn the industry upside down (think of booking.com or Uber revolutions).

It looks like the digital revolution in freight is not the question of money or effort invested in it. There is something bigger to hold down the modernization of the industry, no matter how much resources companies are putting into it.

 

Customer-Facing Freight Digitalization

 

When you hear the term “Digital Freight Forwarder”, what is the first digital service that comes to mind?

Most likely, it is online freight rates or online bookings. Maybe, access to online shipment tracking. We can call it Customer-Facing Digitalization – everything to enable a client of a freight forwarder to access the relevant rate and shipment information online and skip unnecessary calls and emails. These days, most of the resources in logistics are focused on this type of digital service automation.

There are clear savings and efficiency gains for the end client, but there is a limitation too – you can only be as digital as your suppliers, no matter how hard you try.

 

Internal Freight Digitalization

 

On the other hand, there is an Internal Digitalization. There are plenty of inefficiencies in the internal commercial business processes starting from rate procurement, to formatting the ratesheets, to quoting freight rates, to following up on the client’s feedback, to handling invoice disputes, etc.

Digitalization can significantly improve the work process, resulting in greater profitability. These improvements mostly come from the reduction of manual processes in the commercial departments –  time-consuming and error-prone manual routines. For example, automating the process of searching and aggregating freight rates can save at least 30% of the sales reps’ time.

The internal process is not directly visible to the client, so it is usually being neglected instead of being digitized and fixed.

 

Bet on Internal Freight Digitization and Win

 

Flexport is now driving the change towards freight digitalization in the industry, and the pace is getting faster. It is a warning sign to those freight forwarders who do not have the digital strategy yet. But they should not be afraid of Flexport online service frontend. Instead, they should worry about their own backend – internal inefficiencies, which drive their costs up and sales performance down. It’s the backend that matters the most.

Have you ever considered using modern software to automate your sales? Even as a small or medium-sized freight forwarder, you can apply the right freight software solution and increase your sales productivity while driving down the costs. When your business is driven by efficiency, it is directly related to your company’s bottom line: time is money, and the faster competitor wins the customer.

 

Quotiss is a practical freight software solution for freight forwarders, which simplifies the rate management and automates freight quotes of all types. It also acts as a CRM system, business analytics dashboard, marketing automation tool, and more. It is designed for the freight forwarders of any size and generates benefits from day 1.

Our clients rated us with 5-star reviews on Capterra. Sign up for the free trial now – go digital today.

the dollar value of freight software

The Dollar Value of Logistics Software

Freight Ratesheets & Tariffs, Instant Freight Quotes, Logistics Software, Sales Automation, Simplicity & Efficiency / By

What is the exact dollar value of the logistics software? Every freight forwarder knows that the logistics business is mostly driven by price. In such a competitive market, any opportunity to improve profit margins should not be missed.

Technology can significantly improve efficiencies internally, resulting in greater profitability. These improvements mostly come from the reduction of manual processes –  time-consuming and error-prone. For example, automating the process of searching and aggregating freight rates can save at least 30% of the sales reps’ time.

But what is the exact dollar value of technology for a freight forwarder? And more importantly, how to calculate the extra profit margins it can help generate? You will find a very simple online calculator at the end of this article.

But first, let’s look at the areas where digitization can help the most.

 

Logistics Software Brings Transparency

 

Traditionally, the sales teams in freight forwarding companies would have to rely on multiple Excel tables with rates, surcharges, and special conditions, preparing freight quotes manually. This is far from optimal, as the margin of error is too high.

Now, when the freight rates change so often, the value of having all commercial data on one platform in a structured way is essential to maintain sanity and transparency.

 

Logistics Software Makes It Easier

 

Get rid of the large Excel freight ratesheets, and put your commercial data on one platform in a simple and transparent way. This will simplify your sales and procurement workflow.

Simplification and automation provide infinite possibilities and allow you to upload freight tariffs and make freight quotes in a few clicks.

 

Logistics Software Brings Security

 

Security and confidentiality are very important when attempting to forge business relationships. With advances in technology come advances in data privacy.

In Quotiss, we made it our top priority to provide the highest level of data security to our clients. We use AWS cloud servers – the technology which is trusted by the largest businesses across the globe: Siemens, Vodafone, Philips, General Electric, and others. With daily database backups, digital safety is 100% guaranteed.

 

Logistics Software Brings Savings

 

A computer can carry out tasks in seconds and with 100% accuracy. One of the greatest benefits of implementing technology into the commercial business process is time-saving and cost reduction.

In Quotiss, your latest freight rates and your most precise client database are integrated into one platform. Contract management simplification allows you to automate and track the freight quotes.

Not only can this reduce the risk of error and raise the quality standard, but also save you great amounts of active sales time. Such time saving opens new doors for using sales talents in ways that will generate more profit at the end of the day.

How much more? Use our simple online ROI calculator and get your estimate in USD.

quotiss software automations

Quotiss Helps Freight Forwarders Go Digital

Freight Rate Management, Logistics Software, Sales Automation, Simplicity & Efficiency / By

Freight forwarding is one of the largest and most important industries in the world, but also very traditional and least digitized. Quotiss helps traditional freight forwarding companies become digital. We believe, that any freight forwarder can become digital with the right set of digital tools.

Container shipping is one of the least digitized segments of all transport services. Managing freight tariffs is a well known technical challenge, which keeps some freight forwarders stuck in the era of MS Excel.

 

Digital Freight Forwarders

 

There are many startups who try to revolutionize the ‘ancient’ industry. Business models like ‘freight marketplace’ and ‘digital freight forwarder’ are funded with millions of dollars. The frequently asked question is whether the freight forwarders will be replaced with these online services in the near future or not.

Freight forwarding looks like a perfect industry for disruption! A cohort of digital freight forwarders and freight marketplaces emerged on the market. Their value proposition can be summarized as Booking.com for shipping. And yet, today in 2018, it is still hardly possible to find and compare freight rates online. Although some digital freight platforms enable online bookings, there is still a lot of manual work behind the digital interface.

It’s never been easy to deal with freight, due to the freight rate complexity and volatility. Looking at the whole end to end process, it seems logical that transportation price consists of multiple components because the cargo literally travels half of the globe one way. Adding all transportation costs into the picture (door delivery, customs, port expenses), makes ALL-IN freight rate calculation a very complicated process.

For decades, freight forwarders take care of complex logistics and supply chain management. They have connections to the suppliers, agents, customs, and they take care of the entire shipment process, including that cargo insurance. The human factor plays a big role in this mostly relationship-driven business.

 

How to Digitize Freight Rates?

 

Freight forwarders get access to more and more digital tools each year. There is a big interest in digitizing the customer interface: offer online freight quotes, online bookings, online tracking, etc. All these customer-facing digital initiatives are very necessary, but hardly possible without digitizing the back office of the freight forwarder.

It’s not possible to offer online freight quotes if your selling rates are maintained in Excel. You run a big risk of low data accuracy, which can cause financial loss and/or reputational risks.

It is necessary to start from the basics – automate and digitize your freight rate management internally, and after that integrate your automated freight quotes online. Nevertheless, the technology which helps streamline complex logistics processes is already there: electronic communication, big data analysis, transport management systems, etc.

Early adopters are already enjoying the benefits: becoming faster, more flexible, and cost-efficient. There is a visible pressure from the digitized forwarders towards their traditional competitors. It’s becoming obvious, that a “regular” forwarder will soon need to find ways to be on par with the digital world.

Sales Automation Software for Logistics

 

Marcin Zarzecki, CEO of Quotiss says:
“Complex contracts, massive ratesheets, thousands of emails, Excels and PDFs bring frustration, consume resources, and destroy efficiency. At Quotiss, we found a solution that brings structure and simplicity.”

Quotiss has united a team of industry professionals and became a successful startup supported by Techstars Ventures and Google for Entrepreneurs.

Quotiss software could be the right solution to digitize freight ratesheets using a simplified upload mechanism. Quotiss is a practical tool, which automates all kinds of freight ratesheets in a smart and simple way. All freight rates from all suppliers in one place, available instantly to everyone in the organization.

Once the carriers’ contracts are simplified and uploaded into the system, the quoting process becomes fully automated. Having all commercial data on one platform, freight forwarders can enjoy full transparency: archive of freight rates and quotes, profitability, the efficiency of sales teams in real-time. No more searching through multiple folders, excel files and emails.

“Modern technology used to be available only for big players with massive resources. But this is changing. Medium and small-sized forwarders start adopting instruments like Quotiss and, thus, learn to compete with efficiency and not just the rate.” – says Eugene Reznikov, Quotiss representative in Hong Kong.

With Quotiss, you can increase your sales productivity without increasing headcount. When your business is driven by efficiency, it directly impacts the company’s bottom line.

 

Would You Like a Quick Start with Quotiss?

 

Click here to register your company. We’ll activate your company’s profile and help with the initial settings and user onboarding. You can start uploading your freight ratesheets and quoting freight from Quotiss on the same day we sign the deal.

Quotiss freight software

Quotiss Freight Software Explained

Freight Rate Management, Instant Freight Quotes, Logistics Software, Sales Automation, Simplicity & Efficiency / By

In the last couple of months, we see a growing interest in our product and based on the questions we receive, we’ve prepared this article about Quotiss freight software. As you read through, you will find out what Quotiss is and what it is not, and how exactly Quotiss helps freight forwarders to be competitive and boost sales results.

Due to highly complicated nature of shipping, there is no standard software that can handle the typical business requirements of a freight forwarder.

The logistics industry is based on MS Excel or custom-made software. Most of the medium to big size forwarders work with the software designed specifically for their organization’s needs. There are too many flaws in this approach, starting from the cost to create and maintain it, to a very slow response to change requests.

 

What is Quotiss?

 

Quotiss is a freight rate management and sales automation software designed for the freight forwarding companies of any size and type. At the core of Quotiss, there is a powerful freight simplification engine, inspired by Pareto Rule and KISS Principle. Thanks to that, Quotiss removes 99% of complexity from the commercial process and structures the freight rate management in a smart and simple way.

Quotiss provides a basic framework, which simplifies the commercial process of any freight forwarder. Quotiss brings structure to the commercial teams. It can be configured to match the most complex business requirements.

Quotiss covers the following business processes:

  • Freight rate management
  • Automated freight quotes
  • CRM
  • Sales performance analytics

Once the freight pricing is streamlined, the freight quotes are automated. A salesperson can quote freight rates with 100% accuracy in a couple of clicks! With Quotiss, they can send a freight quote to one client or to a hundred clients at once. Your customers will receive a freight quote perfectly tailored to their needs – origin, destination, local charges, special notes and terms, margin levels are saved for each customer.

Quotiss also brings real-time sales performance analytics, enabling data-driven decision making to maximize the profit margins.

 

What Quotiss Has to Offer:

 

  • Unique algorithm to manage freight rate tariffs and spot rates – no more Excel files;
  • Freight quotes are automated – so sales can spend time on selling;
  • Client database – archive of quotes;
  • Follow up on the deals;
  • Unified quote formatting – solid brand image;
  • One platform for all commercial activities – increased business intelligence;
  • Easy sales onboarding – no more lengthy handovers;
  • Intuitive UX and modern UI– sales people love it!

 

Freight Software for Logistics

 

Freight forwarders get access to more and more digital tools each year. There is a big interest in digitizing the customer interface: offer online freight quotes, online bookings, online tracking, etc. All these customer-facing digital initiatives are very necessary, but hardly possible without digitizing the back office of the freight forwarder.

It’s not possible to offer online freight quotes if your selling rates are maintained in Excel. You run a big risk of low data accuracy, which can cause financial loss and/or reputational risks.

It is necessary to start from the basics – automate and digitize your freight rate management internally, and after that integrate your automated freight quotes online.

Quotiss software could be the right solution to digitize freight ratesheets using a simplified upload mechanism. Quotiss is a practical tool, which automates all kinds of freight ratesheets in a smart and simple way. All freight rates from all suppliers in one place, available instantly to everyone in the organization.

With Quotiss, you can increase your sales productivity without increasing headcount. When your business is driven by efficiency, it directly impacts the company’s bottom line.

 

Would You Like a Quick Start with Quotiss?

 

Click here to register your company. We’ll activate your company’s profile and help with the initial settings and user onboarding. You can start uploading your freight ratesheets and quoting freight from Quotiss on the same day we sign the deal.

Freight quotes quotiss

What’s in Those Freight Quotes?

Automation & Digitalization, Digital Freight, Logistics Software, Sales Automation / By

In freight forwarding, transparency in the sales activities has never been the case. The complexity and volatility of freight rates significantly limit the visibility into what’s going on in the commercial organization on a daily basis.

Usually, the management team doesn’t know how many freight quotes have been sent today, this week, or this month. And there is no way to check. It is almost impossible to monitor the margins applied to ocean freight and local charges in the quotes. The sales manager must rely on the data that comes from various sources, the information is unstructured and often biased.

This lack of transparency is also an issue for sales reps themselves – they have to search for freight rates in various files and emails, and there is no clear record of what rate has been offered to a client. This is a waste of time and resources, and it often leads to lost business opportunities.

 

Transparency of Sales is Essential

 

The importance of having transparency in sales activities is crucial for any business. The key to gaining control of the revenue is to have real-time access to sales performance. The live data stream is invaluable in spotting changes in trends and picking up on issues before they become a problem.

Also, studies show that when employees know their performance and have an instant overview of their KPIs, they improve their work. Focus, motivation, and accountability come when teams can see where everyone stands in just a glance.

Transparency in freight rates can be achieved in the organization when both pricing and quoting are done via the same platform. A platform where all freight rates and quotes are stored, in the most structured and most proper visual way, accessible from anywhere and anytime. Quotiss software provides such a platform for the freight forwarders.

 

Visual Sales Performance

 

Quotiss software stores freight ratesheets, local charges, pricing guidelines, customer database, and an archive of freight quotes. Quotiss enables sales teams to generate perfect freight quotes, which can be emailed to customers directly thanks to the full email integration.

Quotiss dashboard is a powerful visualization tool. It provides an analysis of freight rates history per carrier, client acquisition data, freight quotes stats per person or per team, average margin history, etc.

Quotiss dashboard puts your commercial KPIs and critical metrics together into an artfully designed and intuitive display. Data is updated in real-time. It allows setting goals and opens opportunities for immediate feedback and action. Everyone in the company is on the same page when it comes to sales performance and pricing guidelines, enabling better communication and collaboration across the teams.

By switching from Excel to Quotiss software, you can automate the sales activities and get access to the sales performance analysis, in real-time. There will no longer be a need to manage a number of complex freight ratesheets in Excel. Most importantly, your commercial data will stay secure!

 

Would You Like a Quick Start with Quotiss?

 

Click here to register your company. We’ll activate your company’s profile and help with the initial settings and user onboarding. You can start uploading your freight ratesheets and quoting freight from Quotiss on the same day we sign the deal.

THE DARK SIDE OF PROCESS IMPROVEMENT

The Dark Side of Process Improvement

Automation & Digitalization, Sales Automation, Simplicity & Efficiency / By


“The light bulb wasn’t invented by continuously improving the candle…it was about understanding what the job to be done was and then stepping back to look for solutions to solve this”

You could spend lots of time and energy making a candle burn longer and brighter, but you would never get to a light bulb – it would always be a candle. At the same time if you don’t truly understand what the ‘job to be done’ is then you could waste time and resources improving processes not fit for purpose.

A really great point to reflect on. It reminds us how important it is to ensure that the technology is implemented to support the business, and not the other way around. In the end, it all boils down to this – does your current business process actually fit the needs of your customers?

 

Process Innovation vs Continuous Improvement

 

“At what point do you stop with continually improving and look for a new process or new innovation?”

Continuous Improvement is about observing the way things are done and improving them. Typically, there will be gains in efficiency or reductions in cost. Continuous improvement happens over time, bit by bit, and is never finished – with every change resulting in a small gain. The main focus is on improving of what is already in place.

Process Innovation puts the emphasis on solving each problem in the most effective way. Innovative changes tend to be big and disruptive, often reshaping or redefining the way things are done.

No improvement of a candle would result in a solution as effective as the light bulb. That requires an innovative shift in focus. But at the core, both process innovation and continuous improvement are intended to do the same thing – to help us achieve our goals more effectively. And although none of us would want to light our offices with candles, we wouldn’t want to use the early versions of the light bulbs either. An effective strategy for growth considers both: innovating and improving what’s already in place.

 

What Can Go Wrong?

 

The majority of the companies betting on the digital transformation ask themselves this question: “How can I organize my existing services/products better with the help of this new digital technology?” This is the wrong thing to ask when it comes to the digitalization of the business. The process usually begins with documenting all the existing ‘as is’ business processes and giving this to a software vendor to implement in their new solution or platform, and then expecting a different result. It puts the company at a high risk of re-inventing old problems in new technology.

Why aren’t companies taking the opportunity to digitize and improve at the same time? The most probable answer is that oftentimes digital vendors don’t have the slightest idea about their customers’ business needs, as well as have no interest in growing their customers’ bottom lines or market shares. Instead they have a large team of software engineers and project managers, who are very interested in growing their personal portfolio and digital tool kit.

 

How to Make it Right?

 

The best recommendation is to always ask ‘why’ and analyze every business process to see if it can be done better, before looking at any software product or solution.

The right questions to ask yourself before reaching out to any software vendor is this: “What are the real needs of my clients and their business? How can I understand their real (and constantly changing) needs better and how can I provide them with better fitting solutions with the help of digital technology?”

To build effective new business models and take advantage of digital technology, the companies need to agree on the strategic way forward, adopt new performance metrics, and rebuild their networks as well as their older processes (in fact, remove them).

The new economy has new building blocks: SaaS, APIs, big data, and improved customer experience – all based on well-designed business processes. Changing the way you think about your business and your business processes is the true key to success.

 

Quotiss sales automation software generates 100% accurate quotes in seconds. The software is user-friendly and tailored to the freight forwarding business. It brings order and structure.

 

Would You Like a Quick Start with Quotiss?

 

Click here to register your company. We’ll activate your company’s profile and help with the initial settings and user onboarding. You can start uploading your freight ratesheets and quoting freight from Quotiss on the same day we sign the deal.

Pareto Principle

Pareto Principle in Freight Forwarding

Automation & Digitalization, Sales Automation, Simplicity & Efficiency / By

Over 100 years ago, Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto noticed a few recurring distribution patterns, which led him to discover that 80% of results come from 20% of causes. This phenomenon was called the Pareto Principle or the ‘80/20 Rule‘. The 80/20 distribution patterns are so universal, that they apply practically everywhere, for example:

  • 80% of sales revenue comes from 20% of clients;
  • 80% of traffic comes in 20% of the time;
  • 80% of healthcare costs are generated by 20% of patients.

There could be slight variations in the percentage ratio, but there are always main factors which affect the result more than the others. Pareto discovery is extremely important, and the analysis of Pareto’s cause and effect can dramatically increase business productivity. You can read more about applying the Pareto principle in business here.

 

Pareto Rule in Freight Forwarding

 

How to apply the Pareto Principle to international logistics? Following the statistical analysis of the global trade volumes, it is easy to see that the same distribution pattern, discovered 100 years ago in Italy, works for the shipping market.

Let’s take a look at ocean freight in containers. The data is consistent. Basically, Vilfredo Pareto predicted the container volume distribution pattern 60 years before the container was even invented!

  • 80% of container volume is shipped from 20% of ports;
  • 80% of container volume is shipped by 20% of companies.

The data pattern applies to Russia, China, Brazil, and other countries. It remains similar in case import and export. You will find the same distribution patterns in FCL and LCL, in rail, road, sea and air freight.

In some cases, the Pareto distribution chart can be even more dramatic. Let’s take a closer look at the busiest world trade route –  Far East Asia imports to Europe. There are approximately 150 active ports in the Far East and Southeast Asia. However, only 16 of them (roughly 10%) generate 80% of volume:

ports

 

How to Leverage the 80/20 Rule?

 

Freight forwarding is a very complex business. There are hundreds of thousands of possible port pairs, multiple container types, millions of local exceptions. In addition, freight rates change frequently. There are also numerous surcharges applied on top of freight rates, and special premium/discount levels are negotiated for most of the customers. All of that results in millions of freight quotes full of special notes and exceptions, which are very difficult to prepare, manage, and keep track of without the right software in place.

At Quotiss, we tackle the main problem of the industry from a different angle: instead of digitizing the enormous complexity of freight rates, we dramatically simplify the freight rate management process, reducing the number of variables in the equation.

Freight rate complexity can be reduced by 99%, following the data patterns discovered by Pareto 100 years ago.

Quotiss sales automation software generates 100% accurate quotes in seconds. The software is user-friendly and tailored to the freight forwarding business. It brings order and structure.

 

Would You Like a Quick Start with Quotiss?

 

Click here to register your company. We’ll activate your company’s profile and help with the initial settings and user onboarding. You can start uploading your freight ratesheets and quoting freight from Quotiss on the same day we sign the deal.