When is it worth adding customer and carrier collaboration features to the forwarding system?

When booking conditions, partner approvals and documents are still combined in separate letter chains, although orders are already registered in the system. Additional functions must combine this work to a specific shipment. First, it is assessed what can be expanded on the existing system and what relationships with customers and carriers are missing.

How to avoid double costs when getting a partner's account?

Each estimate and the actual amount have a common link between the shipment and the type of cost. Once the document is received, the estimate is checked or changed, and the difference is left to the evaluation. Complementing the total cost list alone is not enough.

How do you check if a better rate course has retained the margin?

The costs not previously included in the proposal and the actual profitability of the order are assessed. At the same time, the timing of the preparation of the proposal is measured. The overall change in market rates is separated from the better preparation of the proposal.

What determines reliable tracking of a shipment across multiple carriers and modes of transport?

From partner data availability, uniform parcel recognition and explicit transfer confirmations. It is necessary to agree who adjusts the delays and coordinates the next stage of shipment. The customer is provided with confirmed information and missing data is noted that the forwarder would not promise a deadline solely based on the intermediate arrival of the shipment.

Freight forwarding and partner order management system

The forwarder sees the customer's agreements, carrier orders and documents to the shipment. If transportation is disrupted, it is possible to combine the change and assess its price and term.

The responses of the partners are compared without matching validity, additional fees and the scope of a specific service. The offer submitted to the customer may be based on an incomplete or no longer valid purchase clause.

How the solution works

The forwarder aligns the customer's bid and orders the required stages of shipment.
Partners submit their endorsements, events and documents linked to the same shipment.
Once the deviations have been resolved, the proofs of service, liabilities and actual amounts are reconciled.

Key challenges

Tariffs and offers are managed by email
Carrier capacity not visible at one location
Order margin declines due to late-visible costs
Multi-species shipment states fragmented
Documents are collected and checked manually
Carrier quality assessed fragmentedly

Solution capabilities

Consignment and commercial offer

Stages, additional services and tariff validity are aligned before committing to the customer.

Carrier orders

The partner receives the volume allocated to it, confirms the execution or specifies the change. The proposed capacity is separated from the accepted order.

Visibility of stages

Different consignment identifiers and events are linked, maintaining the source, partial transfers and known information gaps.

Documents and discrepancies

The partner provides the document associated with the shipment, receives an explanation of the shortage and complements the same case. Service non-compliance has a responsible investigation.

Customer information

The customer is provided with the progress of his shipment and the choice required in self-service or another agreed-upon channel, without disclosing foreign commercial data.

The final economy of the shipment

New liabilities and actual accounts replace previous estimates without duplicating them. Uncompleted documents and amounts remain visible.

Business context

Tariffs and offers are managed by email: The responses of the partners are compared without matching validity, additional fees and the scope of a specific service. The offer submitted to the customer may be based on an incomplete or no longer valid purchase clause.
Carrier capacity not visible at one location: The carrier's declared free capacity, response to a request and acceptance of a specific order are not always clearly separated. The forwarder may rely on a promise from the partner as yet unconfirmed. The customer is given a transportation deadline without having a committed principal. Later, it is necessary to urgently search for another carrier, adjust the price and inform the customer about the change.
Order margin declines due to late-visible costs: During execution, known additional costs are not included in the result of the shipment until the partner's account; their commercial basis and customer approval are unclear. The initial earnings estimate remains misleadingly high, and the issue of an additional fee is dealt with late.
Multi-species shipment states fragmented: Parts of the shipment, container and partner orders use different connections; scheduled arrivals are sometimes presented as a fact that has occurred. The operations team does not notice the lost link of the stages or reports an unconfirmed readiness to the customer.
Documents are collected and checked manually: Obtaining a partner document does not complete its connection to the shipment, proper versions and verification of missing data. The customs, customer or billing process determines the lack of the document only when it is needed.
Carrier quality assessed fragmentedly: The discrepancies between delivery and documentation are not completed in the same way, and the carriers' rates are compared without assessing the difference in services and the cause of the event. The choice of partner is based on incomparable figures or unverified comments, so the same shortcomings are repeated.
The forwarder provides a seamless offer and progress of the shipment: The customer buys the entire transportation, even if it is operated by several partners. Linked rates, orders and approvals allow an explanation of the total price and term. During a disruption, the forwarder can more quickly match the alternative, maintaining a visible effect on the customer and his margin.

Core features

Consignment and commercial offer
Carrier orders
Visibility of stages
Documents and discrepancies
Customer information
The final economy of the shipment

Key integrations

Sources of customer inquiries and contracts: Confirmed need, agreed terms and acceptance of the offer.
Affiliate work channels: Comparison of rate, order acceptance and shipment replacement response.
Parcel Visibility Function: The progress of the carriage and the disruptions that require a solution from the dispatcher or commercial team. Partner messages are saved along with a confirmed history of events.
Document and Quality Process: Supplementary service documents and decisions on identified discrepancies.
Accounting system: Income and partner cost documents, the result of corrections and their reconciliation.
Forwarding or customer order system: Valid shipment plan, stages, commitments and permitted reactions.
Sources of carriers, terminals and other partners: Primary events, their significance, time, and the relationship between shipment identifiers.
Document and Issue Processes: Validated readiness to the extent that it can be provided by the system responsible for the data.
Operations and customer channels: Status, data gap and the decision of the responsible participant.
Forwarding system: Valid version of the order, selected partner and confirmation of accepted response.
Partner system or self-service: Order response, actual event, document and replenishment action.
Document repository: A document version is tracked, access and storage connections are allowed.
Commercial and financial process: The decision on the claim or acceptance of the document response required for further handling of the shipment.

Potential impact (%)

The ranges indicate an illustrative relative change in the metric under the stated assumptions. Results depend on the starting position and actual use of the solution. Percentages for different metrics must not be added together.

Work on the reconciliation of the terms of the proposal

16–42%Decreasing

This illustrative scenario assumes that 40-70% of information searches and repeated cross-checks can be addressed. That share is assumed to fall by 40-60%. Company data is needed to verify both the addressable workload and the resulting change.

The active time of comparison and repair for similar service requests is measured.

Time of detection of significant transmission failure

6–25%Decreasing

This illustrative scenario assumes that 20-50% of waiting caused by missing information or unclear responsibility can be addressed. That share is assumed to fall by 30-50%. Company data is needed to verify both the addressable share and the resulting change.

Measure the time from receiving a reliable signal to responding by the responsible team.

Re-statement of partner documents

12–36%Decreasing

This illustrative scenario assumes that 30-60% of manual data entry and handover work can be addressed. That share is assumed to fall by 40-60%. Company data is needed to verify both the addressable workload and the resulting change.

The addition cycles and the active administration time are measured according to a similar need for documents.

Value of re-expansion orders

1–6%Increasing

In the example scenario, 20-40% of the original indicator value is associated with a more convenient repetition of a similar transfer order. This part is predicted to grow by 5-15% without other conditions changing.

Comparisons are made between the value of repeat orders and margin for the same customers, depending on route, season, prices and demand for transportation.

Conditional calculation scenarios. The assumptions have not been validated against client measurements.

When this solution is relevant

The partner rate used for the offer does not include the same services promised to the customer.
A known additional charge in the result of a shipment only occurs after the final bill is received.
The customer is shown the arrival of one stage, although the cargo cannot yet be transferred to another principal.
The messages of different partners have to be hand-linked to the same shipment and its parts.
The same partner's document is forwarded multiple times, but no one confirms that its flaw has been resolved.
The carrier is assessed by the number of delays, regardless of their causes and differences in services performed.

Implementation requirements

Common parcel and stage identifiers and partner response values are prepared for the expedition. Changes in rates, documents and connections must reach the course of customers and carriers through the interfaces of the system used.

Frequently asked questions

Adapting the solution to your business

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