Cargologik freight forwarding

Unlocking loyal customer value

Caribbean Maritime looks at the latest software available from digital startup Cargologik – a modern SaaS platform built for small-to-medium international freight forwarders and brokers

By Miles J. Varghese

If you’re an independent freight forwarder, you’re already facing unprecedented challenges. Margins are under pressure. Supply chains are in flux. Clients want more and more. They point to DHL tracking technology, Amazon logistics timelines, and demand “Two-day shipping”.

Competition is picking up among those especially in the same trade lanes. The big forwarders and liner operators are building their own small business platforms and taking direct bookings - thereby nudging their traditional partners to the side. The carriers themselves are getting back into logistics through acquisitions and heavy investments into technology. VC-backed, digital freight forwarding service providers like Flexport and freight marketplaces exist on a global scale.

And, did I forget to mention a global pandemic, port congestion, shifting to work from home - all while operating out of the Caribbean?

It’s a daunting and dire landscape and path ahead for the independent forwarder and broker. It’s a global challenge. At Cargologik, we know this because we’ve spoken to 600+ independent players from around the globe and have just south of 200 logistics companies on our platform.

Opportunities
But for every challenge presented is the opportunity for the organization to level-up, to face down each challenge, and become more agile is also there. This is a universal truth, and what separates the good, differentiated, from the great.

And for those that can persist and make it through, a more promising, green pasture awaits just on the other side. That is, if organizations are willing to accept and make the changes incumbent upon them now to counteract these market and competitive forces at play.

So how can small-to-medium sized, independent freight forwarders and logistics service providers (LSP) make it through to the other side?

Well, by simply communicating and collaborating better. It certainly sounds simple in principle, but in practice not so much. It does not refer to WhatsApp messages back and forth, the hundreds of emails, and all of the texts required between all parties when coordinating freight movements.

Being responsive and offering great customer service is one thing, but that’s also the thing that everyone does. To succeed in this highly-competitive, supply-chain landscape, the freight forwarder must step beyond great service and must save their customer time, money, and drive revenue. All companies today know that the success of their business is that of their customers. Impact them in meaningful ways, regularly, and become the trusted advisor.

Freight collaboration and communication
If you can combine your logistics expertise with the right tools, you can become that trusted advisor that the shipper picks first, every time. Keep up with the Amazon effect and win their referrals, and retain more loyal customers than ever before. Loyalty drives revenue, profitability, reduces costs, and also simplifies operational focus. Things just become easier when you have more loyal customers.

So, what’s an easy, first step to transform your organization into a more differentiated, profitable one that has clients driving your word-of-mouth referrals to new levels?

Consider embracing technology and tools that add structure to your organization’s commercial departments and even across offices. Empower the most important asset you have - your people. Give that team valuable reporting and trade analytics data, automated operational alerts, better tools for document management, and other commercial intelligence at the account and organizational level.

Do so in a way that creates tremendous value for the customer while also meeting their ever-growing expectations. Pick the right systems for your own business. Find the right providers that will not only arm you with technology to do the above, but also a software provider who keeps your software up-to-date. Most importantly, a provider whose software is ever-evolving and actually improving with your client base and as you scale the company.

This is no small feat, but advances in web-based technology and the Amazon effect have created brand new opportunities, even with the smallest of players – who also may be feeling “island-bound”.

My co-founder, Luis F. Trujillo Jr., who grew up as third generation in his shipping family’s holding company, Grupo Holco based out of Guayaquil, Ecuador. His grandfather was a pioneer and early agent for APL and Evergreen and his father still an active executive and investor in Cargologik. We’re still a family-run business and Cargologik is the freight forwarding platform that we built starting within an international freight forwarding company named Logunsa in Guayaquil.

From there we’ve scaled a little bit, and what we quickly found was that the international needs that they had could be extended globally and we’re proud to say we have a global presence and configurable platform that works across 140+ different countries around the globe.

The idea is to enable you to leverage your existing team to do more with less, and arming them with superpowers to manage more than just a handful of clients on their head, in excel, on paper, or in dated systems. And you can do so, while creating a differentiated experience for the customer that exceeds their expectations. Win their loyalty and drive business with them and more loyal customers in the longer-term.

I look forward to working with more of my Caribbean compatriots and colleagues as we continue Cargologik’s global expansion around the world. Feel free to try it out yourself for free too, we’re a modern, freemium, saas-platform meaning that your first 10 shipments are 100% free with no credit card required at all. We want you and your clients to experience the platform before you take the no-contract, month-to-month dip into warm Cargologik waters.