In the last fifty years, the global economy has grown by over four hundred percent. And the freight transport industry has been one of the main drivers behind this growth. As countries have become increasingly interconnected with others and as businesses have expanded into new territories, cargo transport has boomed to meet rising demand. But today, a number of factors are driving change in this market – and digitalisation is now an urgent priority for every player in the freight transport industry. So what’s really going on? This post will examine this question using seven key insights that highlight why digitalisation should be a priority for everyone involved in freight transport.

1. Delay Costs

Delay costs can be very high, especially in the case of high-value goods. If a freight transport shipment is delayed by one day, it can cost up to $1,500 per container. In addition to this direct loss incurred by your business, there are also indirect losses related to lost opportunities or damaged goods.

• Lost opportunities: Every hour that a shipment is delayed means money lost from missed sales opportunities as well as customer goodwill.
• Damaged products: If a shipment containing fragile or perishable items is delayed even for an hour, it may be impossible for the product to survive until delivery time without being damaged by temperature fluctuations (e.g., frozen food). This could result in financial losses as well as damage control efforts on behalf of your company if customers become aware that their orders have been compromised due to poor tracking and logistics management systems used by a freight forwarder or shipping company (which often happens).
• Returns and re-deliveries: Consumers are increasingly demanding door-to-door delivery service combined with flexible payment options such as credit card transactions, cash on delivery (COD), etcetera—and these services come at a cost which needs careful planning when it comes down executing them effectively and efficiently across geographies where demand may vary significantly depending upon seasons and holidays.

2. Growing efulfilment

According to a recent report by UPS, efulfilment is the process of delivering goods to customers. The market for efulfilment has been growing at an average rate of 6% since 2017, and it’s expected to reach $1 trillion by 2020.

This means that companies that offer freight transport and logistics solutions can expect a growing demand for their services in the near future. It also means that businesses will need effective systems in place if they want to stay competitive in this area–and those systems are only getting more complex as time goes on!

In order for efulfilment operations to run smoothly, there needs to be coordination between multiple parties: from finding space on trucks or containers all the way through delivery itself via air shipping or ground transportation (like trucking). This means there must be careful planning beforehand so everything runs smoothly once orders start coming in from customers who want items quickly delivered straight from warehouses across continents or even oceans away (if international trade is part of your business model).

3. Need for More Flexibility

The biggest challenge in the freight transport industry is to match supply and demand. Whether it’s capacity, routes or timing – the customer needs to be able to choose what he or she wants. This means that we need more flexibility in all three areas:

• Capacity: The customer should be able to specify where they want their shipment sent, as well as when and how much space they need for their cargo.
• Routes: Freight forwarders offer a variety of different routes for every destination, but these are often limited by fixed alliances between carriers and shippers that prevent more flexible options from being offered (for example from a trucking company with access to rail transport).
• Timing: Some shippers prefer door-to-door delivery, while others would like deliveries done at one location (such as ports) rather than another (such as warehouses).

4. Customers Have More Demands

As a freight transport provider, you’re no doubt aware that your customers have more demands than ever before. They want to be able to track their shipments throughout the entire process, communicate with each party involved in their shipment and even communicate directly with suppliers.

In short, they want transparency in every step of their freight journey.

And this is where digitalisation comes into play:

5. Need for Minimising Environmental Impact

The environmental impact of logistics, freight transport and e-fulfilment is on the rise. By reducing the amount of goods that are transported, you can reduce your carbon footprint and help to protect the environment.

There are several ways to reduce your environmental impact:

• Reduce the duration of storage in storage facilities;
• Use more sustainable packaging materials;
• Cut down on transportation by using more efficient modes of transport.

6. Focus on Sustainable Business Model

This is a very competitive industry, with many companies providing similar services. The freight transport industry needs to be sustainable, as well as environmentally friendly, cost effective and flexible.

It’s important for businesses in this industry to be able to take advantage of digitalisation in order to remain competitive.

7. Drive Toward Hassle-free Last Mile Delivery

In the past, the last mile of delivery has been rather neglected. With the advent of e-commerce in particular, it’s become clear that this final leg of delivery is more important than ever.

You see, the last mile refers to the final leg of a delivery—the part where your goods arrive at your doorstep or at another location designated by you. This can be a costly and time-consuming process for freight transport companies due to several factors:

• Transportation costs are higher because you’re delivering to fewer people.
• People tend not to live in dense areas with ready access to commercial centers or public transit stations.
• You’ll have more cases where customers want their packages left somewhere else other than their home address (for example, if they’re away on vacation).

The freight transport industry is changing, and digitalisation can help it keep up with the pace of change

The freight transport industry is changing and the pace of change is accelerating. The industry is in need of new solutions that can keep up with this fast-moving landscape, such as digitalisation.

Digitalisation means using technology to make business processes more efficient, sustainable and flexible for customers and businesses alike. By making information available on a large scale from anywhere at any time, it enables greater transparency within the freight transport sector as well as between partners in the supply chain.

As well as being good for business logistics, digitalisation can have positive effects on safety too; for example through improved visibility or better risk management systems at ports or along roadsides (through video analytics).

Conclusion

To sum up, the freight transport market is changing and it’s vital that we adapt to meet these changes. We must figure out how to incorporate digitalisation into our processes to ensure that we can be as flexible as possible in meeting customers’ needs and solving the problems caused by delays or unavailability of freight. It’s clear from this article that digitalisation is one way forward for many companies looking to tackle these challenges without having major impacts on their bottom line.