Armed with digital technologies, advanced analytics, and a vast pool of customer data, logistics and freight companies can home in on the services their customers want. They can even deliver an end-to-end offering without buying or owning expensive shipping assets.
Freight forwarding and logistics companies continue to be vexed by overcapacity in the industry and competition from players all across the value chain. Surmounting these ongoing challenges is not impossible—unless companies come at the problems in the same way they always have.
With BCG’s help, they can use digital technologies to develop a variety of innovative business models that will dramatically improve the customer experience and eliminate entrenched operational inefficiencies.
BCG’s logistics and freight consulting team partners with companies specializing in sea forwarding, freight forwarding, contract logistics, road and air freight, and cargo.
Winning market share in the 2020s demands that logistics and freight companies innovate to address customer pain points even before they are articulated—and continue to do so consistently. BCG helps clients to streamline and accelerate their innovation processes and to hire, train, and lead their teams to become more agile.
Our freight and logistics consulting team fuels innovation by helping our clients gather more detailed and better-structured data so they paint a fine-grained picture of existing customers and their needs. We then channel that knowledge to reenvision quoting and booking processes, salesforce organization and efforts, pricing strategies, and a robust and balanced portfolio of offerings.
Formulating a sound freight strategy requires an in-depth understanding of the technological landscape, market conditions, probable future trends, and competitors’ capabilities. For some companies, the best approach is to build these capabilities through acquisition; for others it is organic growth. BCG’s freight consulting team helps navigate both paths. We also bring deep industry expertise—and broad experience applying tech and digital across industries—to developing digital offerings and launching data platforms with multiple participants including competitors
BCG helps rethink operating models to achieve greater supply chain visibility, services bundling, and other efficiencies. These transformations enable companies to add such new services as customs clearance, inland transportation, and warehousing. Ultimately, the resulting gains in efficiency, functionality, and connectivity position logistics and freight companies to deliver end-to-end supply chain management and other solutions.
Managing Director & Partner
Copenhagen
We partner with rail operators to deploy digital levers, including digital platforms, predictive analytics, advanced monitoring, and automation of operations.
Through this center, we help clients address shared challenges, such as congestion, pollution, and the development of new technologies. We help clients connect with the right stakeholders at each stage of the value chain to take new ideas from the drawing board to the street.
Creating a Blockchain-Enabled Information-Sharing Solution. We worked with two of the biggest players in the freight industry to create an interconnected ecosystem of supply chain partners. TradeLens, the result of our collaboration, is a solution that supports transparency across the value chain and encourages innovation in supply chain management. It was one of the first applications for blockchain technology in the sector, and many partners have joined the ecosystem since its launch.
Digital startups are targeting the road freight industry because several pain points present an opportunity to transform the market.
Traditional forwarders that wish to survive have no choice but to digitize.
