Logistics and Freight Industry Consulting

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.

Teaming Up to Go Digital

Twill Logistics is one example of how we partner with clients to develop digital capabilities. BCG Digital Ventures developed this in-house digital-forwarding offering to expand a major shipping liner’s service.

Launching a startup within a giant global company required an experimental and fully collaborative approach that Twill’s original CEO described as BCG and Twill “being joined at the hip” to ensure that the new program got the expertise and support it needed.

How BCG Helps in the Logistics and Freight Industry

BCG’s logistics and freight consulting team partners with companies specializing in sea forwarding, freight forwarding, contract logistics, road and air freight, and cargo.

We collaborate with clients on innovation

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.

We help our clients become customer-centric

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.

We partner with logistics and freight industry companies to build advanced IT, analytics, and digital capabilities

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

We advise clients on transformations that better integrate their freight operations

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.

BCG’s Tools and Solutions for the Rail Industry

BCG Platinion

Rail infrastructure and rail transport firms collaborate with BCG’s specialty business BCG Platinion to perfect the tech side of transformation. We assist with IT architecture design, digital transformation, risk management services, cybersecurity, and implementation management.

BCG GAMMA

BCG GAMMA’s data scientists partner with BCG’s rail industry experts to help develop AI-powered solutions and machine-learning algorithms that our clients own and integrate into their unique technology stack.

B Capital Group

B Capital Group, a global venture capital firm in partnership with BCG, invests in business-to-business startups during their early expansion stage and fosters partnerships between entrepreneurs and corporate leaders. We enjoy particular success connecting entrepreneurs with corporations seeking to adopt emerging technologies.

BCG’s Transportation and Logistics Market Insight Tool

Our tool provides decision makers with a powerful cockpit for steering operational choices. The tool compiles data on 7 industries, 25 market segments and subsegments, and 31 financial KPIs. Get a complete picture of the industry’s forecast trends and assess your company’s relative performance.

BCG’s Center for Digital in Transportation

We partner with rail operators to deploy digital levers, including digital platforms, predictive analytics, advanced monitoring, and automation of operations.

BCG’s Center for Mobility Innovation

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.

Featured Client Work in the Logistics and Freight Industry

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.