Torben Rick

Digitization of shipping process – Container shipping sets course for digitization

Traditional industries like shipping are ripe for substantial change

Digital technologies continue to transform business processes all over the world. Shipping and logistics are no exception!

Shippers traditionally go through freight forwarders to book space for goods on container vessels, but the process is changing.

Maersk Line – a unit of Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk A/S – a global leader in container shipping, has partnered with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to offer an online reservation service (Cangweibao) to cargo shippers looking for space on its vessels.

Aimed at small and medium Chinese exporters, and offering a way to effectively bypass the services of the thousands of freight forwarders whose business depend one brokering freight space on box ships leaving China on behalf of manufacturers, the service launched on Alibaba’s OneTouch booking portal.

OneTouch offers import and export services such as customs clearance and logistics services, and also books air freight and express services on behalf of customers.

Maersk Line said this is a part of the shipping line’s strategy to provide digitized services for customer:

The customer experience is likely to change – it’s going to be online, it’s going to be self-service, it’s going to be a lot less person-to-person, a lot fewer emails and a lot fewer phone calls.

It’s going be more cost-effective for us because the customer will be doing a lot of the work for themselves, and it’s going to affect the demarcation lines between what has traditionally been a freight forwarder and what has traditionally been a carrier.

Digitization is the key to container shipping’s future and profitability.

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Digitization spells the end of middlemen – Digitization of shipping process — https://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/muy
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