2. WWW.WCAECOMMERCE.COM #WCAECOMMERCE
▪ Charles Marrale
-COO- Exfreight Zeta Inc.
-18 years in forwarding
-Educated in software
programming and business
analysis
-Business owner since 2006
Background
4. WWW.WCAECOMMERCE.COM #WCAECOMMERCE
▪ No automated quoting. Everything done by hand or spreadsheets. Each new quote is an opportunity to
waste time.
▪ Very little if any automation in booking process.
▪ Prefers to work with customers who have repeat business due to high costs associated with handling
transactional business.
▪ Must maintain high profit margins in order to offset high operational costs caused by lack of
automation.
▪ Due to high profit margins, business ends up coming from difficult to handle shipment sectors. Example:
extremely time sensitive, Oversized, Dangerous Goods, Perishables
▪ Market share continues to decrease and business opportunities continue to evaporate as integrators
and other digital forwarders push into these once safe markets, driving down profit margins.
▪ Being pushed to its limits by thinner profit margins forcing longer hours on lower salaries while other
markets continue to steal talent with better working hours and higher salaries.
▪ Average time to move a shipment from quote to invoice – 55-80 mins which is about 20-45 dollars in
labor per shipment (western markets).
▪ Quoting 10-20 min. Inland dispatch and tracking 10-20 min. Booking with carrier and documentation 25
min. Accounting – invoicing, auditing and paying vendors 10-15 min.
▪ The lack of automation requires a more knowledgeable, experienced and therefore more expensive
workforce.
Deep dive into traditional forwarding
5. WWW.WCAECOMMERCE.COM #WCAECOMMERCE
▪ Automated Rating, Booking, Tracking and continuously pushing for more automation
to drive down costs.
▪ Fully automated booking process which allows operations team to manage shipments
instead of booking and creating shipments.
▪ Automation allows for lower profit margins and ability to compete against integrators.
▪ Low operational costs due to automation allowing for more productivity in operations
and sales departments.
▪ Can compete in general cargo movements against all competitors- both direct carriers
and integrators.
▪ Market share continues to grow.
▪ Continues to evolve and grow into more and more markets with a bright future ahead.
▪ Average time to move a shipment from quote to invoice – 7-10 mins which is about 3
dollars in labor per shipment (western markets)
▪ Quoting 0 min. Inland dispatch and tracking– 0 min. Booking with carrier and
documentation 2-5 min. Accounting – invoicing, auditing and paying vendors 5 min.
▪ Automation in the process requires a less knowledgeable-experienced workforce and
therefore allows for lower wages, larger pool of potential employees to hire from,
faster training and onboarding.
Deep dive into digital forwarding
6. WWW.WCAECOMMERCE.COM #WCAECOMMERCE
▪ Why change
• In late 2007, markets
suffered a significant
downturn.
• Sales reps were becoming
free consultants and needed
to become more efficient at
managing clients.
• Growth prospects were
bleak and industries needed
to cut costs.
▪ The Plan
▪ Leverage best in class sales
side customer management
approach.
▪ Build software that wasn’t
available in the market to
instantly quote and book as
many services as possible.
Ex-Freight’s transformation
▪ The Result
▪ Sales people could manage and onboard more accounts faster with less
interaction.
▪ Less services offered but we were more efficient and cost effective at the
services we did offer.
▪ Our ability to provide connectivity through instant pricing won more business
based solely on our ability to quote and book instantly rather than winning
solely on cost.
▪ Operations became more efficient and profitable.
▪ Lessons Learned
▪ Initial concept was easy however we had to scale back all the options made
available to customer. Too many options confused customer and led to
emails and calls which slowed down sales and ops.
▪ The cheapest carrier wasn’t always the best carrier. It was better to work
with carriers who believed and supported the vision.
▪ Work with fewer carriers who have more global coverage rather than niche
ones.
▪ Never stop innovating and refining the process. Technology is always
updating, expanding, innovating, customizing and streamlining.
▪ Always clearly define what your services include and do not include.
▪ Don’t be lazy- an hour of work today towards going digital can be worth an
infinite amount of time in the future!
7. WWW.WCAECOMMERCE.COM #WCAECOMMERCE
▪ Flexport
▪ 800 million+ valuation.
▪ VC backed.
▪ Established 2013.
▪ WCA Member.
▪ Headquarters San
Francisco, CA, USA.
▪ flexport.com
Existing digital forwarders in the
market
▪ Global Forwarding
Enterprises
▪ Established 2008.
▪ Privately Held.
▪ Headquarters Manalapan,
New Jersey, USA.
▪ WCA Member.
▪ globalforwarding.com
▪ Freighthub
▪ VC backed.
▪ Established 2016.
▪ Headquarters
Berlin, Germany.
▪ Freighthub.com
▪ ExFreight Zeta
▪ Privately Held.
▪ Established 2006.
▪ WCA Member.
▪ Headquarters Lake
Worth, FL, USA.
▪ Exfreight.com
8. WWW.WCAECOMMERCE.COM #WCAECOMMERCE
Freightalia
• Operating system
that allows for
quoting and booking.
• Online platform.
• Internal rate
management.
• Inexpensive per user
pricing model.
• www.freightalia.com
Existing technologies
FreightOS
• Operating system
that allows for
quoting and booking.
• Does not currently
support the
operational side of
the transaction- just
the sales side.
• Online platform.
• www.freightos.com
Ship Primus
• Operating system that
allows for quoting and
booking and tracking.
• Heavily into domestic
US market. Limited for
international.
• Inexpensive per user
pricing model.
• www.shipprimus.com
TMS systems on market today
9. WWW.WCAECOMMERCE.COM #WCAECOMMERCE
7L Freight
• Air and truck rate
management.
• For ops use only
not customer
facing.
• Low cost per user
fee.
• www.7lfreight.com
Existing technologies
Cargo Sphere
• Primarily a FCL and LCL
rate management tool.
• FCL Contract rate
management services.
• www.cargosphere.com
Cargo Guide
• Primarily air rate
management tool.
• Provides access to local
airline GSA market and
promo rates.
• Must be an IATA Agent.
• For ops use only not
customer facing.
• Offers Ocean rate
management tools as well.
• Low cost per user fee.
• www.cargoguide.com
Catapult
• Multimodal rate
management tool.
• FCL contract
management services.
• www.gocatapult.com
Rate management tools
10. WWW.WCAECOMMERCE.COM #WCAECOMMERCE
Win
• Air and FCL tracking.
• EAWB transmission.
• APIs for connectivity
with your TMS.
• Low cost, with per
transaction fees.
• www.winwebconnect.com
Existing technologies
Champ
• Air tracking.
• EAWB
transmission.
• APIs for
connectivity with
your TMS.
• Low cost, with per
transaction fees.
• www.champ.aero
Ocean Insights
• FCL tracking.
• Detention and
Demurrage tracking.
• Tracking using both
carrier information
and vessel
positioning data.
• Sailing schedules.
• APIs for connectivity
with your TMS.
• Low cost, with per
transaction fees.
• ocean-insights.com
Inttra
• Connectivity for
booking and
tracking on FCL
movements.
• Your company
must be on the
BOL as notify,
shipper or
consignee or it
wont sync with
your account.
• EDI capable.
• www.inttra.com
Project-44
• Connectivity for
rating, booking,
tracking,
documentation.
• Mainly for US
trucking market.
• APIs for
connectivity with
your TMS.
• www.project44.co
m
Tracking and booking tools
11. WWW.WCAECOMMERCE.COM #WCAECOMMERCE
▪ The traditional forwarders’ current trajectory of lower margins driven by outside competition from integrators and direct carriers is
unsustainable.
▪ The workload continues to grow with less margin, forcing the traditional forwarder into a self defeating prophecy – There is less and less
time and resources left in the day to establish the necessary databases and agent networks to become a digital forwarder.
▪ The longer you wait the less time and resources you will have to transition.
▪ Easy to use and cost effective technology is available now and provides the ability to transition your business model into a digital forwarder.
▪ Automation allows for a whole host of unforeseen cost savings – lower labor costs, faster employee onboarding and training, etc.
▪ Automation allows for connectivity and therefore more possible customers who you could not service before.
Analysis
