How Freight Forwarders Can Use Visibility Data to Win Peak Season

Production for peak season is ramping up right now, and bookings for space have likely already started. As a freight forwarder, it’s essential that your organization starts preparations now so your team is armed with the best possible information to serve your customers and effectively manage shipments.

Included in this eBook:

• Expert perspectives on the demands of 2023 peak season
• Resources to help you understand the value of visibility data
• Three ways freight forwarders can take action with visibility data
• The difference between location and milestone visibility
• How you can operationilize and integrate your visibility data to win peak season

While analysts argue about whether there will be a 2023 peak season, your customers need answers either way.

It seems like every week there are headlines chronicling a new disruption or regulation that impacts logistics service providers, shippers, and retailers around the world. “Port shut down amid crisis.” “Labor shortages impacting supply chains.” “Geopolitical disruptions cause major delays.”

Recent headlines have pointed to a new trend in the global supply chain - a softening of demand. This isn’t something industry pros are used to this time of year, especially as peak season production should be ramping up. Nevertheless, experts everywhere seem to agree that if there is a peak season this year, the demand won’t be as hard to manage as previous years. As strange as it seems, this is great news for your business.

Graham Parker, CEO & Founder of Gravity Supply Chain Solutions, says, “Even though the doom and gloom from late last year may impact the 2023 peak season, there will always be a rebound. If forwarders don’t start preparing now, they’ll be scrambling to keep up when demand rises.”

Peak season may not be as demanding this year, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still be prepared. Forwarders that go above and beyond will win more business the rest of the year.

Even though freight volumes are down and inflation has impacted consumer spending, forwarders everywhere should still be preparing their operations and technology infrastructure for future demands or disruptions.

Demands of a Typical Peak Season

There are traditionally two types of peak shipping seasons: ocean freight and air freight.

Ocean shipping peak season usually kicks off early to mid summer every year, while air peak season starts anytime between the US Labor Day holiday and Halloween and runs through the end of the year. During these times, there is typically a spike in freight prices, demand, and hours in a freight forwarder's day, while supply and container capacity dwindle.

Ocean Freight Peak Season

Ocean peak season, driven by back to school shopping, tech sales, and more complex imports like large electronics, puts a strain on freight forwarders everywhere. There are often delays and disruptions caused by the sheer volume of shipments that have to happen to make on-time deliveries.

Because more than 80% of the world’s traded goods travel by sea, there is a lot of strategy and planning that goes into the freight forwarding process. Although forwarders are not unfamiliar with intense shipping demands, peak season takes their day-to-day coordination and stress to another level.

Air Freight Peak Season

On the other hand, air peak season tends to be like life in the old west. Almost anything goes and there are few regulations in place to mitigate demand for forwarders. During this time, whatever shipments won’t work in a container are then shipped via air.

While air shipments are exponentially faster than ocean shipping, it comes at an extreme price. What may cost $100 on an ocean carrier could cost more than $1,000 by air. During peak season, prices only go up from there.

Connected visibility data, from the purchase order (PO) to destination, helps forwarders manage the demands of peak season.

Chain.io Helps Logistics Service Providers Use Visibility Data

While many experts think peak season may not be as demanding this year, there are always future disruptions and surges in demand that freight forwarders must still be prepared to handle. By leveraging a connected supply chain ecosystem, starting with actionable visibility data, you can stay ahead of the competition and beat the demands of peak season.

Visibility data arrives to you through endless channels and formats. Chain.io translates this data and routes it to any file type in any location for freight execution, customer visibility, reporting, and analysis. Using our pre-built supply chain integration adaptors, we can integrate your TMS to any visibility service provider within weeks so your team can focus on what matters - serving your customers.

If you start in the next few weeks, Chain.io can integrate your TMS, internal systems, or customer systems with the third-party visibility provider of your choice. We have pre-built adapters to the industry’s leading visibility software, which means we can integrate your third-party visibility data into your TMS or native platform in as little as 2-3 weeks.

With Chain.io’s network of pre-built adapters, you can connect to the visibility provider that works best for your business processes. Regardless of the data source and file type, Chain.io’s supply chain specific integrations connect your systems in just a few weeks versus months or longer with generic iPaas solutions.

Our mission is to put the right data in the right place, at the right time. Our Solutions Engineers work with you to unpack the broad category of Visibility to make sure you're integrating a solution that will achieve your business goals efficiently and with minimal risk.

Download the full eBook to understand how integrating your visibility data is the quickest way to be prepared for the demands of peak season 2023 and beyond!