What differentiates a digital platform from a forwarding agency or a digital forwarding agency?
The transportation and logistics sector is evolving quickly, mostly as a result of digitization, which has had an impact on practically every industry around the globe.
Freight forwarding has seen a number of modifications as well as the emergence of numerous new terminology, titles, and designations as a result of digitalization. Keeping track of the numerous new terms being used in the sector today and how they differ from established names is not a simple chore.
So, in this post, we’ll discuss how to tell a forwarding agency from a digital forwarding agency, an online forwarding agency, and a digital platform.
· Carrier
A company that arranges for the shipment of products on behalf of others is known as a freight forwarding company. In the past, shipping and logistics involved phone calls and emails, quotes that took three days to receive (if you were lucky), and little to no real-time knowledge of the shipping status or the current location of the offered goods. Today, trucking companies still make up the majority of the transportation and logistics industry.
· Digital freight forwarding
A digital freight forwarder and a traditional freight forwarder perform virtually identical tasks; the only difference is how they go about doing it. Digital freight forwarders use various technologies, as opposed to traditional freight carriers, which primarily rely on telephone and email:
– Arrange the import and export of goods
– Develop price functions
– To communicate with customers
– To create digital customer platforms
The definition of a digital shipping company has become the new standard, therefore one could argue that the phrase “digital shipping” serves no greater function. The bulk of freight forwarders nowadays can be characterized as digital because the majority of transportation businesses employ digital tools in one form or another.
Finally, the phrase “digital shipping company” is used to refer, quite simply, to a shipping company that coordinates the import and export of commodities on behalf of others using digital technology.
· Digital platform
The two terms that frequently lead to confusion are “digital platform” and “digital freight forwarding.” A digital platform is not the same as a digital shipping enterprise.
A digital platform for freight transportation is an automated platform for cooperation that connects freight purchasers directly with their suppliers and freight company (shipping companies, transport companies, and customs offices), eliminating the need for middlemen. The goal of a digital marketplace is to improve the logistics chain so that it may be customized to meet individual demands, offer the freight buyer power and flexibility, and automate a substantial portion of the process.
Freight purchasers can select from hundreds of logistics providers for their multimodal door-to-door deliveries on a digital platform like PDS International and apply filters for pricing, transport time, and environmental impact for all transport chains. A digital platform allows freight purchasers complete control and visibility over the whole transport chain, saving them time, effort, and money in the long run.
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