According to this article...
"According to the shippers we surveyed, they rated proactive notification of problems with a shipment as their most important aspect of customer service from the forwarder. However, most forwarders were scored by the shippers as 'less than acceptable' in this key service attribute,"
"Despite the many millions invested in technology, it also seems that the flow of information between supply chain partners is still less than optimal."
And you thought I was sniffing glue when I said price isn't the most important consideration when selecting a forwarder. Well, I'm not the only one inhaling...
Transport Intelligence found that shippers rate proactive problem notification as the most important service requirement from a forwarder, over and above reliability, with track and trace capability also in the top three services attributes looked for by a shipper. Again, pricing came in at fourth in the shipper requirement ratings.
And here's another dirty secret of international freight. You have no control over anything. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Worse, neither do your forwarders. When things go wrong, they go very, very wrong.
"Although forwarders have to rely to a large extent on the performance of their carriers, the survey strongly suggests that when things do go wrong they still need to be more proactive in informing their customers."
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