The digital divide between airfreight portals providing switched-on finger-tip information and those lagging behind is fast decreasing, with even 3rd party service providers wanting part of the action, marketplace platform Freightos has found.
According to the results of a survey conducted to gauge the changing dynamics of online airfreight services, there has been a marked increase in demand for immediate information, especially with respect to freight rates.
In 2019, only 10% of the websites of airfreight providers assisted visitors with instant rate searches.
Now, because of Covid-19’s disruptive impact on global supply chain, that figure has increased to 46%.
Confirmation of e-booking has also gone up, proving that shippers are more likely to search until they are satisfied than wait for confirmation of cargo movement.
Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, only 25% of airfreight websites offered on-the-spot confirmation.
Since 2019 that figure has gone up to 33%.
Such is the spiking demand for comprehensive airfreight information that service providers have increasingly turned to outside assistance.
Instant rate searches and e-booking confirmation immediacy, the Freightos survey has found, means 46% and 42% of respondents in these respective categories relied on 3rd party assistance to secure customer satisfaction.
Third-party involvement, Freightos added, had become especially prevalent in the airfreight market compared to ocean freight, where only 18% of respondents confirmed that 3rd party operators had assisted with stepped-up service provision.
The growing trend of shippers and freight forwarders wanting to know exactly when cargo will go and what it will cost, had also manifested in an increase in cargo tracking, Freightos said.
Its survey found that 42% of airfreight providers, significantly more than had previously been the case, now offered real-time tracking as an added software service.
