A rising demand for e-commerce in Africa, coupled with greater availability of supply chain data, are two key drivers behind the growth in the less-than-containerload (LCL) segment of the market, according to global forwarders.
Vice president of DHL Global Forwarding, Felix Heger, said the availability of cargo information within the supply chain was making it possible to increase consolidation across suppliers, resulting in transportation becoming more efficient.
“LCL demand is rising because of smaller, more specific consignments, more trade lanes, and greater efficiency,” he said, pointing out that technology helped to optimise the cargo flow and enable better tracking of timestamps.
Graham Cousins, Vanguard Global chief strategy officer, agreed, adding that e-commerce and digitisation were changing the dynamics and economics of freight markets, demanding ease of use, transparency, and on-demand solutions for international shipping.
He said that due to the “exponential growth of e-commerce”, trade patterns were shifting to dynamic and omni-channel supply chains — closer to customer — for which digital LCL gave access to speed, flexibility and smaller cargo lots at the most efficient cost.
Last month several global forwarders announced expansion of their LCL services, with transportation and logistics heavyweight UPS adding direct sailings on 130 trade lanes, including Africa.
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Trade patterns are shifting to dynamic and omni-channel supply chains. – Graham Cousins
