Multimodal Transport: A First Principles Approach to Logistics Management

Ocean freight costs can range from 3% to 10% of the total value of the shipment, and SaaS business tools to in-house freight services at SMB-scale simply haven't existed. First, some observations on the FF market opportunity for improved SaaS freight management tools, then a bit about how this will affect agri CTOs in particular, and finally, how Bolster's shipment visibility product solves the challenges.

Freight Forwarding: Getting Stuff from A to B

Each year more than a Billion containers are processed through the world's ports. Assuming that every shipment includes at least 2.5 ports (allowing for some transshipments through other ports), that comes out to no less than 400 Million container shipments per year, each with its own set of archaic and confusing documentation. The management of container shipment documentation has strongly contributed to the creation of a $200 Bn/year industry called Freight Forwarding. As a reference point, the global accounting services market is sized at $580 Bn. However, unlike accounting, freight forwarding has been subject to less disruption to date, arguably due to the previous lack of data and technical price performance. 

Through dozens of interviews, we came away with three main conclusions. 

The industry largely remains analogue and pull-based (phones and faxes) rather than digital and event-based (APIs and webhooks). It is also aware of the risks that automation poses and willing to reinvest in the modernization of their analytical services usage (i.e. SaaS MRR). To the extent that multimodal/intermodal shipment visibility is available for exporters, it is layered rather than fully integrated, which significantly constrains the potential for better forecasting. What does this mean for CTOs?

Within 2010 Australian agricultural exports transport costs accounted for 21% of total product costs. In 2022 this cost was much higher and sits alongside salaries paid to anywhere from 1-10 logistics managers, planners, and analysts for a given business. As prices rise, these substantial (and seemingly fixed) Costs To Serve will really start to pinch. Exporters must immediately seek to leverage previous investments into digitization, Cloud, and/or IoT to deploy automation and generate efficiencies. In the same way that recession-wary investors may be liquidating investments and "going to cash," a wise CEO/CTO will be considering ways to operationalize enterprise APIs, deploy Cloud Services, and generally to highlight parts of the business where automation might have the greatest effect.

How does Bolster Track Supply Chain Risks and Opportunities?

Bolster reduces the need for this spend by answering three key questions: 

1. "Is everything running to schedule?"
2. "If not - where and why?"
3. "What can I improve?"

Bolster's Supply Chain Solution answers these questions in three steps:

1. Automate the pain of keeping tabs on export shipments (vessel/container/port tracking and booking integration) 
2. Data Storage - Bolster's Cloud Integration Platform is used to store SMAQ data as a serialized and queryable event object at very high scales and to expose those data through open APIs.
3. Visualise Opportunities - such that freight forwarders can migrate toward higher-value add analytical services.

The Bolster Supply Chain Solution is money spent efficiently. We do the following, so you don't have to.

Automate the pain

Automate keeping tabs on export shipments (vessel/container/port tracking and booking integration). Less time on the "Where?". More time on the "Now what?"

Data Storage

Bolster's Cloud Integration Platform is used to store SMAQ data as a serialized and queryable event object at very high scales and to expose that data through open APIs. Invest in a Data solution that you can leverage now. 

Visualise Opportunities

Our easy-to-use Dashboards keep things simple, interpretable & shareable. Bolster helps you steer the conversation from "Is there a problem?" to "How can we act?"

All the buzzwords are a reality - Freight forwarders can migrate toward higher-value add analytical services.

Bolster knows data. You know your business. Let's get further ahead together.

The answers to:

• Is everything running to schedule? 
• What's at risk of going wrong & why? 

...are just a click away.

By using Bolster, our Customers can focus their energy & resources, saving time & money, on what matters most.