CargoSphere Reveals Half Billion $$$ Cost to FFs to Manage Ocean Carrier Rates

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, February 22, 2017 - CargoSphere, the single rate platform for frictionless rate distribution, networking and cloud-based freight rate management, today announces findings, from an original research project commissioned from Drewry Supply Chain Advisors, which quantifies an annual cost burden of $500 million for freight forwarders (FFs) to find and manage ever-changing ocean carrier rates. The $500 million expense represents costs incurred by only one ocean shipping business segment. It does not include the inefficiencies and costs incurred by the rate originators, ocean carriers, or BCO (beneficial cargo owner) shippers. Furthermore, it also does not include the cost of system investments to support or reduce labor costs.

CargoSphere commissioned this research to quantify the inefficiencies they have been working to ease for more than ten years.

Drewry Supply Chain Advisors Research
After defining the size and makeup of the global FF industry, Drewry conducted primary research with a sampling of small, medium and large FFs. Drewry determined the time and effort to receive and process rate sheets, determine global tariffs and create a way to compare carrier options and look-up rates.

It was determined that the global FF industry annually spends 24.4 million hours doing buy-rate management including inputting rate data into their company's internal systems. This time and effort adds up to an overall annual cost of $500 million to the global FF community.

CargoSphere's SUDS, eSUDS and the Rate Mesh solutions tackle this serious industry problem to eliminate cost and a colossal operational burden. These solutions also accelerate the movement of real-time rates from carriers to forwarders so they can more rapidly quote and service their shipper customers and thereby strengthen relationships.

"The cost burden of global ocean freight rate processing is a huge weight on the industry as a whole. One that is not sustainable for global FFs, carriers or BCO shippers. This exorbitant cost underscores the need to focus on digitizing all aspects of rate management, networking and distribution, as it is an extremely important business enabler for global ocean shipping. After all, what company today has the luxury of ignoring technology solutions that can improve productivity, competitive position, and customer satisfaction!" said Neil Barni, president of CargoSphere. "Our vision has always been to align our technology with the needs of the industry to improve business performance, rather than promoting disintermediation or a race to the bottom for carriers and forwarders."

Read Drewry executive summary here.
http://cargosphere.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Drewry-CargoSphere-Industry-Rate-Management-Research-Summary.pdf

About CargoSphere
CargoSphere is the single rate platform for all that delivers frictionless freight rate distribution, networking and cloud-based rate management.

CargoSphere's Rate Mesh offers shipping partners immediate, confidential rate collaboration to simplify rate communication and provide a faster, more effective way to receive and distribute ocean freight rates. Ocean carriers and co-loaders push current, complete bottom-line rates to customer systems via the Rate Mesh to significantly reduce processing times for all.
Systematized contract and rate management provides the CargoSphere user community with accurate, timely freight rates for rate sharing, easy searches, rate comparisons and quoting, as well as the ability to self-publish FMC tariffs.
During these competitive times, CargoSphere offers business-enabling solutions that significantly improve productivity and business results. Users benefit from faster access to current and accurate rate data, greater processing efficiency and the ease associated with a systematized database that is their single source of truth. For more information, visit: www.cargosphere.com.