Transformation to freight forwarding was long overdue in order to shed many of those manual and repetitive functions. This drove us to explore a new business model, reveals Mohammed Zakkiria, Cofounder, FreightBro
- When did you start this enterprise? And how did you go about establishing this platform?
FreightBro was established on 3rd October, 2016. The manual and repetitive nature of everyday operations in freight forwarding are primarily where most of the inefficiencies of the industry stem from and they remain same irrespective of forwarders’ size. You could look at the past trends of the industry and realize that despite the fact that technology disruption was ubiquitous across all industries, freight forwarding somehow remained traditional and refused to evolve. Clearly, the customer experience in freight forwarding is not at par with the banking industry/ecommerce and we all seemed to be okay about this evident gap.
These challenges combined with a lot of brainstorming along with Raghav and Anand, the other cofounders of FreightBro, helped us come up with probable solutions. Changing the logistics user experience was of utmost importance in a way similar to what net banking was doing for the banking industry. Internet, Mobile population & E-commerce Growth seemed like the perfect drivers of transformation which further drove us to explore opportunities & a new business model in this industry. We discussed the business and analysed the risks of the industry adaptation and when assured that we were in the right space and time, FreightBro was incepted. FreightBro is currently simplifying freight forwarding processes for hundreds of enterprises all over the world.
- You have stated in your site that the platform was “to solve some of freight forwarding’s complex challenges” Please explain?
FreightBro is trying to solve issues regarding inefficiencies and speed in logistics and freight forwarding. The flow of information from Enquiry to Quote to Book to Actual Cargo Movement to Visibility & Data Insights isn’t streamlined and hence time taken is quite substantial to complete these basic activities. Lot of communication channels are involved and an activity as basic as procuring rates essentially may consume a lot of time. Workflow automation is very much required and here is where FreightBro steps in. We provide real-time visibility and information, data standards and predictive analytics for businesses which helps freight forwarders leverage analytics to take major business decisions. Our solutions help reduce 70% operational time, 50% cost and increasing sales by 30% approximately.
- Your platform allows forwarders to create their own branded digital front-end and automate their sales and shipment management processes seamlessly. Could you explain this?
Elite, FreightBro’s white label solution provides freight forwarders with a customer facing platform that holistically addresses the major inefficiencies a forwarder faces. Elite is a plug and play solution that helps digitally equip a forwarder so as to deliver an exceptional user experience. It also provides analytical insights while allowing them to focus on their core competencies. Elite ensures clutter free communication with customers and makes shipment management a seamless experience across teams with any web-enabled device or with IOS and android applications. Elite is fast, safe, secure and hosted on dedicated private cloud servers with access to priority support from FreightBro.
- Forwarders can automate the routine processes through a selfservice shipment booking platform similar to airlines. Search – Quote – Book – Track -Analyse and manage on the go! Could you run me through this process?
Yes, with the FreightBro platform freight forwarding can be done in just a few clicks. The platform allows customers to search rates from liners on the go, enables instant quote generation, helps customers book their shipments online, track and trace their shipments in real-time and leverage critical data analytics to make important business decisions.
