Freight forwarders have entered a brave new era where their employees need to have better cross training in order to service their clients. Freight shipping has moved into the global arena and more suppliers have realized that in order to remain competitive, they need to provide better training to their employees and they must find ways of trimming their costs and overhead. Although offering air freight and other forms of shipping help to diversify the services provided by freight forwarders, it is important that each service provider continue to insist on periodic training for their employees in order to remain at the forefront of the changing industry.

There is currently a consensus in the freight industry that the only providers that will continue to remain on top will be those that find ways of providing a more comprehensive and complete customer experience. Not only will freight forwarders have to provide commercial shipping services, but their agents must now be well versed in the nuances of certain types of deliveries including air freight security, dangerous goods and international trade. Many of the world’s freight forwarding organisations are now providing workshops to their members in order to get them up to speed on all of the changes that are so rapidly taking place in their industry.

Freight forwarders are faced with having to constantly innovative in order to continue providing the kind of services for which they are known, but at rates that businesses want to pay. For that reason freight shipping logisticians are always busy modelling the delivery of different kinds of shipments via various routes using alternate carriers in order to find the best methods of shipping by the most reliable routes at the lowest possible cost. Freight forwarders are also involved in creating the infrastructure necessary for the shipping industry to continue functioning properly without interruption.

Another element that is playing an increasingly large role in the freight forwarding industry is that of cross functional integration. Cross functional integration is a fancy term to describe the process by which manufacturers, suppliers and distributors know exactly when to begin their next supply runs based on the delivery and sale of products. For example, if a pair of Nike running shoes are sold in London, then a report must go out to the Nike headquarters to begin their next production run. The information should then trigger a purchasing request in order for the required materials to be available for the creation of the next batch of running shoes. The flow of information that is needed for such a chain to work smoothly is another element on which freight forwarders are working.

There is a growing need for freight forwarders in our global economy. The fact that our world no longer sleeps means that international trade will continue to grow; therefore, young people who are looking for an exciting career can definitely find it in the freight forwarding industry. There is plenty of scope for bright young minds to help shape the future of the freight forwarding industry.