Shippers and airlines have been calling for greater collaboration – but at no threat to forwarders in the air cargo chain.
As Jason Frerich, Nike’s director global logistics infrastructure, noted at the WCS in Shanghai last week: “Forwarders serve a purpose. We couldn’t handle getting involved ...
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Comment on this article
Ed Kerwin
March 21, 2015 at 3:10 amI was working for BA in North America during the early 90’s and my memory of the market situation is different. Calling on shippers had pretty much stopped when yields fell as deregulation spread in North America and rate negotiation became a fact of life. It became too expensive for carriers to make sales calls on shippers since the value for the investment was significantly diminished. This was the start of the change in the position of the forwarder from agent of the airline to customer of the airline. Today the situation is even more complicated because many airlines no longer call on the forwarders! They have either sold the capacity to a third party cargo marketing company or they utilize GSA companies to handle the sales activity. Some shippers may be saying they want to have direct contact with air carriers, but what value will that create? As noted by Jason Frerich, there is a difference between the ocean and air modes. Some large shippers will negotiate directly with ocean carriers as the BCO which doesn’t happen in air with the possible exception of charter services and domestic transportation. I am just not sure what the shipper will gain from a direct relationship with the air carrier under today’s market conditions. Will this ultimately initiate another shift in market conditions?