New INTTRA cargo and space matching tool could be a boon for forwarders

© Binkski

Ocean electronic trading platform INTTRA today released a new application to help freight forwarders match carrier capacity allocation with a shipper’s actual volumes.

The Container Forecasting and Allocation Solutions Tool (C-FAST) looks to align the forecast of freight forwarders’ customers’ anticipated container volume to carrier available capacity availability.

The idea came from some of its larger freight forwarding customers, including Hellmann Worldwide Logistics and JAS Worldwide Management, which had experienced difficulties with matching up internal demand from shippers with how much space shipping lines have on particular services – and which had had important implications for forwarders meeting their minimum quantity commitments (MQCs) with shipping, which they often earn rebates on.

INTTRA said the system could deliver “up to 40% operational improvement in organisations, and up to $4m annual cost savings across multiple operating regions”.

Chief executive John Fay told The Loadstar this would come through saving on manual processes for forwarders and getting “more efficient utilisation out of carriers”.

He added: “One of forwarders’ most significant issues has been capacity planning, there has been very little transparency to it – this is dynamic and updated in real time.”

“Container allocation is a critical process in how we support our customers’ most strategic demands,” said Matthew Burgess, vice president of global ocean consolidation services at JAS Worldwide.

“Gaining access to an automated tool like C-FAST would better enable us to prioritise, organise and manage the steering of cargo for multiple clientele, allowing JAS to maintain focus on the continued growth of its business and manage our key carrier providers,” he added.

It is linked to INTTRA’s Ocean Schedules, which saw an enhanced version released today that offers greater transhipment and port pair data, among other things.

However, the application remains depends upon carriers updating their sailing schedules

“There is a variability amongst carriers,” Mr Fay admitted, “and a lot of the more sophisticated carrier focus on this area as a competitive advantage as one of the ocean products is reliability.”