Cogoport warns industry of slow pace of technology take-up

The Air Cargo Europe (ACE) and transport logistic exhibitions and conferences that runs alongside each other in Munich are not the only logistics industry events being held this week.

The Evofenedex SCM Summit was held yesterday (June 5) in Zoetermeer, in the west of the Netherlands.

The Evofenedex SCM conference considered how disruptive new platforms are impacting the global supply chain; its theme was ‘Logistics and platforms: future music or harsh reality?’

Flemming Frost, the president of Mumbai-headquartered freight booking platform Cogoport, told delegates that digital practices and technology adoption are bringing greater productivity, effectiveness and profitability to the shipping and logistics industry.

And he said that the time is now right for technology to play a much bigger role in shipping, in order to facilitate greater efficiency.

Frost remarked: “Traditionally the industry has been marred by opacity, information asymmetry and inefficiency.

“But now our freight industry is slowly being rethought and disrupted by technology, with conventional processes being transformed and transparency being demanded by customers in the market.

“Technology, like the Cogoport platform, is helping companies to recast value chains, improve client satisfaction, customer and financial management, and to increase their profitability – which can only be good for the global economy.”

Frost believes that freight marketplaces such as that offered by Cogoport represent a far-reaching digital transformation that is for to the benefit of the industry.

“It’s a change for the better – providing clarity and transparency to shippers, while reducing their costs with a simpler, more efficient and effective booking product,” he said.

But Frost warned that industry inefficiencies were being tolerated, unnecessarily, because of the slow rate of adoption of new technology over the past decade.

He warned those at the SCM summit: “The demand for a more efficient shipping industry isn’t going away, technology is here to stay.

“Those who grasp this opportunity will survive and thrive in the long term. Others who fail to exploit the savings that technology can offer them will wither and struggle to survive.”

Speakers at the Evofenedex SCM Summit included representatives from industry organisations such as Capgemini, Uber freight, Tradelens and DiManEx.