The development trend of international freight forwarding industry

(1) Mergers and acquisitions between companies have become an important means for enterprises to enhance their competitiveness

From a worldwide point of view, large-scale mergers and acquisitions of international freight forwarders are becoming more and more common, representative cases: First, eagle, the largest heavy cargo air freight forwarder in the United States, announced in Dallas that the acquisition of circle, a veteran American freight forwarder with a history of 102 years, has been completed. The new company will have a vast network of more than 400 offices worldwide, 8,000 employees and an annual turnover of more than $1.5 billion. Through this acquisition, eagle has become the world's leading international freight carrier from a domestic carrier. The second is the United Kingdom's ocean Group and exel company, the former is the world's top 10 air freight forwarder British Air freight (msas) parent company, the latter is Europe's largest integrated logistics services company, the new company after the merger has more than 1 400 offices around the world, the annual turnover will be up to 5 billion US dollars.

(2) Freight forwarding enterprises are developing into third-party logistics enterprises

With the development of global economic integration, transnational corporations are trading more and more frequently all over the world, and the demand for transportation has developed from port to port to door to door. From the original sea, air, land and other modes of transport to the integrated application of a variety of transport logistics services. In fact, the industry's leading freight forwarders such as danzasaei, panalpina, msas, k&n and others are in or have already completed the transformation into logistics companies, and more and more companies are also embarking on the transformation of their business to suit the evolving multi-layered needs of their customers.

Freight forwarding companies into the third party has the advantages of "near water" : first, it has the inherent infrastructure and network advantages, which is difficult to achieve in a short time with less investment; Second, the business to organize and arrange transportation for its specialty, more familiar with the circulation of goods and various links, with strong control and control ability, through the overall design and management of the circulation chain of goods, you can minimize the cost and time of the circulation of goods; Third, the quality of personnel and management level is high, the service is competitive, and the strength is strong in the aspects of chartering and booking space, customs clearance and cargo collection and port transportation.

(3) Information technology is widely used in all areas of business

A few years ago, through the international freight forwarding company's Internet site to inquire their own waybill dynamics is still very fashionable, and now, with the rapid development of database and Internet technology, almost all the large freight forwarding companies have provided online tracking function, and some even provide online printing bill of lading, online booking, online payment of freight. Online inventory management, online supply chain management and other value-added services. Therefore, the competition of international freight forwarding service essentially becomes the competition of information service.

(4) "knowledge-based freight forwarding" will become a new trend in the international freight forwarding industry

At present, in addition to providing general sea, land and air transportation services, international freight forwarding companies also provide integrated logistics solutions according to customers' industry characteristics, cost targets, production processes, supply chain networks and other information.