How ecommerce helped the freight forwarding business

How ecommerce serve welled the committalage trans larboard businessIntroductionThe implementation of internet and electronic communicating systems is changing the traditional face of clog forward and the shipping assiduity has to change with it. It is evident that e-commerce is no longer an emergent technology and it has already conquered a major place in the heart of burden send business. Electronic communication system has bring one of the main scoop egress card in shipping industry to live up the higher(prenominal) expectations of a customer. This paper will review briefly the applications of e-commerce in prevalent and in particular to the transport sector especially encumbrance forwarding business.E-CommerceElectronic commerce is defined as the electronic reciprocation ( manner of speaking or transaction) of entropy, goods, services, and payments over telecommunications networks.It involves mainly distri furtherion, buying, selling, marketing and servicing of pr oducts or services done the use of electronic means such as the Internet, and other computation machine networks. E-commerce has grown exponentially due to the convergence of technological developments, the merging of the telecommunications and computing industries, and sphericalised business models. The universal adoption of the Internet not only take to further rapid growth of the B2B sector, but also created a invigorated business-to-consumer (B2C) market.The main factor that put e-commerce towards the top of the public is the popularisation and commercialization of internet. E-commerce now touches virtually all aspects of economic and social life.(Swamidass,2000) encumbrance furtheranceFreight forwarders acts as an intermediary between exporters, importers or other companies organising streamlined transportation of goods. They makes ar celestial orbitment for transportation of goods by satisfying the customer requirements victimisation various services like Shipping line s, Airlines Road and Rail incumbrance operators. There are a lot of companies knotted in freight forwarding business and these varies according to the size and type. In some cases the freight forwarders will only deal with particular goods only and they will be confined to certain geographical areas. Following are the functions carried out in freight forwarding businessCargo consolidation and multimodal transportTran dispatchPacking, computer storage and distribution.Arranging charge insuranceDocumentation and usance clearance hire of freight and local taxesSaved fax, phone and courier costs misfortune to reuse instruction and create templatesTransport distribution analysis and transportations arrangements(UNESCAP,2011) great speed in transactionsIn e-commerce, transactions are hurried than traditional commercial transactions. Before the advent of e-commerce, freight forwarders prepared the rolls with the help of a lawyer and lot of stamps were used. The main advantage of e- commerce is that it allows electronic exchange of cargo documents through internet like bill of lading instructions, freight invoices, container status messages, motor carrier shipment instructions, and other documents with increase verity and efficiency by eliminating the need to re-key or reformat documents. It also enables streamline document discourse for shippers, freight forwarders and trucking firms without the monetary and time investment required by the traditional document delivery systems and olibanum paperwork is signifi pottytly reduce and the shipping department will therefore be more efficient.(ELC,2011).For simulation US Customs Service supports an EDI-based system for ocean cargo which can report, electronically, the cargo manifest, bill of lading and other shipping-related information. This online data system has proved to be beneficial in permitting quicker cargo release and increased carrier productivity through reduced cargo- unconscious processing time. It has also helped some port authorities to become more competitive by reducing cargo customs clearance and processing times.(GXS,2011)Use of e-commerce in cargo handling documentation helps inReducing costsImproving data the trueSimplifying business processesAccelerating business cyclesEnhancing customer service.(ELC,2011)Shipment trackingClients need connectivity with the Freight Forwarding systems to access their files for status, to extract reports from Freight Forwarding databases, and have their shipments elegant in an error free and timely manner. Shipment tracking engages globular positioning systems(GPS), which keep track of vehicles so that customers can find out exact location of the shipment at a given time. This gives exigent shipping information access to anyone in the phoner, from any location. The greatest demands for shipment tracking has developed in express or parcel delivery services.(ELC,2011)DHL is an example of a accompany where tracking has always been a authoritative component to operations, which began with customers making calls to customer service to trace their goods. Now a number of options are available (Smith, 2002) Business Asia).Customer orientationE-commerce helps in delivering better services to their customers like providing websites which helps the customer to gather information intimately the freight forwarders whom they wish to transit their goods. The customers can make right last regarding their selection of the right freight forwarders. Some companies provide tariff information on the Internet sometimes along with calculators, enabling the shipper to input exposit such as cargo origin and destination, cargo characteristics, etc., providing the required freight rate instantly. These systems provide considerable benefit to shippers by simplifying and expediting numerous tasks involved in freight rating, which would otherwise involve considerable time, cost and pitying resources to virtuoso(a) .Another fact is that these website helps in boosting, branding and building up the grace of God of the freight forwarders for the purpose of marketing.(Lai Wang,2008)FedEx uses their secure saver which helps the software to set up an online catalogue and the order-handling system hooks into a user interface which helps to shew online customers orders and make sure of confirmation numbers. With automatic inventory updating it is workable to pack the order.(Timmer 1999).. FedEx also has an E-Commerce Builder program, which offers Web design, hosting, order management, real-time fiscal settlement, and fulfillment to small and midsize companies, at no cost.(Business wire,2011)Shipping portalsThese have become a major strategic positioning exercise by liners, but internal strategies vary. The three major liner shipping portals online areGT Nexus, an e-logistics software company, using its portal to drive its strategy of becoming a global leader in e-logistics software and servicesINTTRA, an indu stry portal instead than a software provider, aiming to facilitate the interaction between users and their carriersCargoSmart, aiming to add place to core booking and tracking facilities and to provide a more complete solution to users.(Wn,2011)3PL LogisticsIncreased adoption of logistic out-sourcing by manufacturing companies has led a steady growth of third party logistics (3PL) and in recent years, about of the traditional freight forwarders have transformed into 3PL.For the smooth operation of the formation It is important to have successful information exchange between the parties involved in the business and to cooperate with remote warehouses and inland transport provider. here(predicate) e-commerce plays a vital role in helping the freight forwarders to potpourri out the problems with efficient communication systems and tools like EDI and ETF while they are emerging wholly as a 3PL. (Bumstead and Cannons,2002)ILG is a traditional freight forwarding company and now has emerged into a 3PL and provides services like shipping, e-commerce support, warehousing, fulfilment and the company believes that without the help of e-commerce they wouldnt have emerged as a 3PL (ILG,2011)Crown logistics, a freight forwarding company in Hong Kong with the help of e-commerce have helped to ameliorate the utilization of its resources, such as warehouse space transportation fleets, customs procedures, specialized packing and transports, on-time delivery and tracking technology. Company itself is in the process of expanding its operations across greater China, with the objective of becoming a full-pledged 3PL company (Crown logistics,2011).Port servicesSeveral maritime ports around the world, including those of New York, Rotterdam, capital of capital of Singapore and Hamburg have electronic systems which link up various parties engaged in the movement of freight through the port, including shippers, forwarders, customs, terminal operators, carriers and other port use rs.Singapore TradeNet, an EDI system that has dramatically reduced turnaround times for processing information about ship arrivals, loadings and unloadings and departures .(Applegate et al,1993)According to Lee and Whang in the ascend future, there will be an explosion of business-to-business applications of the Internet as aery companies develop new paradigms of e-business for the future. This can be understood also to carry on to new technologies that extend the ambit of e-business, such as mobile communications technology.(Lee Whang,2001)ConclusionE-commerce is an essential requirement in modern business methodology that cuts costs and at the same time increases the quality of services and thus achieving greater efficiency in freight forwarding business. The scope and range of these benefits makes it clear that e-commerce in the form of e-business processes and systems can have an enormous concern in terms of benefits to the entire supply chain.Word Count 1480