Carriers and logistics providers have been quietly chipping away at the manual booking, scheduling and invoicing that cost the industry some $14 billion a year. Those savings could be as large as any that the big ships can realize. The industry already has automated most of the booking, scheduling and tracking processes.
Take a look at the partnership between the large Swiss logistics provider Kuehne + Nagel and INTTRA, the electronic booking platform. K+N has been working closely with INTTRA to automate the process of booking, scheduling and tracking cargo for its shipper customers almost from the time the e-booking platform was founded by a group of carriers in 2000.
Ten years ago, most bookings were completed by phone, fax or e-mail, which required booking clerks to open numerous files each day.
Read the rest at the Journal of Commerce (Note: sign-in required and is free)