At the heart of the logistics industry’s digitalization efforts is the idea of improving visibility into end-to-end product movement within the supply chain. Greater transparency into operations allows stakeholders to take stock of their situation and more effectively partner with associated companies to improve efficiency.
Automated freight forwarder Transship has partnered with digital cargo insurance company Loadsure to provide its broker customers options for pay-as-you-go, wraparound insurance coverage for all perishable goods.
FreightWaves caught up with Amit Hasak, the CEO of Transship, to understand the synergy between the two companies and how the partnership will help in its efforts to deliver a fully automated freight forwarding offering.
“I ran a cold storage warehouse in Chicago for many years, where we stored perishable goods like frozen beef, poultry, pork, vegetables and dairy. I dealt almost exclusively with exporters, and I saw that they hated the business as the freight forwarding industry at that time was very outdated,” said Hasak.
Hasak contended that traditional business models within freight forwarding were time consuming, expensive, unreliable and inefficient, as they predominantly depended on manual labor in their daily operations. “Our idea is to automate as many processes as possible,” he said.
Transship looks to automate end-to-end global refrigerated maritime shipping processes. When vessels carrying perishable goods arrive at the port of destination, they need to have the bills of lading, certificates of origin and other provenance details in order. However, these documents often get lost, misplaced or damaged, leading to customs delays and added detention charges.
“By digitalizing these documents and putting them over a blockchain network, Transship users can invite people they’ve authorized to get on the network and check the documents in real time even as the vessel arrives at the dock,” said Hasak. “We also provide real-time tracking of the location and the temperature and humidity inside the reefer unit.”
Reefers on long journeys, like between China and the U.S. for instance, spend over six weeks at sea. This makes it vital for shippers to know if the reefer units broke down and started back up during the journey, as long breakdowns can damage perishable goods.
“We empower the shipper. If and when there’s a problem, shippers can check for the type of issue, the time of its occurrence and the event’s duration. Based on those details, shippers can go after anybody responsible. Our business model is not based on manual labor but strategic partnerships. The recent one is Loadsure, and we are talking to a 3PL from Panama and a freight forwarder from China to join our network,” said Hasak.
With Loadsure, Hasak sees great synergy, as both the companies are looking to disrupt outdated operations within the supply chain industry, albeit from different ends. “What we are creating is a marketplace for small or new exporters, aside from the giant exporters who can also save time and money on our platform. Transship brings small shippers together to be part of our platform, and then goes out on their behalf to negotiate lower shipping rates,” he said.
Transship’s blockchain network helps small exporters enjoy the logistics sophistication enjoyed by the bigger shippers within a trusted and secure network, while also eliminating daily manual tasks like phone calls and emails.
“We are creating a consortium that has all components of an exporting ecosystem under a single roof. Transship can make processing and scheduling shipments in five to 10 minutes, which would normally take hours if not days to process,” said Hasak. “All our partnerships with 3PLs, freight forwarders and carriers complement each other while we continue to remain this system’s mothership.”