Research Reveals Challenges in Route Planning for International Shipping 

Fluent Cargo, the multimodal routing engine dedicated to the global logistics market, today unveiled its latest industry survey exploring the challenges involved in route planning for international shipping. The comprehensive study highlights the significant amount of time spent by industry professionals on web research, and the urgent need for more streamlined and innovative solutions.

The survey, which collected 187 responses from a diverse range of stakeholders including freight forwarders, beneficial cargo owners, third-party logistics service providers, carriers, consultants, buyers, and traders, delved into several aspects of route planning. Key areas of focus included tools employed, time spent on research, decision-making aids and types of shipments and cargo requiring the most research.

Key findings from the survey include:

• Over half (51%) of respondents spent more than 15 minutes per shipment on web-based research, with 10% of respondents spending over 30 minutes per shipment and 14% spending over 45 minutes per shipment.
• A majority of respondents began their research with a Google search (49%) or by visiting websites they regularly used (40%), with only 11% using their own internal software.
• The most time-consuming tasks were analyzing the most effective route across multiple websites (over 25% of respondents), price comparison (24%), and locating and verifying shipment schedules that matched their desired time frame (22%).

These findings point to a broad range of inefficiencies in the way logistics professionals conduct their pre-shipment research, and underline the need for more streamlined and innovative solutions for route planning, such as those offered by Fluent Cargo.

About Fluent Cargo

Fluent Cargo is an independent, mission-driven company with a vision to provide our clients with instant access to all of the information they need in order to better plan their shipments. We’re constantly thinking about schedules, port features, carrier information, port congestion, and other factors that influence shipment planning, be it on a plane, ship, or truck.