At this year’s Multimodal, leading experts from the world of freight met to discuss the industry’s biggest issues, including digitalisation and environmental challenges.

Amid talk of rising freight rates and geopolitical tensions, there was a focus on how to address future challenges.

Technology was one of the topics that came up frequently among stalls, with forwarders, carriers and suppliers eager to discuss trade digitalisation.

‘Analogue’

Implementing technology is not the easiest of tasks, but one that is seen as vital by an industry that has in the past relied on old-style wet ink.

Christer Ajaxson, an account specialist at Timocom, said that he’d seen forwarders getting increasingly willing to adopt technology, even coming from a traditionally analogue world.

“Freight forwarders seem to be very much at the forefront of technology.

“They thrive on technology, that's what they need because before logistics used to be quite an analogue industry for many years.”

Timocom, an online exchange platform for freight, runs on both a web-based platform as well as an API that can integrate with a company’ systems.

Ajaxson says both systems are about “simplifying” freight, even as trade becomes more digital.

“I think there's a trend that it's going to be more sought after in the future.”

Retention

One aspect still in development is how companies use tech every day.

The problem of talent retention is a tricky one, since qualified personnel are expensive and always seem to be in short supply.

To combat this, some suppliers are now describing themselves more as IT companies than traditional freight companies, with talk of a ‘start-up’ culture similar to that of Silicon Valley.

This leads on to how companies are using technology.

Maria Lacalle, account executive at Lune, said that she was seeing more evidence of companies relying on external developers or using off-the-shelf solutions rather than building it in house, while another provider said he had seen more companies rely on off-the-shelf technology.

Green tech?

A related aspect of technology brought up in conversations was sustainability and accusations of greenwashing.

Many firms were offering themselves out as ‘sustainable’, with carbon offsets being regularly mentioned, as well as the ever-present issue of green fuels and moving away from more harmful.

However, this came with disadvantages. One supplier mentioned that companies were actually getting less likely to declare themselves as “sustainable” publicly, preferring to either keep it quiet or only mention it in-house for fear of negative media attention.

The challenge, as it has been for many over the last few years, is to turn words into action and avoid some of the pitfalls when it comes to allegations of ‘greenwashing’.

Greenwashing is loosely defined as a firm being either misleading or vague about how sustainable their products are. Many companies have been hit with the accusation of greenwashing over the last year and the EU is attempting to introduce legislation on the topic.

The marketing representative of one trade association said he required almost “forensic proof” that an off-setting scheme worked before putting any reference to it on the front of his materials.

In this vein, representatives from the air, sea and rail freight companies were keen to emphasise how ‘their’ preferred mode was in fact more sustainable.

Tracking

Tech is being used to solve this issue in many ways.

Increasingly, says LaCalle, firms are asking for proof of sustainability for more than just fending off accusations of improper marketing.

When a shipper wants to select a provider for a particular route or even exclusively, they’ll consider which one of the bidders has the most “sustainable solution” for moving goods.

For winning these tenders, forwarders and other third parties are now best advised to offer proof of how sustainable their transport is, taking into account any carbon offsets, the type of fuel used and even how long a truck idles during its journey.

LaCalle, whose company Lune offers a tracking solution for climate, says that this is driven by both customer demand and incoming regulations. Even companies that are not customer facing are likely to be facing this kind of pressure.

“Not everybody is doing the right thing: not everyone is offering the services that are more sustainable.

“The ones that do it, they know that they are doing it to protect themselves from the competition and it's a very competitive market.”