There are different components that make the total cost of transportation. Due to a post Covid driver shortage, price volatility has already started several months ago. The prices accelerated instrumentally when several macroeconomic events and legislative implementations arrived within the same timeframe.
A combination of phenomena has driven up the prices of European freight transport. It includes the shortage of equipment and drivers, rising labor costs and a sharp rise in fuel prices and other commodities. ‘Several economic instances and analysts predict that we have not reached the peak yet. We miss a common insight and certainty of factors that will regulate themselves versus the ones that are here to stay’, says Gianni Maes, Chief Sales Officer.
We can compare the industry with an ecosystem with several stakeholders going from Shippers over Forwarders to Carriers and their Drivers. During a period of economic prosperity there has been a huge focus on cost optimization. The lower levels of the ecosystem have suffered the most from this.
As a result, the profession of being a driver has become less attractive. This has lead to a driver shortage of nearly half a million within the EU. Carriers are confronted with other operating cost increases stemming from fuel prices at the pump, increased costs related to their equipment and newly implemented legal requirements compliant to the EU Mobility Package.
Due to the mid-long term uncertainty of these effects, how can we support shippers and carriers? We are convinced that only through constructive and close cooperation between Shippers and Forwarders, we can get through these challenging times. A shippers’ main concern is to keep their businesses going. We have recently seen a shift to spot shipping in order to secure capacity at the best possible price at this moment in time.
How can Redspher support Shippers and Carriers now and in the future?
On Redspher’s platform Shippers get direct access to compliant and traceable carriers. These carriers offer their solutions within minutes after publishing the request. Shippers can make the choice outweighing price vs transit time.
Within Redspher’s Private Marketplace Shippers can add their own existing forwarders to the invited pool of vendors to obtain even more solutions. This month to date over 70% of all requests got more than one solution offered. In 84% of the cases the request also turned into a booking.
With these two business models, Redspher facilitates in a seamless manner a fast and efficient process to Shippers to know their options at the blink of an eye for their unexpected delivery needs.
