Over the past several months, shippers have watched container freight rates fluctuate constantly in an apparently very unstable market. It has become an issue for shippers, who cannot forecast their transport costs, as well as container shipping companies and freight forwarders.
According to Drewry Shipping Consultants, via Logistics Today:
In the past year, Drewry’s global freight rate index for container shipping has fluctuated between a maximum of $2,727 per 40-foot container (in July 2008) and a minimum of $1,536 (in May 2009).
Volatility such as this makes it extremely difficult for shippers to know what a fair price is when shipping goods. Using an automated International Transportation Management solution with search and query tools can enable logistics managers to scorecard carrier performance, compare transit times, analyse pricing trends, and track the history of all freight transaction costs through an end-to-end audit capacity. So while it is impossible to know what the future holds as far as freight rates go, it is very possible to ensure that you are making optimal cost-saving transportation decisions.
To learn more about key improvement strategies that you can implement to better manage your freight spend, check out this white paper: Best Practices to Reduce International Freight Costs.
This post was published on October 1, 2009 and updated on February 21, 2014.
