How FreightAmigo is shaking up the sleepy world of logistics to bring it online Expedia-style
- Via the FreightAmigo app or website, users can search to get real-time quotes and compare prices for different carriers, and can book and pay online
When a factory in China wants to ship a container of goods to a client overseas, in Europe for example, step one typically involves ringing around a few logistics firms to get a quotation.
The person taking the call is usually a harassed clerk, sitting in a cube in the office of a freight forwarder located near one of southern China’s bustling airports.
The clerk will jot down the details and then dig through mounds of paperwork stored in giant, floor-to-ceiling filing cabinets. It can take days of phone calls and emails, across time zones, until a shipment can be confirmed.
Logistics in this part of the world is in many ways the “Land That Time Forgot”, according to Hong Kong entrepreneur Ivy Tse, who saw an opportunity to bring the industry into the internet and cloud computing age.
“There’s a big gap between customer expectations today and the traditional way of serving them, which involves a slow flow of information and lack of transparency,” said Tse, director of FreightAmigo in an interview last week in Hong Kong.
