ConsolFreight
A Collaborative Approach to Logistics

It’s no secret that the digital revolution has transformed every industry that we know of. And logistics is not different,” begins Ernesto Vila, Co-founder of ConsolFreight. Despite this revolution, he adds, the logistics landscape is late to adapt to technology, owing to the rift between a handful of large organizations that dominate in this space and the numerous fragmented SMBs comprising forwarders. While the rising global competition is propelling organizations to rethink logistics in a way that can drive efficiency and save costs, the equation needs to be balanced. This is precisely what ConsolFreight assists their clients with. Helping small and medium freight forwarders lead this competitive space against global leaders, ConsolFreight offers a collaborative cargo consolidation platform that empowers them to connect, communicate, and collaborate with niche consolidators, and adopt a cost-effective approach toward logistics.

The ConsolFreight platform provides access to the most reliable consolidators for any given trade lane for freight forwarders—generating a high-volume of co-loading opportunities, unimaginable transshipment possibilities and collective savings for all participating freight forwarders. It nominates niche consolidators as exclusive operators per trade lane, making the operators more relevant in the market and enabling a far greater market reach for small and medium forwarders. By leveraging the collective volume of all the members in a centralized environment, clients cannot only reach economies of scale that result in incredible savings to all members but also offer their services at a global scale in order to build customer loyalty. “This allows small freight forwarders to share cargo space and costs, and drive better business outcomes,” explains Vila. Additionally, centralized freight purchasing enables ConsolFreight’s clients to gain control over their shipments and benefit from a more strategic freight policy, which facilitates better communication between vendors and carriers. The solution is industry-first to offer dynamic LCL & LTL shipping rates based on the cargo volume. It also keeps a record of every instance of the cargo such as bookings along with displaying the cost of origin and destination—offering visibility and transparency across the whole logistics cycle.

With a sharp focus on customer service, visibility, and transparency, the ConsolFreight platform comes with several built-in tools including Track and Trace, Instant Quote, Contract Management, and much more, providing a comprehensive, pocket-friendly, enterprise-level freight management solution.

ConsolFreight allows small freight forwarders to share cargo space and costs, and drive better business outcomes

In addition to opening doors to new networks and technology, ConsolFreight leverages ConsolSmart, a patent-pending technology using several complex algorithms that allows freight forwarders to find the cheapest and the fastest route for cargo shipment in real-time. The platform also is directly linked to PayPal accounts to enable secure monetary transactions between forwarders and consolidators. Vila cites an example where one of the leading US-based freight forwarders leveraged ConsolFreight for redefining their logistics operations. The client experienced a drop in the volume of cargos to Venezuela due to uncertain political and economic situations in the country. ConsolFreight helped the client stay profitable by trailing their Venezuela-bound freights via Miami and Panama. This helped the client to increase the cargo volumes by consolidating the cargo of all the members around the world in two key geographical hubs. “The collaboration enables a group of forwarders to put their volumes into one consolidation box, and everybody enjoys the drop of the cost on that equation,” adds Vila.

Heading toward business expansion, ConsolFreight is currently looking for global partnerships with local influencers in Brazil, China, Singapore and some Caribbean countries who can help with onboarding of new forwarders and consolidators. They are also in search of partnerships in different markets to advance on customer acquisition and develop on other verticals supporting the logistics community. The company remains laser-focused on the connecting fellow freight forwarders who can share cargos and cut overall shipment costs, steering the competition toward better customer service and experience.