SHIPSTA’s digital platform connects shippers and carriers to ensure a frictionless procurement process for spot and contract buying of freight, entirely online.
By automating complex tasks and providing complete transparency of data, it helps businesses control freight costs, manage risk and build resilience in their supply chain. With more than 2,000 users all over the world, the platform is already used by some of the world’s largest chemicals, pharmaceuticals and automotive companies.
SHIPSTA is a highly intuitive digital platform which allows procurement managers to create RfQs and source freight rates from carriers with a few simple clicks. Its customizable algorithm can instantly analyze bids from hundreds of suppliers and identify the optimal carrier partners according to the specific needs of each shipper.
SHIPSTA solves particular pain points for those in the logistics procurement industry – such as standardized templates, guided processes, automatic sanity checking of data and RfQ status visibility. By eliminating the administrative burden of freight tendering, it enables businesses to rapidly expand their carrier networks and perform more regular freight tenders so they can control freight costs and better manage risk in their supply chain.
The end-to-end platform also provides unrivaled visibility with next-level insights. Its dashboard provides a complete view of logistics spend at a glance, with data visualizations for KPIs and insights into the most important supply lanes, carriers and regions. It also integrates long-term contracts and short-term spot orders for all modes of transport – so shippers can easily track fluctuations in freight rates. By bringing to life all the historical data that has been sitting dormant in spreadsheets, businesses can make data-driven decisions quickly as well as improve forecasting abilities.
Businesses are often moving freight across hundreds, or even thousands, of shipping lanes. Freight also comes with multiple modes, varying capacities, innumerable regulatory requirements and safety issues. Then there are the varying rate structures and surcharges. And in the current climate of uncertainty and disruption, businesses may need to prioritize transit time or capacity over price for the most troublesome shipping lanes.
While supply chains have become increasingly complex, the freight procurement process has barely changed in two decades. Much of the logistics industry still uses Excel to source, compare and analyze freight rates from carriers. These spreadsheets can have thousands, (or even tens of thousands) of data points so identifying the optimal carrier partners is an enormously time-consuming process that is also susceptible to human error.
The reliance on manual processes also makes it very difficult for businesses to respond quickly in a crisis. With antiquated processes and limited visibility of data, it is difficult to negotiate costs, run tenders for problematic shipping lanes, weigh the cost of alternative supply routes or diversify the carrier network.
