Freight forwarder Geodis has launched an online market place that will allow users to compare and benchmark carrier prices by tradelane.
The online platform, named Upply, will initially offer users the ability to benchmark their road, air and sea rates by searching trade lanes individually, or automatically by uploading a range of different lanes under its SmartScan service.
It offers freight rate quotes for up to 100,000 lanes using anonymous and encrypted information.
For airfreight, prices can be searched for on an airport-to-airport, door-to-airport, airport-to-door or door-to-door basis, with prices offered on a per kg basis.
Data for the platform is collected from carriers, key partners and users and prices are displayed in real time.
Initially, the platform will be free to use, but in spring 2019 three pricing levels will be put in place.
The basic plan costs €99 per month and offers multimodal benchmarking, price alerts, indexes and the SmartScan service for 100 lanes.
The advanced package costs €249 per month and also includes SmartScan for 1,500 lanes, historical data and forecasting for one lane.
The €950 per month enterprise package offers SmartScan on unlimited lanes, forecasting on three lanes and pay-as-you go API access.
In the middle of next year, the service will be upgraded to allow users to make bookings through the system, while carriers will be able to offer capacity.
The system will tell carriers if lowering their price could open up opportunities with more customers.
Upply chief executive Boris Pernet explained the reasoning behind the launch of the platform: “The supply chain industry is facing tremendous challenges. These problems highlight the need to reset the fundamentals so that the business potential of every player can be unleashed.
“Price volatility, information opacity, overbooking, last-minute cancellations, pressure on capacities and underutilisation are all market defects that hinder the market’s efficiency and its capacity to meet demand.
“Eventually, Upply will be the marketplace for users to make informed decisions and generate fluid exchanges. It is founded on the principles of information transparency, control and flexibility.”
Geodis chairman and chief executive Marie-Christine Lombard added: “Our global strategy of innovation and digital transformation is twofold: while continuing to digitise our core business and to invest in our strategic assets to enhance both customer experience and productivity, we capitalise on our experience as the pioneer in 4PL to take it one step further and create a true digital market-place.”
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