Gaining Vision in Ocean Freight’s Murky Depths

What you don’t know can hurt you. Half of ocean freight stakeholders responding to a recent report released by FourKites say they have zero visibility into their ocean freight.

More than 20% still rely on manual track-and-trace processes to locate their ocean freight in the supply chain. Once that cargo hits land, the numbers get better. Up to 73% report having some level of visibility into their over-the-road shipping.

It will take some work to get those numbers close. Fortunately, ocean freight executives are ready to invest time and money. FourKites’ report, The Great Reset: Ocean Shipping in a Post-Pandemic World, also finds that 73% plan to invest in supply chain visibility technologies, with 46% saying they are going to invest more in 2023 than they did in 2022.

Ocean freight executives also expect to face labor challenges, high shipping costs, and impacts to customer service in 2023.