Specialist
Former C-level executive at Expeditors
Agenda
- Competitive landscape of the North American freight brokerage industry
- Spot market environment
- Digitisation and technology trends
- Air freight update
Questions
1.
What are your thoughts on the state of the industry due to the coronavirus? How has it impacted the North American transportation and logistics industry over the past six months?
2.
What do the market volatility and disruptions to supply chains mean from a brokerage standpoint? Do brokers tend to do well in times like this?
3.
What disruption did the digital freight matchers cause initially and longer term, what role do you think they will settle into?
4.
How would you think about buying vs building the digital solution you laid out? Do you think some incumbents will opt to acquire one of the digital freight matchers that seem to have it figured out, or do you think some will build out their own platforms?
5.
Do the incumbents have an advantage in having more access to shipping data they can utilise, or do the freight matchers building their infrastructure have an advantage? Who do you think will lead the industry in that regard?
6.
Where does CH Robinson stand from a customer-facing perspective, and what do you think is the next logical step for the company? What are your thoughts on its TMS [transportation management system] platform? What does it lack?
7.
What goes into standardisation of data? What is that process like?
8.
What are your thoughts on brokerage incumbents such as CH Robinson and Echo? Is there any differentiation in strategy?
9.
Is there a disparity in the unit economics of a freight broker which focuses the majority of its business on international vs domestic?
10.
You mentioned the virtual networks built out by international opens up the opportunity for capturing more LTL [less-than-truckload] volume. Can you elaborate on that?
11.
Margins have been compressed, especially recently. CH Robinson has said it expects margins to continue to compress unless something changes. Do you think data utilisation and automation will be enough to offset some of the margin compression? Where do you think margins will trend from here? Can these companies maintain their margins?
12.
What are your longer-term expectations for Convoy? Do you think it is a likely acquisition target? Do you think it will remain a standalone and IPO at some point? It seems Convoy was very strategic in building out not only its platform but its footprint in general.
13.
Is there anything else you would like to discuss about the industry in general or its performance over the last six months?
14.
What are your thoughts about the driver shortage and the ageing driver population? When do you think there will be a real impact on the industry due to labour shortages?
15.
Do you think autonomous trucking technology is developing quickly enough to have an impact in the next 5-10 years?
