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150
employees USA
40
employees USA
50%
time saved quoting
and booking air cargo shipments
< 1
min to make
a booking
3x
growth in digital bookings in past 6 months
The company has focused on time sensitive consignments, and prides itself in tailoring its offers to evolving client needs. It was the increasing pace and complexity of global logistics that led LLS Team to question whether phone and email bookings were now limiting their performance.
Based in Chicago, Illinois, LLS Team has since 2012, grown its export business to offer ‘white gloves service offerings’ for urgent air and ocean shipments. LLS Team’s 40 colleagues conduct the same booking processes but for different client accounts, meaning any new booking solutions must satisfy the entire team. LLS Team’s growth strategy involves deploying more time to offer clients an even more bespoke service.
LLS Team’s Air Export Manager Brandon Hultine explains, “Time sensitivity is critical for us. In the past, our bookings were on the phone, meaning many hours a week were spent in phone queues”.
In recent years, Brandon and his colleagues switched to rely heavily on emails to airlines but often spent extended periods waiting for replies, made worse by seasonal increases in demand that led to even longer response times.
The legacy process was fragmented and communication with airlines sometimes meant that small errors could completely pause bookings. “Sometimes there was a small error in the communications and the desk agent or airline agent missed something - you would play tag back and forth until it’s corrected. Booking online solves this, there’s immediacy in real-time, confirmation in seconds”, he adds.
After researching and trialing several ebooking platforms, Brandon concluded that the cost-free model and a strong supply of airline capacity meant cargo.one best matched LLS Team’s needs.
He admits that there was initially some skepticism regarding the attractive rates displayed, “Rates are important. There was some doubt whether airlines would honor rates shown at time of booking. When using cargo.one, 100% they have”. After their first experimental bookings, the team was convinced.
“Across the team it’s been a welcome change, and having a market view of all the airlines has transformed how we work”.
LLS Team has benefited from the centralization of important booking information within the cargo.one platform. Brandon expands, “It’s been well received. My favorite feature is that all the shipping addresses and details are right in front of you. Any updates if bookings have changed, or any issues like AWBs and cargo.one are proactive”. On the occasions that the team has needed to use cargo.one’s expert Support Team, he describes the cargo.one team as “very helpful and very responsive”.
LLS Team has re-invested time and efficiency savings from digital booking into understanding evolving client needs and winning more shipments.
“cargo.one changed the nature of how we book air cargo. I have timed our bookings, and they take less than one minute. In this way, we reduced time spent on air cargo consignments by half. This has made us a lot more agile and freed up a lot of time to better manage customers”.
The company has experienced instances where spot rates on cargo.one are well below the published tariff rates from airlines, meaning the team could secure better rates than going direct to the airline. By using both time and cost advantage, LLS Team can be more agile than its competitors, as well as delivering a premium service.
Brandon adds, “cargo.one comes at an opportune time - it has given us exposure to new airlines we previously did not have relationships with. There’s definitely been an increase in securing shipments this way. Knowing how the tool has helped us, I would say it’s helped to increase our revenue”.
For LLS Team, adopting cargo.one means that they are continually introduced to new airline options as these join the platform. The forwarder is keen to expand its revenue potential further by pursuing new capacity options.
“As cargo.one expands with more origins and destinations, we will book further. Within general cargo, there’s theoretically no limit to the potential, so it’s possible that 100% of our air bookings could be done via the tool”, Brandon concludes.
LLS Team has discovered a wide range of strategic value that booking with cargo.one has unlocked. If you would like to achieve such gains, register free today at cargo.one.
cargo.one gives forwarders the ability to search, compare and book air cargo capacity across multiple airlines with live spot rates in less than 2 minutes. No matter your company size, cargo.one significantly improves air cargo booking experience.
How cargo.one helps Quick Cargo Service book spot capacities from multiple airlines instantly, at any time.
