Kuehne+Nagel, DHL, DSV, Sinotrans and a small group of global players set the visibility benchmark for your customers. They offer online portals, shipment timelines, CO2 reports and proactive exception alerts that make shippers feel “taken care of”.[1][2][3][4]
Most mid sized freight forwarders know they cannot match that level of investment or headcount. At the same time, their customers are increasingly comparing them to those global top three, not to other mid sized forwarders. Digital freight platforms and large integrators have raised expectations for end to end visibility, even for relatively simple lanes.[5][6]
This article is written for freight forwarders who sit in the middle: big enough to feel real pressure from customer RFPs and global competition, but not big enough to build their own myKN or seaexplorer from scratch.[2][3] The goal is simple. Instead of trying to “be Kuehne+Nagel”, you can selectively copy the parts of their visibility strategy that matter most to your customers and implement them with a realistic budget.
1. The Gap Your Customers Feel, Even If They Do Not Say It
Large shippers and BCOs increasingly work with a mix of providers. It is common for the same customer to have:
- Global contracts with one of the top three forwarders.
- Regional or trade lane contracts with mid sized specialists.
- Spot shipments handled by digital platforms or NVOCCs.
When that customer logs into a big forwarder portal, they often see:
- Door to door shipment timelines that combine carrier events with inland legs.[2][3]
- Reliability scores and CO2 estimates by routing option.[3]
- One login for booking, tracking, documentation and analytics.
When they work with a typical mid sized forwarder, the experience is usually different:
- Tracking is a mix of carrier websites, terminal portals and manual emails.
- Account managers build shipment status reports in Excel or PowerPoint.
- Exception handling depends on which coordinator happens to pick up the phone.
Customers rarely say “we want you to look exactly like Kuehne+Nagel”. What they do say is “we want fewer surprises, clearer timelines and fewer emails for basic status updates”. That is the real visibility gap you need to close.
2. Three Common, Unhelpful Reactions To Big Forwarder Visibility
Forwarders under pressure often fall into one of three traps.
Trap 1: “We Will Just Work Harder”
In this pattern, you promise better visibility without changing tools. Coordinators keep juggling carrier websites, terminals and inboxes. Account managers keep building manual reports for every key account. You might hire more people for “operations support” but the work is still copy and paste.
This can improve service for a few key customers but it does not scale. Costs grow linearly with volume and quality depends too much on individual coordinators.
Trap 2: “We Need A Big Platform Like The Global Players”
Here the forwarder tries to buy a full control tower or TMS suite as a way to “catch up” with global leaders. The project looks good in an RFP response but often stalls because:
- Implementation requires heavy IT involvement and long timelines.
- Operators keep using their old spreadsheets and carrier bookmarks.
- Customers never fully adopt the portal because it feels generic and complex.
The result is an expensive platform that satisfies nobody fully. You pay enterprise pricing without enterprise adoption.
Trap 3: “We Bought A Visibility Tool For Operations, That Is Enough”
Some forwarders buy a standalone container tracking tool and treat it as an internal operations screen. Coordinators like it because they have fewer tabs. However:
- Sales and account management teams still pull screenshots into slide decks.
- Customers still need to ask “where is my container” by email because they do not see the screen.
- Management does not get consistent lane level analytics or D and D insights for negotiations.[7][8]
This approach improves day to day work, which is positive, but it does not give you the “big forwarder” feel that customers compare you against.
3. What Big Forwarders Actually Do With Visibility
Large forwarders do invest heavily in technology, but the visible parts fall into a few practical patterns that mid sized players can copy without copying the entire budget.
3.1 One Canonical Timeline Per Shipment
Top forwarders build or buy platforms that combine carrier events, AIS and inland milestones into a single shipment timeline. For example, Kuehne+Nagel combines live vessel information and schedule reliability data in its seaexplorer platform, and exposes this through myKN and other customer tools.[2][3][9]
The important point is not the interface. It is the discipline of having one standardised set of milestones that everyone uses. Operations, sales, customs and key account managers all talk about the same “gate in”, “vessel departure”, “discharge” and “available for pickup” events.
3.2 Customer Facing Self Service As The Default
Big forwarders put that standard timeline into portals and branded tracking pages so customers can answer basic questions themselves. They then layer alerts and notifications on top so that exceptions are visible before customers complain.[2][4][5]
This does not remove the need for human account managers. It simply means those humans spend less time forwarding tracking links and more time on planning, exceptions and quarterly reviews.
3.3 Data For Procurement And Product, Not Just Operations
Visibility data also feeds carrier negotiations, lane design and product decisions. Large forwarders use lane level reliability, dwell time and D and D patterns to decide which carriers to favour, which routings to promote and how to differentiate their service in RFPs.[7][8]
This is where many mid sized forwarders underuse the data they already have. They treat tracking as a cost of operations rather than as a source of commercial leverage.
4. A Practical Visibility Blueprint For Mid Sized Forwarders
You do not need a global control tower to look serious in front of your customers. You need a focused blueprint that matches your scale. The following approach assumes limited IT support and a pragmatic budget.
Step 1: Choose One Source Of Truth For Ocean Events
First, decide what will be the canonical source of container events in your company. Typical options are:
- Your existing TMS, enriched with carrier and AIS data from a visibility provider.
- A dedicated ocean visibility platform that tracks by container, bill of lading and vessel, then feeds your TMS and BI tools.[7][10][11]
The key is to standardise milestone names and event logic. For example, decide how you define “available”, “departed”, “arrived at final” and “late” and document this for coordinators and analysts. This matches how leading visibility platforms and large forwarders operate.[2][7][10]
Step 2: Pick Two Or Three High Impact Use Cases
Instead of promising generic “better visibility”, focus on a small set of outcomes that customers and managers care about. Common examples for mid sized forwarders include:
- Key account tracking pages. Branded, shareable pages that show shipment timelines for a specific key account so their internal teams can self serve.
- Exception alerts for problem ports or lanes. Alerts for late discharge, containers approaching free time, or missed connections. These support proactive customer communication and D and D control.[7][8]
- Quarterly lane performance reports. Simple dashboards that show on time performance, dwell times and D and D exposure by lane for strategic customers.
Each of these use cases can be built on top of the same standard event feed if you pick the right visibility provider or TMS integration.
Step 3: Build A “Good Enough” Tech Stack, Not A Perfect One
You do not need to replicate every feature of big forwarder portals. You need a stack that your teams will actually use. For many forwarders a practical pattern looks like:
- TMS or operational system of record for bookings, documents and invoices.
- Ocean visibility platform for container events, ETAs and standardised milestones.[7][10][11]
- Customer facing layer such as branded tracking pages, simple portals or shared reports.
- BI or reporting tool for internal analytics and carrier reviews.
When you evaluate vendors, ask very specific questions about APIs, web widgets and how easily events can be pushed into your existing tools. Large forwarders do exactly this when they extend or replace parts of their stack.[2][7][10]
Step 4: Turn Visibility Into A Commercial Story, Not Just An Operations Story
Once the basics are in place, visibility becomes part of your commercial pitch. You can support sales with:
- Standard slides that show how your tracking and alerts work.
- Examples of how you used data to prevent D and D charges or to re route shipments during disruptions.
- Lane level reliability and dwell time charts for specific trade lanes.
This is the point where you start to look and feel more like a global forwarder in customer meetings, even if your organisation is much smaller.
5. What To Copy From Big Forwarders, And What To Ignore
Copy These Elements
- One canonical shipment timeline. Everyone in your company should see the same events in the same order.
- Customer self service as a default. Give customers a clear place to check status without calling you first.
- Lane level analytics. Use visibility data in carrier reviews and RFP responses, not only in daily operations.
- Clear integration story. Be ready to explain how tracking data flows into customer systems if they ask.[2][3][5][7]
Ignore These Elements (For Now)
- Global control tower teams in multiple time zones.
- Highly customised internal IT projects that require full time development staff.
- Every possible mode and value added service in one portal from day one.
Large forwarders need these because of their scale, network and regulatory obligations. For many mid sized forwarders, trying to copy everything creates risk and complexity without clear return. It is better to execute a smaller visibility strategy well.
6. Where TRADLINX Fits For Mid Sized Forwarders
TRADLINX Ocean Visibility is designed to give logistics providers and shippers standardised ocean events without per container pricing spikes. The platform tracks containers, bills of lading, bookings and vessels across major carriers and ports and exposes this data through portals, APIs and embeddable tracking views.[10][11][12]
Several aspects are particularly relevant for mid sized forwarders:
- Bill of lading based pricing. Instead of charging per container, TRADLINX generally prices visibility by bill of lading. For shipments where many containers move under one B L, this can significantly reduce visibility cost compared with per container models.[12]
- Standardised shipment timelines. Events from carriers and AIS are mapped into consistent milestones that match how operations teams plan shipments.[10][11]
- Embeddable views. Tracking widgets and links can be shared with shippers and partners so they see the same timeline as your coordinators, without logging into multiple carrier sites.[10][11]
- API connectivity. Event feeds can flow into your TMS, FMS, ERP or BI tools so you can build the analytics and reports your customers expect.[10][11]
For forwarders who already run a TMS but lack robust ocean visibility, TRADLINX can act as the ocean events layer that feeds that system. For forwarders with limited IT resources, it can also function as a primary tracking portal and customer facing view.
The right choice depends on your network, customer base and existing systems. The broader point is that you do not have to match global forwarders one to one to compete on visibility. You need to decide what your customers actually expect, implement a clean event layer and then present that clearly through a small set of high impact use cases. That is a realistic way to borrow the parts of big forwarder visibility strategy that really matter.
References
- Logistics Management, Top Freight Forwarders 2024: Preparing for the upturn, 2024.
- Kuehne+Nagel, Data driven technologies and live vessel information via seaexplorer, accessed November 2025.
- Kuehne+Nagel, How to calculate your carbon footprint, accessed November 2025.
- WorldCargo News, Kuehne+Nagel introduces myKN, December 2018.
- Global Trade Magazine, Digital freight platforms revolutionizing global shipping operations, September 2025.
- Newage Global, How can smaller freight forwarders stand out against industry giants, May 2024.
- Portcast, How to avoid demurrage and detention charges, August 2025.
- Descartes MacroPoint, Demurrage and detention in ocean freight: reduce charges with visibility, October 2023.
- Alcott Global, Top 10 global freight forwarders by revenue 2023–2024, October 2025.
- TRADLINX, Smarter supply chain tracking | TRADLINX Ocean Visibility, accessed November 2025.
- Software Advice, TRADLINX Ocean Visibility: product overview and reviews, accessed November 2025.
- PRWeb, TRADLINX offers free access to container tracking as industry disruptions continue, August 2025.
Why overpay for visibility? TRADLINX saves you 40% with transparent per–Master B/L pricing. Get 99% accuracy, 12 updates daily, and 80% ETA accuracy improvements, trusted by 83,000+ logistics teams and global leaders like Samsung and LG Chem.
Prefer email? Contact us directly at min.so@tradlinx.com (Americas) or henry.jo@tradlinx.com (EMEA/Asia)
Leave a Reply