How Boxnbiz, a tech-driven forwarding firm, is disrupting the international shipping and freight industry
The idea of Boxnbiz was born during Biplob’s service in Allcargo.
“I found that the shipping industry is still manual and opaque. The entire supply chain in international shipping is handled by multiple agents and continues to be operated over emails, fax, and paper, which makes the information systems complex,” Biplob says.
On one hand, shippers struggle to find the right service experience; on the other, freight forwards have to struggle to increase sales and maintaining customer service. All the paperwork means it is not an efficient way of figuring out profitable business routes and transactions.
According to PWC, every day, trillions of dollars’ worth of goods are shipped across borders. Most of this includes paperwork with software systems that capture data and are not dynamically linked.
Biplob contacted Ricky since his father had a road transport business, and Biplob believed he was on to something.
In August 2016 they started with a web app where shippers could search for instant freight quotes, manage their data and documents in a single dashboard, and track their shipment online. Freight forwarders and agents could use the technology to automate the pricing and customer service.
Boxnbiz was formed with an initial investment of Rs 7 lakh and the duo operated their business for three months without any manpower. Biplob got a senior manager from ACL to join them and added six more people to work on the project; this is how the basic prototype was launched.
The startup got its first business of 20 containers from a well-known refrigerator manufacturer in November 2016.
The company started with a marketplace model where shippers can globally search quotes, manage bookings, and track shipments online while freight agents could increase their sales by publishing their rates online.
However, merely connecting these two sides would not work. The tech needed to create visibility in the supply chain and found that shippers could benefit with the right information when all agents and parties on the supply side were connected through a single platform so that the entire chain could be in sync with the information flow.
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About Author: Vishal Krishna