Monthly Member’s Meeting in December 2021: What You Need to Know
Here you can find the highlights from our December Member's Meeting. This meeting is your monthly opportunity to hear about upcoming work by Digital Freight Alliance. We start with a short recap of last month’s meeting, then take a look at some of the key discussions that took place.
This article will give you an idea of what you can expect at future meetings as well as provide information on Digital Freight Alliance events that you might be interested in attending or participating in.
Why digital matters?
Digital will be the largest and most significant shift in the transportation industry. It will be a major change to the way we live and interact with our surroundings. Digital technology will transform how we move goods and people around, how we work, and how we play.
We can see that digital technology is already impacting all modes of transportation such as personal vehicles, freight trucks and trains – through improving safety, enhancing capacity, reducing pollution, changing ridership habits, changing parking patterns, changing fuel consumption patterns, changing freight terminal operations, etc.
Large transportation players are going digital at scale. Why is it so important?
- No more paperwork. Digitize the management of your document operations. You can create, store, sign, and even add a company seal digitally in a secure cloud workspace for your team to access from anywhere.
- More transparency. An ecosystem of tools you can access from any desktop device that enable your customers to have visibility on all booking stages, with the ability to track shipments and view them on a world map.
- Reduction in cost. With less manual labour required and with more transparency and efficiency in the system, you will reduce costs and remain competitive.
Why join the Digital Freight Alliance?
DP World’s Digital Freight Alliance was founded in 2020. The Digital Freight Alliance is a digital network designed to meet the needs of the freight business.
Associate your business with a leading enabler of trade
Web-Based Tools - Digital & Services Ecosystem
Digitize your business with our web-based tools, DP World Services & Products. Our suite of web-based tools will help you:
- Improve efficiency
- Have more transparency
- Reduce your costs
- Increase customer satisfaction
Incremental Business Opportunities
The Digital Freight Alliance is a digital network that connects freight carriers with shippers, so they can increase their business via digitization. Grow your business with DFA:
- Get access to the DFA network for business opportunities.
- Get access to booking platform - SeaRates
Access to other DP World Products
DP World is one of the world's largest port operators and terminal operators. DP World operates major ports on all three continents, including Europe, Asia and Africa.
DP World provides a wide range of products to its customers, which includes Cargoes Finance, Cargoes Runner, Container Leasing, and more!
Knowledge sharing from DP World & Partners
There are many ways to share knowledge, and DP World & Partners has each one covered.
The company’s monthly virtual gatherings enable our alliance members to share insights on their business and discover new ideas. The physical gatherings give members the opportunity to interact with other professionals in their field. And information and opinion sharing on blogs is a regular occurrence.
DFA Payment Protection
The main objective of Digital Freight Alliance is to build a stable and long-term partnership between all members of the network, in which all premium participants enjoy the luxury of financial confidence when conducting business with other premium members in the group under the most complete guarantees. DFA transactions are guaranteed between enrolled member offices in the case of non-payment.
In this respect, we are happy to announce the launch of the DFA Protection Plan as part of the benefits of being a premium member of the network.
What does it protect against?
Premium DFA members are automatically covered by best in class credit risk insurance. The insurance starts at US$10.000 per year and can accumulate to a maximum of US$100.000 for the same period.
DFA payment protection covers ocean freight invoices related to the offices/cities that are registered/listed in the directory. We encourage you to list all your offices and branches with DFA to get the maximum coverage.
DFA will share the monthly Payment Protection Guide listing Agents Lists when it is ready. Members should refer to this guide at the time of finalization of the Credit Agreement with their fellow members.
Rates+ - Ecosystem & Benefits
Logistics Explorer - RTM
Logistics Explorer’s backbone is the RMS that allows you to manage rates. It gives you a single source of information, and an easy and fast way to access to your rates. It allows you to search your contract rates as well as those from agents and partners you have subscribed to in a matter of seconds.
Logistics Explorer - Adding Rates
As a DFA member, you will have the ability to promote your services to thousands of potential customers through DP World’s SeaRates.com.
Your rates will be shown in thousands of daily search results to customers whose specific needs match with your rates supply. The more competitive your rates, the higher chance you have of winning the booking bid.
How do I add rates?
Step 1: Access Dashboard. Access the rates dashboard by clicking on the Rates & Tariffs tab on the left navigation bar from the virtual office.
Step 2: Upload or send rates. Start uploading your rates. Please provide any files to our pricing department at rates@searates.com.
Step 3: Verify your rates are live. Lastly, verify that your rates are live on SeaRates and to other members from the virtual office.
Logistics Explorer - Incremental Business
You’ve got your rates in the RMS, now you’re discoverable beyond your reach!
- Opt-in to add your rates to SeaRates. Once live, your rates now appear on SeaRates and your rates become discoverable once a customer searches for your lanes. SeaRates globally achieves approximately 600k visits per month.
- Opt-in to make your rates discoverable by other members. By opting-in your rates for other members and leveraging them for their customers, you have the opportunity to win new business. The member will either add their margin on top of your rates or you can competitively split commissions of your existing rate.
What’s next?
Thank you for your time and we hope to see you at our Annual Members Meeting on 10 & 11 March 2022 here in DP World Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.
We look forward to hearing from you and discussing the future of the industry.
If you are a member of the DFA and missed this meeting, please contact your account manager to get a copy of the presentation. If you would like to join us, please contact us so that you don’t lose out on any opportunities for your freight forwarding business.
