Like with any relationship, there are always going to be ups and downs, but putting faith in the other party and working together to move forward can pay huge dividends. My small-medium intercontinental manufacturing, brokering, and distributing business was wait-listed in joining Flexport during COVID, and struggling to negotiate the cargo space and price needed to hold our commitments to our distributors and customers. Being patient paid off, with the expected wait cut from six months to 10 weeks. Upgrading from a smaller brokerage that lacked the advanced analytics, automated quoting, consolidated document handling and retrieval, and a myriad other services such as financing, route management, and other user-facing tools and resources helped our business through dire times. During our time with Flexport, we survived COVID, the subsequent supply chain crisis, two tariff debacles, and the endless stream of logistics obstacles from weather, to litigation, to pirates, to infrastructure failures, and they remain a key competitive advantage for our business. Despite being a small-medium business, the international nature of our trade requires we are as current on market conditions and global influences as our larger competitors, so looking past essential services, very few brokers or forwarders offer the educational tools to provide exposure to various global conditions that might hit our shipping lanes or customs filings in the future. Even fewer logistics providers offer the ability to consult directly with leading industry experts. However, regular webinars, calls, and in-person interactions are the norm with Flexport, and they also maintain a stable of economic, customs, ocean & air forwarding, and even finance experts available for consultation. Our Flexport customer service and support staff in the US and Asia couldn't be kinder or more responsive. Although we are not the corporate juggernaut most assume you have to be to receive great service, we are offered unreasonable access to our operations teams and can reach someone nearly around the clock. After half a decade with Flexport, we trust they will continue to offer the advantages of a large tech firm, such as solid funding and reinvestment into improvements, while remaining committed to regular, and even granular, improvements to their UX. It takes a little time, a little trust, and a lot of interactions, but that is no different from any worthwhile relationship. In the end, they rewarded our effort by getting it right, from SOP to individual shipment/customs handling, and remaining committed to building our relationship the right way. For those reasons, I could not be happier with Flexport, and I'm excited about expanding into our other markets beyond North America.
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Flexport is a freight forwarding and customs brokerage company based in San Francisco, California.
