Shippers will shift freight to forwarders that perform in a crisis, Miami forum told

Forwarders that protect customers during disruption can capture a larger share of their freight in the next annual tender — that was the direct message from three major air cargo buyers at TIACA's Air Cargo Forum in Miami. Executives from Veralto, Lockheed Martin and GE Vernova said performance during a crisis influences subsequent contract awards, often carrying more weight than the headline rate.

Mitch Marx, director of transportation and logistics at Veralto, gave a concrete example. During a capacity crunch out of China, while most of the company's providers introduced surcharges, one forwarder worked to protect contracted rates — honouring them for the volumes originally awarded and charging more only for additional cargo.

"They got really creative, and so for the next year, the next negotiation, we placed an emphasis on moving as much of our volume to that freight forwarder as we could," Marx said.

What earns forwarders extra business?

Strong providers can win work throughout the year, not just at tender time, according to GE Vernova's logistics sourcing representative. Reliable partners get opportunities to bid for spot shipments and project cargo outside the annual contract, she told the panel.

But the company wants more alternatives when disruption strikes. During the Middle East conflict, too many conversations with forwarders centred on price increases rather than solutions.

"It turned into how much are you willing to pay?" she said. "We're really looking to find partners that are more willing to think outside that box."

Mark Chadwick, president of the Global Shippers Association, added nuance: loyalty does not exempt providers from competitive tenders, but neither does failing to offer the lowest price rule them out. Past performance and relationship quality shape decisions in ways that may never appear on a procurement spreadsheet, he explained.

Is there a gap in regulated cargo capability?

For forwarders chasing specialist markets, the panel flagged a potential shortfall in handling highly regulated defence cargo. Lucas Martin, global logistics lead at Lockheed Martin, said general cargo capacity appears sufficient, but questioned whether enough providers have the regulatory capability to support harder shipments as production scales.

"When it gets to the stuff that's really hard to move, and there's only a certain number of people that can move it, I think we'll see some challenges when we get to full-ramp production," Martin said.

Industry experience is the differentiator, he added. Providers that struggle typically lack familiarity with the products or suffer communication breakdowns.

Why are shippers frustrated with forwarder technology?

Customer-facing technology drew sharp criticism. Marx noted that forwarders had previously promoted their systems heavily, but that activity has taken a back seat as providers concentrate on moving freight.

The GE Vernova representative said even obtaining a basic Excel download of shipments in transit can prove difficult — whereas seven or eight years ago, providers could supply the same information within minutes. She also identified a gap between polished executive-level communication and the response from operational control towers when chasing individual shipments.

"The level of urgency isn't there. The level of detail isn't there," she said.

Martin raised a further friction point: some technology proposals request access to purchasing systems and supplier information that Lockheed Martin will not provide. "That's always going to be a hard pass for us," he said. "It seems to be the technology is getting a little more intrusive."

Speed or predictability — which matters more?

For Veralto, better service does not necessarily mean faster transport. Predictability matters more, particularly for consumables replenishing distribution sites. An eight-day transit can be acceptable in place of five, Marx said, provided it is consistently eight days and the business can plan around it.

That willingness to trade speed for consistency extends to mode choice. Higher airfreight costs have pushed Veralto to prioritise switching suitable traffic to ocean, although working capital, inventory turnover and product expiry dates limit the options. Sea-air offers a compromise when the business cannot accept a full ocean transit.

The message for forwarders is that understanding those constraints — and proposing workable alternatives — can be as commercially valuable as winning the next competitive rate.