The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the economy and the investments worldwide and the transportation and logistics industry has also been hit by the consequences of the Coronavirus.

During the last months, there have been shortage of production and lack of manpower, purchases and acquisitions have been substancially reduced, although there has been a high demand of essencial products, there have been others that have diminished dramatically their sales. Consequently, transportation rates have been increased.

However, behind every crisis lies an opportunity and the Coronavirus situation is not an exception. In this article, we are going to talk about how challenges can turn into new chances for independent freight forwarders.

1. New partnerships with shippers: The coronavirus has changed the old ways of working in the supply chain, since during the last months, the trustworthy partners that shippers used to work with in exclusivity were not able to meet their requirements due to their unavailability, the lockdown measures, the country restrictions, etc. That is why shippers have started searching for new partnerships, which has opened up new opportunities to freight forwarders.
   
2. The importance of dependable networks: The COVID-19 has highlighted the international dependency on the Chinese production, which is why the economy fallout has been devastating. This has forced the global players of the supply chain to trust other partners outside of China to avoid a massive problem in distribution. That is why, networks which guaranteee the cooperation with trustworthy agents in a financially secure environment, such as Conqueror Freight Network, are now more important than never. 
3. New market opportunities: The Covid-19 has created new market niches, offering freight forwarders the opportunity of expanding their businesses, like food (fresh groceries and meat, cold storage, high-quality foreign food and beverage, cooking appliances); pharmaceuticals products (masks, gloves, supplements, medical devices, personal protective equipment, disinfectant gel, etc.); ecommerce and online sales, etc. 
4. Freight forwarding as an essential activity: In this crisis, logistics has emerged as one of the most important business to overcome the pandemic, either by the supply of medical equipment, basic goods or even all the online purchases during the lockdown. Even during the toughest lockdowns, freight forwarders were counted as essential, so not only have they been allowed to keep working in these times, but they have also been considered as a key service. 
5. Technology: Although the pandemic has shown what an important component logistics is for society, it has also exposed its weaknesses’ and the need for profound changes in the industry. Before the pandemic, the economic incentives stemming from globalization, were already pushing logistics to a digitalized form, but social distancing or online working are making such a transformation even more necessary. That is why now it is the best time to start using a software such as FreightViewer, which will allow you to make and send quotations 24/7. 
6. The need of transparency: Clients are demanding their global suppliers more and more information to locate their shipment at any moment and freight forwarders will need to adapt to this in order to stand out from your competitors. This means that the more transparent a freight forwarder is, the more trustful they become. Now it is the moment to prove your reliability ad creditworthiness, to deliver shipments successfully, to provide with the tracking information and to make payments on time. 
7. Working from home: The logistics industry is also discovering the advantages of having staff that work from home (It can lower costs, renew emphasis on sustainable and ecofriendly work ethics, etc.). That is why companies have started shifting towards cloud-based operations so that the important systems can be accessed remotely by the workforce who are now working away from their offices.