From Freight Mover to Strategic Partner: What Shippers Actually Want Now

Jorge Zachrisson, CEO and Founder of FlexCargo International, captured the shift directly in his interview for the report. Customers today, he said, aren’t really looking for freight forwarders.

They’re looking for companies that can help them make better decisions. His team built that capability by mapping the customer’s entire process, from sourcing and inventory through final delivery, so they can spot friction points before the customer even raises them.

The Integration Gap

That kind of partnership depends on something specific: the ability to share data seamlessly across systems rather than relying on emails, spreadsheets, and phone calls. And this is where the report surfaces a real gap. Only about one in four survey respondents described their organization as highly or well integrated digitally, with automated, system-to-system data exchange across most of their partners. Forty-four percent called themselves only moderately integrated, meaning a mix of automated and manual processes, and another 30% said their integration was limited or nonexistent. Yet when respondents were asked what would separate industry leaders from the rest over the next three to five years, integration and connectivity came up again and again.

That gap isn’t unique to the freight forwarders and brokers surveyed for the report. Research covered by SupplyChainBrain earlier this year found that 38% of shippers describe themselves as only slightly satisfied or not satisfied at all with their forwarders’ technological capabilities, particularly around tracking, documentation, and analytics. Put plainly, more than a third of the customer base already feels that gap firsthand. It’s showing up in dissatisfaction now, and it’s likely to show up in lost business next.

What “Partner” Actually Looks Like in Practice

The executives interviewed for the report were specific about what closing that gap looks like day to day. Kelly Brown, Managing Director of FORE+AFT, described how her company integrated data directly with a key client, building processes specifically designed to help that customer run its own business more efficiently. That’s a meaningfully different relationship than a forwarder who simply executes bookings on request. It means the forwarder has enough visibility into the customer’s operation to proactively flag issues and opportunities, rather than waiting to be asked.

Rosswell Rojas, COO of Mybox Group, summed up the shift in customer mindset succinctly: customers don’t necessarily want to understand how everything works behind the scenes, they just expect it to happen, and they need a partner that can reliably deliver outcomes. That expectation of invisible reliability puts real pressure on the systems behind the scenes. A forwarder can’t make logistics complexity disappear for the customer if their own team is still reconciling data across five disconnected tools.

Not every path to that kind of partnership runs through enterprise-scale technology, either. Marco Gutiérrez, founder of Marco Polo Freight Forwarding, pointed out that smaller forwarders often win by pairing high-touch service with genuine care, especially for customers who are exporting to a new market for the first time and need more hand-holding than a larger provider might offer. The common thread across every version of this, whether it’s Kelly Brown’s data integration or Marco Gutiérrez’s hands-on guidance, is the same: customers are rewarding forwarders who go beyond the transaction and engage with the fuller picture of their business.

Building the Infrastructure for Real Partnership

None of this happens by accident or through good intentions alone. Proactive communication, shared data, and anticipating a customer’s next move all require infrastructure: systems that talk to each other, data that updates in real time, and a platform that gives both the forwarder and the customer the same accurate picture at the same time. Without that foundation, “strategic partner” stays an aspiration rather than something a customer actually experiences.

This is precisely the gap Magaya’s integration ecosystem is built to close. Rather than forcing forwarders and brokers to stitch together data manually across carriers, customs systems, and customer platforms, Magaya’s connected tools are designed to keep that information flowing automatically, so teams can spend less time chasing updates and more time doing the work that actually earns trust: catching a problem early, answering a question before it’s asked, and showing a customer that someone is genuinely paying attention to their shipment, not just processing it.

The freight forwarders who show up as strategic partners aren’t necessarily doing more work than everyone else. They’re doing the same work with better visibility, which frees them up to focus on the relationship instead of the reconciliation.

This post draws on findings from The New Strategic Logistics Service Provider, a 2026 report from Adelante SCM and Magaya based on a survey of 125 freight forwarders and customs brokers and executive interviews. Read the full report for additional data and executive perspectives.