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Have you heard of scalpers in the freight forwarding industry? #Yellow Bull # Freight Forwarder # Port # Booking
Shanghai Port is one of the world's largest container ports, but in the freight forwarding circle of Shanghai Port, there is a magical thing: if you want to use containers, you have to use scalpers.
Recently, there has been a severe shortage of containers at the Shanghai port, and container brushing has become a common way for many freight forwarders to use containers. What is brushing boxes? Simply put, the container supply of the container company is limited, and you have to "grab" it on the booking platform - Yitong Online at the Shanghai port. Whoever brushes first will get the box. The problem is that now brushing boxes is no longer relying on manual speed, but directly using external software. As an ordinary person, you are still competing for internet speed. A group of scalpers have been using cheat software to monitor the placement of boxes. As soon as there is a source of boxes, they will immediately steal them and then sell them at a high price to customers who need them.
It's not just about container loading. When it comes to talking to friends who work as freight forwarders, they have a lot of trouble. From monitoring and cleaning containers, to booking and towing, every link in the logistics chain may rely on scalpers to find connections. There is actually a common logic behind this: when a resource is scarce enough and the allocation rules are not transparent enough, someone must rely on "relationships and technology" to make money in the middle.
Of course, the shortage of containers is due to market supply and demand reasons, and there are also difficulties between shipping companies, yards, and freight forwarders. But the problem is that when a freight forwarder wants to ship a shipment normally, they find it difficult to get the box without finding someone, paying extra, or using special channels. This is no longer a simple market problem.
Because what scalpers really make is not just a difference of a few hundred or a thousand. It increases the transaction cost of the entire logistics chain. What's even more troublesome is that when "whoever has connections takes first, whoever has cheats takes first, and whoever has access to information takes first" gradually becomes an unwritten rule, the ultimate damage is actually the business environment of the entire port.
Shanghai, as a large port, should prioritize efficiency, service, and regulations. Ports may have a shortage of containers, but 'scalpers' cannot be the solution to the shortage. Of course, if we only focus on scalpers, we will only see the surface of the problem. What should be asked more is why such a global level port container allocation has left so much arbitrage space for scalpers?
What other chaos is worth being vigilant about at your port? Welcome to share with us in the comment section.
