Freight brokerage in New Zealand from the perspective of the road carrier

Abstract

A freight broker is an intermediary acting between a provider of a transport service and a shipper who has goods that they want transported. With the increase of shippers outsourcing the logistics components of their businesses, third party logistics (3PL) service providers have become evident, and the freight broker is a third party logistics provider. Since deregulation of road transport in New Zealand, shippers' expectations of transport has changed. Freight brokers worldwide now use the internet as a tool to bring carriers and shippers together. This benefits the carrier by adding visibility to freight that can help to reduce empty mileage and the shipper by reducing transportation costs and resource requirements.

A questionnaire was distributed to 90 randomly selected carriers throughout New Zealand. This research reveals that the benefits for the carrier and shipper when working with a freight broker are fundamentally the same as identified in the literature, but highlights disadvantages for both the carrier and the shipper that are not listed in the literature. The low opinion that carriers hold of freight brokers was evident in the results from the questionnaires.

This research makes several significant contributions to the literature. Firstly, it identifies the advantages and disadvantages of freight brokerage for the carrier and the shipper from the carriers' perspective in New Zealand. Secondly, it provides freight brokers with some ideas, again from the perspective of the carrier, that could make freight brokerage operate more efficiently and in many cases, gain respect from the carriers. Lastly, this research identifies areas concerning freight brokerage in New Zealand that could provide a base for future research.