How does a new forwarder make a 100-year-old logistics empire irrelevant?
By understanding one truth: visibility beats history.
In freight forwarding, people assume longevity equals authority. A company founded in 1923 should automatically outrank a company founded in 2019. But the market doesn’t work that way anymore.
Today, the firms winning attention, trust, and business are not the oldest.They’re the ones who are most visible, most active, and most present.
A century-old forwarder can have the strongest operations, the most experience, the deepest relationships, but if their digital presence looks like an abandoned warehouse, they’ll lose to a five-year-old startup that simply knows how to show up online.
This is the visibility gap.
Most forwarders still believe reputation spreads through word of mouth. It used to. Before the industry moved to LinkedIn, before partners started checking profiles, and before digital silence became a liability instead of a neutral factor. Buyers and overseas partners now look for three signals:
- Are you active?
- Are you competent?
- Are you relevant?
A company page that hasn’t posted since Christmas 2019 quietly answers all three with a “no”.
Meanwhile, the younger forwarder publishes:
- Case studies of lane wins
- Short operational lessons
- Conference recaps
- Staff introductions
- Photos with partners
- Even failures and what they learned
They look alive. They look aware of the market. They look ready. Momentum is persuasive.
The forwarding industry needs to realie something important: Longevity is not a strategy. Visibility is.
Digital presence is not “marketing” anymore. It is a proof-of-competence signal. Just like a clean warehouse, an organised SOP, or a strong event meeting schedule.
Tradition gives you roots. Visibility gives you reach. If you don’t show up, the market moves on without you.
