Ninety-five percent of shippers use two or more carriers and the largest shippers are more likely to use five or more carriers (28 percent vs. 9 percent for small shippers), according to a study from Kewill that canvassed more than 500 logistics professionals, executives and managers at small to large companies in industries ranging from aerospace and electronics to healthcare, agriculture and retail.

Additionally, 53 percent of survey participants still use a manual process to determine licensing requirements for exports and destination country import regulations, according to the report,  2010 Best Practices Survey for Parcel Shipping and Global Trade Management.

The findings of the survey are detailed in a white paper that also provides 10 best practices recommendations for parcel shipping, import compliance and export compliance. It is available at   www.kewill.com/Benchmark2010.

Some key findings from the report include:

• Ninety-six percent of survey respondents noted that they had made changes to their business in response to the recent economic slowdown, especially headcount reductions, use of lower cost shipping options, and changes to the carrier mix.

• Despite headcount reductions, employees are spending considerable time and effort processing import and export documents and have reported a measurable level of errors that cause delays and rework.

• Sixty percent of survey respondents said that they are using lower cost shipping options. One-third changed the carrier mix to include regional carriers and/or consolidation.

Despite the reduced headcount in shipping, the majority of companies (59 percent) report that it takes more than 10 minutes, on average, to produce and distribute export documentation.

Source: Kewill