An agreement has been formed by digital freight platform Cogoport and India’s largest rail haulage service provider CONCOR to allow Indian companies to book rail and ocean transport in one place. As a result of the collaboration, shippers can now organize the movement of cargo – from inland factories to locations all around the world – with “the click of a button”.

In addition to this new partnership, Cogoport already offers an online booking platform that connects thousands of exporters and importers with a wide range of shipping lines, showing prices for multiple carriers to help shippers make savings of approximately 10 per cent. With the support of CONCOR, new rail services to and from Inland Container Depots (ICDs) across India will also be added to the platform. Purnendu Shekhar, Founder and CEO of Cogoport, commented: “This agreement with Concor represents a further, significant step forward for Indian business – making their shipping easier and more connected. Some almost 90 per cent of India’s rail freight is carried by the CONCOR rail network, so our partnership brings together the benefits of rail transport with our transparent marketplace for ocean carriage.” “For the first time shippers have a single factory-to-ship planning and booking platform. It’s a significant advance for businesses sited a long way from the sea, who can now plan logistics more easily and still take advantage of the 10-15 per cent cost savings we typically generate on ocean carriage bookings,” he added.