Why Some UK Freight Forwarders Risk Falling Behind in 2026

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The logistics industry has always operated under pressure, but 2025 marks a turning point unlike any other in recent memory. The 2025 Descartes Forwarder & Broker Benchmark Study reveals a profound shift happening across freight forwarding and customs brokerage. It is a shift every organisation can feel, but only some are responding quickly enough. 

Forwarders and brokers everywhere agree that technology is now central to business survival. Yet despite this consensus, the commitment to action varies dramatically. And that uneven commitment is becoming the defining competitive divide of the year. 

In a market shaped by volatility, pricing pressure and regulatory complexity, the decisions companies make today will determine whether they thrive, adapt or fall behind tomorrow. 

This article unpacks the essential findings of the 2025 study and explains why technology adoption has become the industry’s new fault line. 

Across every region, forwarders are facing a shared reality: macroeconomic and geopolitical instability continues to reshape the logistics environment. It is no longer a temporary disruption or a fluctuation in demand cycles, instability has become a structural condition. Forwarders and brokers report three pressures that consistently rise to the top: 

Customers expect more competitive rates, faster turnaround and higher accuracy, all while forwarders absorb rising costs across service delivery, labour and compliance. For many organisations, these pressures are eroding profitability faster than they can adjust capacity or pricing structures. 

The frequency of tariff shifts and the complexity of trade rules are increasing. This unpredictability is forcing forwarders into constant recalibration, while customers expect clear and confident guidance. 

Political tension, supply chain disruptions and economic fluctuations continue to create ripple effects that forwarders must manage at both operational and strategic levels. 

The essential insight is this: the forces shaping the industry are collectively affecting all forwarders. Herding psychology plays out naturally here, when everyone experiences the same pressure, everyone looks sideways to see how others respond. And what the market is revealing is that the organisations acting now on technology and automation are creating distance between themselves and those waiting for conditions to stabilise. 

But conditions aren’t stabilising. And that’s precisely why the decisions forwarders make today matter more than ever. 

One of the clearest messages in the 2025 Benchmark Study is that the industry overwhelmingly agrees on one thing: technology is essential. 

More than half of all respondents identify technology as fundamental or highly important to growth. This includes digital execution tools, automation, AI, enhanced customs capabilities and advanced compliance platforms. 

But the study uncovers something even more important: Agreement about importance is not translating into equal levels of commitment. 

Forwarders can see that their peers are already adopting more automation, more AI and more digital capabilities. They know the industry is moving. But knowing isn’t the same as doing, and behavioural economics tells us that this is where loss aversion comes into play. 

The fear of losing competitive ground is often a stronger motivator than the desire to gain it. So for 2026, forwarders should be acutely aware that hesitating on technology could cost them: 

• Response time 
• Customer satisfaction 
• Margin protection 
• Accuracy 
• Compliance reliability 
• Operational resilience 

The industry recognises that falling behind now may mean never catching up. 

The 2025 study shows a growing divide between organisations that are committing to technology and those that are still evaluating or postponing changes. “Thrivers”, the high performers, are investing decisively. 

• Eliminate manual workflows 
• Accelerate customs and compliance 
• Reduce errors 
• Improve customer visibility 
• Streamline document processing 
• Enhance duty management 
• Increase predictability across operations 

They are transforming their cost structures, customer experience and competitive positioning, quickly. Meanwhile, smaller or struggling organisations remain cautious. 

They often face capital constraints, resource shortages or internal limitations. But those constraints do not change the market reality. In fact, they increase risk. 

Loss aversion becomes especially relevant here: while investment feels costly in the short term, not investing exposes forwarders to compounding losses, margin erosion, customer churn, compliance risk, operational bottlenecks and competitive disadvantage. The commitment gap, therefore, is not just about technology adoption. It is about future viability. 

What distinguishes Thrivers is not simply the use of technology, it is the strategic application of that technology to solve operational pain points with measurable impact. 

• Document extraction & routing 
• Automated data capture 
• Exception detection 
• Classification support 
• Tariff calculation support 
• Compliance and audit workflows 
• Visibility and milestone enhancement 

• Reduce manual touch points 
• Accelerate task completion 
• Cut compliance cycle times 
• Support faster customs processing 
• Prevent errors before they occur 
• Reduce dependency on scarce labour skills 
• Increase operational predictability 

And because the industry is highly networked, herding behaviour amplifies adoption pressure. When forwarders see their competitors gaining advantages from automation, they are more likely to follow, not because it is attractive, but because the cost of not following feels too high. 

One of the most striking trends in the 2025 study is the expanding interest in compliance-driven services. Forwarders are rapidly evolving beyond traditional offerings into areas that help customers manage risk, save duty costs and improve trade planning. These include: 

• Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs) 
• Bonded warehousing 
• Duty optimisation services 
• Landed-cost modeling 
• Trade data analysis 
• Tariff mitigation strategies 

These services are less vulnerable to rate compression and create defensible, repeatable value for customers. Forwarders offering them are building stronger retention and deeper strategic relationships. The future of forwarding is not only about moving goods, but also about enabling smarter trade. 

At a time when margins are thin and customer expectations are high, manual processes create quantifiable risk: 

• Slow response times 
• Higher workforce costs 
• Inconsistent customer service 
• Greater compliance exposure 
• Increased error rates 
• Compromised visibility 
• Limited scalability 

These are losses forwarders can no longer afford. Every year, the cost of maintaining manual processes increases, and the cost of automating decreases. The study shows that organisations who take even small steps toward automation experience immediate gains in productivity and reliability. 

The lesson is clear: the price of inaction is rising faster than the price of adoption. 

Based on the study, the most successful organisations are taking these steps: 

1. Automate the highest-friction workflows first. Document processing and exception management deliver the fastest returns. 
   
   
2. Integrate visibility, compliance and execution into one connected process. Forwarders that unify these functions move faster and make fewer costly mistakes. 
   
   
3. Leverage AI for augmentation, not replacement. AI is most effective when enhancing skilled teams, not attempting to substitute them. 
   
   
4. Expand compliance and duty-management capabilities. Customers increasingly expect forwarders to help them navigate tariff uncertainty, not just react to it. 
   
   
5. Create a scalable foundation for continuous digital improvement. The advantage grows with each year of data, automation and system maturity. 

The 2025 Descartes Forwarder & Broker Benchmark Study tells a powerful story: 
the industry knows technology is essential, and most forwarders see the same pressures and risks. But only some are acting boldly enough to secure their future. 

Loss aversion teaches us that avoiding a negative outcome is more motivating than pursuing a positive one. And in logistics today, the negative outcome is clear: those who delay adoption risk being overtaken by competitors who have already committed to automation, AI and digital transformation. 

Herding behaviour reinforces this dynamic: as more forwarders invest in technology, the pressure to follow becomes unavoidable. 

In the end, the choice facing forwarders in 2026 is simple: Adopt technology to stay in the race, or fall behind as the industry accelerates without you.