Delivering reliability has been a great challenge for operators around the world since the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. DCN spoke with customs brokers and freight forwarders impacted back home on Australian turf.
CUSTOMS brokers and freight forwarders face an environment fraught with disruption. Whether it is on the technological front in the form of artificial intelligence, or the uncertainty caused by geopolitical events such as the war in the Persian Gulf.
Disruption was the central theme of the International Forwarders and Customs Brokers Association of Australia (IFCBAA) national conference, held in the Apple Isle’s picturesque capital of Hobart in May.
Speaking at the conference, OOCL Australia and New Zealand sales director Tim Mason said while delays to shipping routes continued, commitment to customer service remained a priority.
“You can’t just come and go from Shanghai when you feel like it,” he told fellow forwarders as part of a panel discussion with regional Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM spokespeople.
While export figures for Tasmania bucked the national trend, industry leaders said the sector could not discount challenges faced by forwarders and brokers who serviced ports and terminals in states and territories across the mainland.
Association leaders cited the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, as well as increasing regulation and operational complexities, as key challenges for Australia-based freight forwarders and customs brokers.
You can’t just come and go from Shanghai when you feel like it.
Tim Mason, OOCL regional sales manager, Australia and New Zealand
The direct impact of these factors on cost and long-term commercial business viability – both internationally and locally – were the most far reaching, according to senior personnel at IFCBAA and the Freight Trade Alliance.
IFCBAA border and biosecurity manager Brad Leonard said the biggest challenge for Australian businesses was to navigate the operational complexities that were a direct by-product of the war in West Asia.
“It is in terms of schedule availability, reliability and volatility... of freight rates from a freight forwarder's perspective,” he said.
Echoing the sentiments of major shipping lines during the conference, Mr Leonard said there was a lot of pressure on the freight forwarders and customs brokers to be “very, very tight” with margins.
“It’s been a generational shift, with significantly more responsibility now placed on importers to understand regulatory requirements, documentation obligations, and the role of service providers in getting shipments through. Like many areas, there is also more regulatory complexity today than there was 20 years ago.”
“When I first started in the industry, many importers and exporters had in-house teams that understood customs and forwarding processes. Over time, much of this capability has been outsourced to freight forwarders and licensed customs brokers.
“A lot of staff within these businesses understood the import, export, customs and forwarding processes quite well, but over the years a lot of those tasks have been outsourced to freight forwarders and customs progress.”
Mr Leonard also said the roles of forwarders and brokers were changing, due in part to the introduction of more legislation.
“You've got your illegal logging legislation, you've got modern slavery, you've got more sanctions that are impacting the importing and exporting community,” he said.
“The freight forwarders and customs brokers have to know a lot more than previous generations.”
The concerns raised in Hobart are reflected across the wider industry – particularly around rising compliance settings, which have expanded considerably in recent years.
From asbestos requirements and engineered stone reforms to evolving Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) biosecurity measures responding to new and emerging pest risks, the compliance burden on customs brokers and freight forwarders continues to grow. Freight and Trade Alliance general manager for trade policy and operations, Sal Milici, said while each initiative was “well-intentioned in isolation”, the overall result was “the layering of obligations” for forwarders and brokers.
WITH SAL MILICI
Freight Trade Alliance General Manager
for Trade Policy And Operations:
What skills will future customs brokers and forwarders need to succeed?
Mr Milici said it was particularly obvious around document assessment and the provision of declarations.
“Importantly, while new requirements are regularly introduced, there is rarely a corresponding removal or rationalisation of legacy requirements,” he said.
“This creates a system where regulatory burden continues to grow, often without a clear reassessment of what is still necessary or functional.
“Overlaying this is an increasing focus on supply chain integrity risks, including trusted insider threats and the movement of illicit goods such as illegal tobacco.”
Mr Milici also said the “uneven” distribution of power in the broader supply chain put pressure on smaller market players.
“Key upstream and downstream participants — such as foreign-owned shipping lines and stevedores — are highly concentrated and wield significant commercial leverage,” he said.
“Regulators themselves, in setting and enforcing compliance frameworks, also exert considerable influence.”
Mr Milici said freight forwarders and licensed customs brokers, in contrast, operated in a “highly fragmented market”, where hundreds of competitors faced what he called “intense” competition.
“This imbalance places disproportionate pressure on intermediaries who have minimal ability to recover rising compliance and operational costs,” Mr Milici said.
“Regulators have been effective in identifying new risks and introducing measures to address them.
“However, there is far less focus on reviewing what can be removed. Without that discipline, regulatory settings will continue to grow in complexity and cost.”
At the same time, the structural imbalance in market power across the supply chain needed to be recognised.
“Freight forwarders and customs brokers operate at the most competitive end of the market, with minimal ability to absorb or pass on costs, yet are increasingly carrying the burden of compliance, risk management, and due diligence,” Mr Milici said.
“If left unaddressed, this dynamic has implications not just for individual businesses, but for the resilience and sustainability of the broader sector.”
Handling cost pressures and maintaining commercial viability
IFCBAA national director and 3DL founder Chris Roberts, based in Brisbane, said gone were the old days of “hiding the true cost of a compliance-driven customs entry”.
“As an industry, we can no longer afford to loss-lead on customs clearance fees simply to secure forwarding contracts,” he said.
“When this happens, the real costs and appropriate margins required to support skilled trade compliance professionals are not being met.
“Over time, this drives genuinely skilled practitioners to organisations that properly value compliance expertise and are willing to pay accordingly.”
As an industry, we can no longer afford to loss-lead on customs clearance fees simply to secure forwarding contracts
3DL founder Chris Roberts
Down south, Victorian businesses also battled with similar commercial and operational challenges.
Industry veteran of 35 years, Peter Gavos, of Gavos Freight Solutions in Melbourne’s west, said freight forwarders and customs brokers were squeezed “left, right and centre” when it came to management of their balance sheet.
"Everything's digital and that costs money," he said, with reference to the fast-paced nature of processes such as invoicing and providing legal documents.
Mr Gavos chose not to pass on the cost of digitising his business processes to the customer, where he cited customer loyalty as the key reason.
However, he said the burden of bearing the cost has resulted in burnout as a small business owner, and that SMEs had to “bear this and bear that”.
“You can’t be a cowboy,” he said.
During the IFCBAA conference, WiseTech chief executive Zubin Appoo highlighted the urgency of companies to adopt AI as digital disruption continued to affect their global business.
In February this year, the company announced 2000 job cuts within the next two years, close to 30% of the company’s total workforce.
“Disruption is no longer an occasional event in our industry, it is now the operating movement,” he told attendees during his keynote address.
In a statement to the ASX, Mr Appoo said the first phase of the company restructure (announced in its 2025 half-year results) had been completed as part of a shift to become an AI-led organisation.
Like many Australian brokers and freight forwarders, Globelink Logistics managing director Jacqui McCombie said investment in technology initially felt like “a significant cost burden”.
This was due to what she described as high implementation costs, integration challenges, staff training requirements and ongoing maintenance expenses.
“However, [technology] is a necessity in our current environment, keeping up with the changes and movements with the likes of AI is going to be our ongoing success,” she said.
“The industry is increasingly viewing technology as a necessary long-term investment rather than just an operational expense.”
Ms McCombie said “more cost-effective platforms” have emerged recently in the form of businesses that offered “greater transparency, improved visibility and more streamlined workflows”.
“[It will] help address many of the current constraints and inefficiencies the industry is working with today,” she said.
One of those disruptors is Gondola, a customs clearance platform built specifically for Australia and New Zealand's high volume parcel operators.
Gondola co-founder and chief executive Johnny MacAvoy said he encouraged any broker or forwarder to “stay curious” about AI and potential competitive advantages.
“The pace of change around AI and automation is unlike anything our industry has seen before, and the safest assumption is that your competitors are already looking at how to use it to improve margin or service,” he said.
“You don't have to change everything tomorrow, but you do need to be asking yourself where your business needs to evolve.”
Mr MacAvoy said better visibility for the industry was about real-time, end-to-end status across the supply chain.
“For us, in practice, it is also about confidence. It is being able to see what is happening and trust what you see,” he said.
“We built Gondola around that concept, including a complete audit trail across human and AI actions so accountability is always clear.”
Ms McCombie said software remained one of Globelink Logistics’ largest operational costs.
“With the growing complexity around system integration, compliance requirements and rising customer expectations, businesses need to stay ahead of the game,” she said.
“Customers are expecting faster access to information, real-time visibility and more efficient services. Moving forward, offering efficiency benefits and integrated solutions to clients will be critical.”
Mr Milici said the industry was heading into a compliance environment that will be “far less forgiving”.
“If businesses are approaching imports as a data entry function rather than a compliance outcome, they are exposed. Every FID needs to be treated as a deliberate and defensible compliance position,” he said.
“While technology will continue to evolve the way we work, it does not reduce the need for skilled brokers — if anything, it increases it.
“The future broker will not be defined by how quickly they can process entries, but by how well they understand risk, apply judgement and stand behind the declarations they lodge.”
3DL’s Chris Roberts said the industry was “absolutely facing a genuine skills pipeline problem”.
However, according to him, it was not unsolvable.
“There has been a heavy reliance for many years on experienced brokers coming through the system, with limited focus on actively building the next generation,” Mr Roberts said.
“The reality is that if we want to see change, the industry itself needs to create the demand.”
IFCBAA directors Colin Brame and Nicole Couper had already initiated a shift towards addressing skills shortages at a national level.
“[They are] doing a tremendous job driving exposure into schools and careers advisor networks,” Mr Roberts said.
“With the support of Regional Advisory Council members across each state, there is now a genuine effort to position customs broking as a viable and rewarding career path earlier in the pipeline. That work is critical and long overdue.”
In terms of skills, Mr Roberts said there was a misconception the customs brokers’ role had “fundamentally changed”.
“The core skillset has not shifted as much as people think,” he said.
“The only real change between a broker in 1908 and today is the electronic tools we now have at our disposal. The fundamentals remain exactly the same.”
He said interpretation of legislation, understanding intent, critical thinking and professional judgement were “still the backbone of a competent licensed customs broker”.
Mr Roberts added human intelligence remains at the centre of the craft.
The only real change between a broker in 1908 and today is the electronic tools we now have at our disposal
3DL founder Chris Roberts
“AI is changing how we type, click and process information, but the bigger story is what it is enabling regulators to do,” he said.
FTA’s Mr Milici said traditional entry pathways into the profession have been significantly eroded, particularly for licensed customs brokers.
“Roles such as document runners have largely disappeared due to digitalisation, and many entry-level processing functions have been offshored,” he said.
“At the same time, regulatory requirements—such as the need for ‘acquired experience’ to obtain a customs broker’s licence—have been maintained.
“This creates a structural gap: fewer opportunities to gain practical experience, combined with higher thresholds to achieve licensing.”
Mr Milici said in terms of training the next generation for customs brokers and forwarders, businesses are increasingly having to develop talent internally through structured training, mentoring and on-the-job experience.
“However, this requires time and investment, and it is more difficult for smaller operators who are already under pressure,” he said.
“There is also a need for clearer, more accessible pathways into the profession to rebuild the pipeline.”
Ms McCombie said the biggest opportunities will come from better collaboration between government, ports, carriers and industry systems to improve visibility, reduce manual processes and create more efficient supply chains.
“From a Globelink perspective, continuing to invest in technology, automation and customer-focused solutions will be critical to meeting future market expectations and remaining competitive in an evolving industry,” she said.
“Overall, I believe the Australian freight and logistics industry is moving towards a much more connected and digital operating environment.
“At the end of the day, customers want transparency, reliability, speed and simplicity — and as an industry we need to continue evolving to deliver that more effectively.”
The common thread is uncertainty, whether the challenge comes from conflict in the Middle East, evolving regulation or the fast emergence of artificial intelligence.
For Australia’s freight forwarders and customs brokers, the ability to manage that uncertainty has become as important as moving the freight itself.
This article appeared in the June | July 2026 edition of DCN Magazine