Logistics Technology News

Customers of automated freight procurement tool Keelvar will get access to more than $1 trillion in truckload pricing data as part of a new arrangement with DAT Freight & Analytics.

Shippers once saw small variances on freight bills as a nuisance too insignificant to dispute, but technology is enabling more efficient scrutiny across transportation modes.

Some freight brokers are increasing the number of loads they can book per day with software that automates repetitive components of the booking process.

The test showed that eBLs sped the transfer of documents from the exporter to the importer using the WaveBL platform as a shared ledger.

GenLogs, a technology provider aiming to help US brokers track trucks, uses a network of roadside sensors to passively collect truckload carrier locations.

The software provider has steered clear of outside investment as it sought to patiently build import management tools for shippers.

Investors have put $6.3 million into a startup aiming to provide a procurement and transportation management software alternative to enterprise-focused solutions.

Forwarders booking less-than-containerload business from shippers face documentation and pricing challenges that cut into their ability to carve out margin.

A range of supply chain mapping and risk management tools have emerged in the past decade, many aimed at customs brokers and third-party logistics providers.

A flood of duty-free shipments from Asia has upped the ante on brokers having broad knowledge of the upstream supply chains used by their importer clients.

Most of Freightos’ traction in air and ocean freight procurement has centered around spot pricing, but the purchase of Shipsta will give it access to contract data from enterprise shippers.

A new $54.9 million fund has launched to support climate-focused logistics startups, a rare bright spot amid a larger pull-back in venture capital investment in the wider shipping industry.

Despite the nearly $140 billion invested in logistics startups globally from 2012 through 2023, most of the industry’s major inefficiencies remain and the underlying structure of the industry has hardly changed.

The retail giant will enable sellers using its US fulfillment services to access its negotiated ocean rates for full containers from Yantian, Shanghai and Ningbo.

Many tools tend to focus on providing visibility centered around the “planned” supply chain, but perhaps what the industry needs is a shift in mindset that puts greater attention on exceptions, writes analyst Lars Jensen.

The $200 million funding round cuts against the broader trend of venture capital investors pulling back from early- and growth-stage supply chain and logistics startups.

A report from the consultancy pins lackluster funding into logistics startups on static freight demand and a steep decline in freight rates in 2023.

The Singapore-based ocean carrier is the fifth shipping line to use WaveBL’s electronic bill of lading product.

The collaboration comes barely a month after Google researchers said they could help shipping lines improve their network designs and profitability.

The former CEO of the now bankrupt logistics software vendor has landed in federal prison after a high-profile saga that began with Slync employees not getting paid for weeks in 2022.

While the industry has focused on areas such as tracking and quoting, advancements in booking technology portend new potential for digitizing containerized supply chains.

Electronic booking standards across ocean carriers would make it easier for shippers and forwarders to do business with a range of capacity providers, says the Digital Container Shipping Association.

Shippers and forwarders now have a range of options to book with ocean carriers, who themselves have developed direct online portals to lure smaller ocean freight buyers.

The company believes shippers will benefit from a payments network it has created to help brokers and carriers bill shippers accurately before an invoice is sent out.

Progress on the industry’s goal of fully moving to electronic bills of lading by 2030 has been slow, but more carriers are signing with vendors to enable the migration.

The uneven success of the digital brokerage model suggests that the foundations of the market were harder to disrupt than venture investors first envisioned a decade ago, and maybe even harder than some of the founders of digital brokerages had foreseen.

The ocean carrier joins rivals Maersk, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd — all investors in NYSHEX — in using the contract management platform.

CargoSense said the funding will be used to expand its partner ecosystem of integrated management systems and data sources for its shipper customers.

The new products were launched as Ship Angel announced a $5 million funding round by venture investors.

The thorny issue of running more efficient ocean carrier networks on a global scale has been a long-term quandary for liners and the software vendors catering to them.

One of the first “digital-native” brokerages, Transfix is shifting its focus to selling software as a service to other brokers, including NFI.

The post-pandemic resilience of small fleets has been attributed in part to driver reliance on apps such as the one Convoy built, which Flexport purchased last November.

Amid growing interest in making the truckload appointment scheduling process more efficient, the US visibility provider has added weight to an initiative started in late 2022.

A legal battle over unpaid detention and demurrage bills between the forwarder and importer Giti Tire has now moved to US maritime regulators.

The fast-evolving supply chain technology market prompted the global forwarders to take over Forward Computers, which will be run under a joint venture as an independent business.

Amid a range of efforts to automate and standardize truckload appointments, a new provider has launched a neutral platform to reduce manual work and errors associated with the process.

The auditing initiative between the carrier and software vendor OpenEnvoy was kickstarted by CMA CGM’s ZEBOX technology incubator, which connects startups with entrenched logistics partners.

John Urban spent a year as chairman and CEO trying to salvage Slync, the logistics automation platform negatively impacted by the high-profile legal saga of its founder Chris Kirchner.

The visibility product, called Live Position, is the first service offered as part of the carrier’s 2022 investment to equip its entire box fleet with location-tracking hardware.

Shippers have long struggled to get direct access to rail milestone data that matches the depth and accuracy of ocean visibility markers.