Supply chain risk monitoring tools have largely been seen as a luxury, not necessity, but COVID-19 is likely to change the industry’s thinking about their ability to adapt to massive disruption.
Monday April 6, 2020
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Logistics Technology Providers
Logistics Technology Providers
Technology is now embedded in the very fabric of the way that freight moves across oceans and land. A major dynamic driving technology in logistics is the rise of e-commerce, which has heightened customer expectations in both consumer and industrial markets, and raised demands placed on logistics teams.
Another major factor is the flood of venture capital funding, underpinning hundreds of logistics technology startups, while serving to accelerate the overall pace of innovation. The dizzying pace of new start-ups, new buzzwords and new information makes it extremely challenging to chart an intelligent, risk-averse path. For shippers, it can be confusing to decide which areas of their business make the most sense to invest in, which specific solutions to use to track their supply chain data and to evaluate their current systems and processes.
The logistics technology choices that ocean carriers make will have a significant impact on the overall direction of the logistics technology sector in the future, because much of the data that shippers need in order to optimize their supply chains originates within the data networks of those carriers. To maximize the benefits of such initiatives, the critical data must be accurate, and must flow through such channels as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) in a timely fashion. In an effort to improve the quality of this data, some ocean carriers are taking steps to collectively harmonize their data standards.
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News & Analysis
03 Apr 2020
The pandemic adds impetus to the rush to develop more sophisticated tools that can give shippers better insight into future truck rates, and eventually “forward-looking visibility.”
31 Mar 2020
Slync has made quick progress in landing large forwarders as customers for its automation software, securing an $11 million funding round to fuel its growth despite COVID-19 making investors more conservative.
30 Mar 2020
A $10 million investment into US-Mexico broker Forager could set the company on a path away from its brokerage roots to a more expansive view of cross-border commerce.
27 Mar 2020
Digital truck brokers have found it hard to confidently provide an accurate guaranteed rate to shippers 14 or 21 days in advance because of the unpredictable developments of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), causing one-off quotes to be higher than normal.
25 Mar 2020
FourKites’ acquisition of the yard management visibility solutions of Denver-based TrackX indicates an intent to build broader freight network visibility for its shipper customers.
19 Mar 2020
A trio of prominent logistics technology CEOs told shippers that navigating the coronavirus crisis comes down to decentralizing inventory and avoiding investment in fixed assets.
18 Mar 2020
Forwarders facing the task of continuing operations while under work-from-home mandates are getting a boost from software providers offering free versions of their products to help companies cope with the new distributed environment.
17 Mar 2020
The logistics software provider Freightos is the latest to react to an uncertain freight market by cutting staff, a move the company attributes to the effect the coronavirus disease is having on supply chains and the financial ecosystem.
16 Mar 2020
Denver-based freight broker Archerhub is taking a driver profitability approach to building a successful technology-based business in a market flush with new digital entrants.
13 Mar 2020
Technological prowess is now an expectation for global third party logistics providers. Allport Cargo Services’ approach is not to build its own proprietary systems, but to act as a superuser of Infor Nexus’ shipping software.
06 Mar 2020
The global nature of the coronavirus outbreak is throwing containerized goods supply and demand out of whack, but a way through the fog for all parties could be to lean more heavily on predictive analytics software.
05 Mar 2020
Dynamic ocean freight pricing — often conflated with instant quoting — can create some unintended consequences that rebound on the intermediaries upon which shippers rely.
03 Mar 2020
New offerings released this week by Evergreen and Kontainers underscore the recent shift in how cargo transport is sold online and what’s available to book.
02 Mar 2020
Logistics system integration provider Chain.io will help shippers and forwarders connect to carrier track-and-trace data via a standard established by the container line-led Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) in January.
27 Feb 2020
The addition of the new members in the Global Shipping Business Network will stoke competition in the race to develop platforms that link carriers, shippers, ports, terminals, customs authorities, and banks.
27 Feb 2020
The freight rate marketplace provider Freightos will include an option for shippers to add FedEx customs brokerage services on-demand as part of a broader deal between the two companies that also includes FedEx’s use of Freightos’ air cargo pricing and booking tools.
21 Feb 2020
A sizable investment in a yard automation startup this week is a signal that shippers and logistics providers need to prioritize efficiencies in their warehousing and distribution facilities to cope with the speed of supply chains.
20 Feb 2020
Lufthansa Cargo will offer instant air freight quotes via an application programming interface with digital forwarder Fleet, a company in which the German airline invested in 2018.
18 Feb 2020
The truckload freight marketplace Transfix is allowing shippers to guarantee forward spot rates up to a year out based on an machine learning model it has been using internally for more than a year.
12 Feb 2020
The New York Shipping Exchange has begun allowing shippers and freight buyers to migrate their long-term contracts with container lines onto the NYSHEX platform, essentially allowing contracts negotiated outside the exchange to be fully and mutually enforceable as if they were transacted within the exchange.
11 Feb 2020
A survey of delivery drivers projects that missed deliveries and time wasted due to outdated and incorrect maps and navigation aids results in $2.5 billion in added costs.
04 Feb 2020
More than a year and a half after establishing a 40-foot container rate index on 12 global trades, the Baltic Exchange has started offering its daily Freightos Baltic Index as a benchmark for freight buyers.
04 Feb 2020
Automating certain components of their transportation procurement and management processes can yield more accuracy in handling freight bills, according to Chris Stauber, chief product officer of transportation management software (TMS) provider Haven.
03 Feb 2020
Traditionally, shippers have been responsible for receiving freight bills and ensuring those bills are accurate, but some are flipping that script through “self-invoicing.”
30 Jan 2020
Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) in southern Malaysia has begun using Portchain’s software to automate and optimize berth planning operations.
29 Jan 2020
The forwarding software providers say they’re integrating SimpliShip’s freight rate management product with Qwyk’s vessel schedule, visibility, and booking tools to create an “out of the box” TMS.
29 Jan 2020
JDA caters to some of the world’s largest importers and exporters, but the challenge it faces, like many incumbent software providers, is staying ahead the innovation curve and making sure the market recognizes that innovation.
29 Jan 2020
New York Shipping Exchange (NYSHEX) said 96.4 percent of contracts last year were fulfilled, meaning that carriers accepted the cargo for the sailing it was booked for and cargo owners and non-vessel operating common carriers delivered the containers they contracted.
23 Jan 2020
A strike by French dockworkers this week is causing severe disruption to carrier schedules as port calls to Le Havre and Marseilles-Fos are cut.
23 Jan 2020
The trend of TMS vendors partnering with ancillary visibility and capacity providers continues apace, this time with BluJay Solutions creating an integration with Chicago-based visibility provider project44.
14 Jan 2020
Shipper demand, lower modal boundaries, and changing procurement practices lead LTL technology provider SMC3 to add truckload functionality to its bidding software.
14 Jan 2020
Tender and bid management software provider Winmore is trying to amplify investments by 3PLs into customer relationship management-based tools by allowing them to assemble bids more quickly and measure the effectiveness of those bids.
14 Jan 2020
A roundup of investment into international logistics and maritime technology has found that, outside of a $1 billion investment into the forwarder Flexport, total venture funding into startups fell from 2018 to 2019.
14 Jan 2020
“Continuous” truck moves collaboratively arranged by networks of shippers and carriers are the goal of Transplace’s acquisition of Lanehub.
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Commentary
What does Maersk-IBM’s TradeLens tell us about the future of blockchain-logistics?