Annual Review and Outlook

Digital information enables reuse of information and better use of transport capacity, which in turn helps to serve climate goals.

It is no longer just providers that need to be agile, but the entire internal supply chain, from logistics to buyers, right down to the receiving door.

BCOs in 2020 and going forward must take an active approach to ocean cargo management, actively tracking cargo to avoid demurrage and rail storage billsand being diligent about resolving all discrepancies or failures — not just the big-ticket items.

For a trading company or export business to be successful in this environment, it must be comfortable with change and be able to pivot quickly.

To achieve our global goals, it is imperative that our members have choice within the supply chain rather than the unique imposition of chassis “box rules” for US cotton exports.

Increased trucking efficiency and the elimination of unnecessary export documentation penalties are just two items on the AgTC’s wish list for 2020.

During 2019's multiple rounds of tariffs being imposed, increased, and/or postponed, compliance professionals have been trying simultaneously to minimize the tariffs' impact, find alternative sources, and educate buyers about newly relevant country-of-origin regulations.

As befits a maturing industry, our challenges and opportunities are no longer “groundbreaking,” but the need for incremental improvements will now ultimately define what constitutes progress and success.

Customs has made positive strides toward efficiency with the implementation of the financial mechanics for ACE (Automated Commercial Environment), especially with the inclusion of drawback and liquidation.

Fueled by the trade wars, the high US dollar value, and IMO 2020, the race to beat increases in the market has disadvantaged the flows of export cargo.

It’s increasingly unlikely that there will be a final trade deal between the US and China before 2021, as China watches to see which way the 2020 presidential election goes.

The logistics industry must focus on the development of third-party, multi-participant, mobile-centric platforms that provide digital freight matching and real-time visibility for brokers and shippers, connecting them with the most fragmented resource in trucking: the small carriers and independent owner-operators that move 80 percent of truckload freight.

Supply chain leaders in all industries will increasingly engage with five major areas: trade agreements, the sustainability movement, the circular economy, the need for in-depth visibility, and fast-advancing technology for facility automation and for decision-making. will determine how their respective companies perform. The six major trends will place enormous pressure on all industries, regardless of the freight volumes. Much will require capital-intensive invest-ments, for global, regional, and local supply chains, which is always limited. Shippers will need strong talents to decide what to do; service providers will need strong talents to decide how to help their customers do it.

To combat the ever-increasing complexity of supply chain management, which leaves room for human error and interpretation that can result in severe financial consequences, companies will increasingly implement globe trade management (GTM) solutions to automate the compliance process, provide visibility, and create audit trails that document everything.

Logistics customers need new technology that is social, user-friendly, always on, and multifunctional — such as the ability to add cellphone videos in apps for product or container integrity — to face the headwinds of rising origin costs and greater consumer demands.

Application Program Interfaces (APIs) are the fundamental technology that will are soon arm freight brands with an arsenal of interoperable SaaS tools that will allow the instant transfer of data which will soon enable true end-to-end visibility, full transparency across entire supply chains, and so much more.

As macroeconomic trends, new tech, and consumer expectations continue to disrupt logistics, successful providers will assemble supply chain teams whose members are both strategic and tactical by nature and thus able to discern what matters most at any given time.

Implementing AI and machine learning in the supply chain, a prerequisite for achieving the many benefits offered by natural language processing (NLP), will require high-quality supply chain datasets, properly trained employees, and buy-in from all stakeholders.

The freight market offers a portfolio of options enabled by technology and incorporating a variety of modes that allows carriers to balance the best mix for each shipper.

Integration between supply chain and global trade management (GTM) platforms is vital in ensuring that shippers’ responses to supply chains shifts don't compromise compliance — and so that they become aware of additional opportunities above and beyond the immediate benefit to any changes.

2020 will see emerging technology and innovative solutions — such as SaaS and cloud storage, API services to connect different systems, and AI-based automated decision-making — that enable data flow across organizations to gain visibility and efficiency and illuminate black holes.

Coupled with machine learning, natural language processing, and other tech that frees up supply chain professionals for higher-order, value-creating activities, a complete redesign of the aging legacy logistics model, based on “straight-through processing,” is needed to produce fully digital data flows from end to end and predictable, lower-cost physical systems.

While yesterday was all about shipper-specific optimization and transportation management system (TMS) applications, today’s digital platforms enhance those applications by leveraging all shipper and carrier data for all network stakeholders.

Carriers that are reluctant to adopt new visibility technologies will find their hands forced by either competitive or regulatory pressures, such as the federal mandate of ELDs for trucking industry.

Service solutions offered by 3PLs must support both traditional warehouse and inventory management needs and rapid-response fulfillment, while offering complete visibility by connecting with multiple e-commerce platforms.

E-commerce’s demand for speedier shipping is driving logistics customers to infill real estate in the form of last-touch and city distribution facilities, but they are challenged by spiking construction costs and a lack of available land sites.

Standards-based solutions such as the DCAA’s industry blueprint processes, NYSHEX’s contract enforcement rules, and APIs allowing interoperation of different systems will help shippers adapt to the fundamental changes digitization brings to the logistics industry.

Supply chain operators are increasingly demanding cloud deployments for terminal operating systems (TOS) to reduce IT infrastructure costs, shorten TOS implementation timeframes, and increase interoperability with stakeholders.

Companies that take advantage of today’s technology to find efficiency and cost reductions in their supply chains have a huge opportunity to address latent inefficiencies by digitizing processes, improving workflows, and embracing new business models around data sharing.

As customers demand shorter delivery times and ships, terminals, trucks, and trains continue to move slowly and unreliably, supply chain managers will need to utilize enhanced visibility along the supply chain as a substitute for speed.

Continued evolution of e-commerce and electronic logging devices (ELDs), along with the potential of more M&A activity in a fragmented market, will continue to dominate discussions in a year when fairly flat rates are expected.

An incredibly difficult situation — adapting to global warming and climate change — gets magnified 1,000 percent when we consider our aging infrastructure.

The next decade will see increased demand for tighter response times and premium air and ocean services, along with challenging investments in rail and land infrastructure and increased pressure for carbon footprint reduction.

Despite uncertainty with trade tariffs, we expect 2020 to mirror prior years with solid real estate market performance and growth, with customer demands continuing to fuel transformation in specialty sectors like food.

Open platforms that support the rapid integration of services and service providers are the solution to the poor data quality, integration challenges, and complexity that make adoption of any new technology slow and hard to do.

AI-driven digital transformation will require time and resources, but digitization can lead to dramatic customer service and process improvements for service providers and their customers alike.

Entering 2020, the shipping industry faces uncertainties around trade growth, freight demand, and the implementation of IMO carbon emission regulations that impair industry forecasting by making the inputs around levels, timing, and goods hard to predict.

As shippers look for tools to manage activities deeper in their supply chains, Ascent will deploy a series of enhancements to its client technology, PEAK, to simplify how shippers, carriers, and agents interact using this multimodal technology platform.

2020 will see more solution providers and supply chain partners, such as Kontainers and Chain.io, Catapult and Xeneta, and the Port of Long Beach’s Port Optimizer, collaborating to achieve true end-to-end visibility.

Tariffs, accessorials, and demurrage/detention fees are cutting into shippers' profits.