Logistics Technology News

The Geneva-based carrier said it will roll out the “smart” containers in the coming months, enabling users to follow the movement of containers in real time through the Internet of Things.

“We have to move together with the village so we can all advance together and create the solutions that the new economy requires,” PSA International Group CEO Tan Chong Meng told roughly 500 attendees in his keynote address at JOC's TPM Asia 2018 Conference in Shenzhen on Wednesday. “Somewhere in our strategies, I hope we will overlap.”

While Loadsmart is far from the only startup to take on the idea of automating certain parts of the truck brokerage business — Convoy, Transfix, and Uber Freight are the most notable names in this movement — the former has been on a different growth path.

The International Longshoremen’s Association’s boycott of the 44th Congress of the International Transport Workers’ Federation, which begins Sunday, provides additional evidence that the introduction of further automation will not be a quick and simple process.

End-to-end visibility will make supply chains more efficient, Chicago-based project44’s President Tommy Barnes says, but only if shippers use data received to collaborate with partners.

One month after the global transportation management system provider MercuryGate sold to Summit Partners, a private equity group, the smaller Cloud Logistics was snapped up by E2open, a supply chain software provider best known for its planning, demand forecasting, and supplier management functions.

Global port-moves-per-hour, the top-line measure of port call productivity, decreased 4 percent, effectively meaning ships spent an extra 70,000 hours in port in the first half of 2018 compared with the first half of 2017, according to an analysis of JOC Port Productivity data.

The quickened pace of investment in the freight tech space amounts to growing expectations from venture capital investors that one or more of these companies will be able to truly transform a fragmented and often inefficient market.

Digitizing the bedrock shipping document would help less-than-truckload carriers cut costs and optimize freight flows while returning some of those gains to shippers.

“Integrators are moving up the chain — they used to focus on last mile, but more and more are focusing on long-haul legs. Customers [such as Amazon and Alibaba] are becoming competitors,” Ulrik Sanders, senior partner and managing director of Boston Consulting Group, told attendees at JOC’s Container Trade Europe conference in Hamburg last week.

Despite the growth of the electric truck market and related battery tech advances, diesel technology will hardly disappear any time soon, an IHS Markit study forecasts.

It is one of the ironies of container shipping. While the container may be one of the world’s greatest universal standards, creating untold benefits to trade and prosperity, the process of standardization around the movement of the container remains woefully incomplete.

In a US truck sector characterized by scarcity, tech visibility works both ways, and truck companies are using technology to track delays and driver detention at shipper facilities. That’s all the more reason for customers to become a “shipper of choice.”

The pace of technological change is set to increase exponentially. “This is the slowest rate of change you’ll experience the rest of your life,” Peter Sheahan, CEO of the Karrikins Group, said.

Maersk has taken the next step in its pursuit to become a supply chain integrator akin to UPS or FedEx.

Marine terminals, rail ramps, and distribution facilities provide ideal opportunities for the use of autonomous vehicles.

Tech startup Flexport’s rockstar status in the international logistics sector means it's under the microscope concerning volume, whether it can produce a profitable business model or achieve a profitable exit for its investors, and what it actually does that represents a fundamental break in the forwarding industry.

A new breed of commercial solutions, mostly developed by startups, aiming to reshape price discovery and ease of quoting, has engendered new possibilities when it comes to freight derivatives.

The smaller brokerage focusing on shipper supply chain management is GlobalTranz’s first major deal since it was sold to a new private-equity owner in June.

The move by TraPac provides additional evidence regarding the North American port trend to extend terminal gate hours to accommodate rising volume.

Overall, recent research by Drewry Supply Chain Advisors found that the liner shipping industry is exposed to $34.4 billion in invoice and payment processing inefficiencies, based on 1.26 billion invoices issued in 2017.

Just call it “two functions for the price of one tech,” as Mexico’s trade stakeholders implement technology.

The provider, Lanehub, this week said it was extending its lane matching, collaborative procurement platform to capture empty backhauls on dedicated and private fleets based on demand from its customers.

Its status may change in the future, but at least for now, instant pricing is a bit of a two-edged sword for ocean carriers.

Electronic seals are considered tamper proof and, as such, the new process enhances supply chain security. In addition, as the process eliminates the need for physical, on-site inspection by customs officials, it can reduce shipper logistics costs.

If ocean carriers are to succeed in migrating shippers to an online quoting environment in this increasingly crowded environment, they will have to prioritize investment in such tools. But, more than that, they’ll have to move away from a trait that has defined container shipping for decades, if not generations.

Mahindra bought a stake in Transtech Logistics, a domestic Bangalore-based tech-driven platform, also known as ShipX.

The critical questions for early-stage software providers targeting the beneficial cargo owner community are these: what is the best path to reach shippers in a financing environment flush with cash? And can a startup get traction among customers quickly enough to drive revenue, or does it need outside investment to help it develop scale?

CargoX said the cost to produce and transfer a bill of lading using its Smart B/L was 85 percent less expensive than traditional means. But is a public blockchain such as CargoX’s suitable for the shipping industry?

Uber Freight’s app has become a market participant at a time when US truck capacity is very tight and shippers are looking for ways to counter (or at least blunt) the remarkable amount of negotiating power transport companies have.

The latest tech upgrade at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust represents more good news for truck drivers.

Both freight intermediaries and ocean carriers are under pressure to avoid sitting on obsolete rate data, pressure that’s been placed on them by the rise of transparent freight pricing models.

The discussion of electric vehicles, like electricity, is everywhere. But without standardized charging stations and network, e-truck functions will be limited, and that’s why Penske this week joined a worldwide industry alliance focused on developing a universal charging standard for commercial vehicles.

The Hamburg Vessel Coordination Center, which coordinates vessel traffic visiting terminals at the port of Hamburg, is launching collaborative projects to help determine if it is meaningful to continue bilateral information exchanges or to replace it with a central data hub to support improved terminal asset utilization and liner route and network planning.

The unit, which comprises Damco, Maersk’s freight forwarding operation, and the inland activities of APM Terminals, its global container terminal unit, increased revenue by 6.7 percent to $1.5 billion in the second quarter.

The concept of a single electronic platform for port users is gaining momentum with truckers, beneficial cargo owners (BCOs), and other port users, with GE Transportation’s Port Optimizer at the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach achieving breakthroughs as a pacesetter.

E-commerce, led by Amazon, and couriers UPS, FedEx, and the US Postal Service are years ahead of shipping, including trucking logistics, with regard to digital bill of lading. A shift is long overdue and would offer multiple benefits.

The JOC Top 50 Global Logistics Providers, published on JOC.com on April 13 and in the April 16 Journal of Commerce magazine, misstated the annual revenues for Nippon Express.

The six-year deal contains good news for shippers concerning labor peace and the non-interruption of cargo. However, the deal is a setback for tech-driven and automation-driven efficiency improvements.

A LinkedIn discussion served as a microcosm for how shippers and the broader logistics industry are wrestling with a few key questions regarding blockchain. Are blockchain’s proponents inordinately and/or prematurely boosting the new technology — including its appropriateness and efficiency-enhancing capabilities?