Logistics Technology News

Historically, when warehouse/industrial rental rates increase at near double-digit levels, it reduces demand. However, as the US economic expansion continues, that is not occurring, especially near seaports and in large inland hubs, where import distribution and e-commerce fulfillment needs are the greatest.

Maersk and IBM have fleshed out their designs for an industrywide blockchain solution – an open-source platform called TradeLens. There are a host of other blockchain initiatives in development, but as one stakeholder noted, they joined the Maresk-IBM venture based on Maersk’s history of innovation and IBM’s technological prowess, which gives the platform a “high probability of success.”

That upgrade for Uber Freight could lead to expanded, pro-active opportunities for shippers.

Like other emerging markets, it is a “bad news, good news,” circumstance for Mexico. The bad: surface transportation and logistics operations are straining to meet shipper demands. The good: Mexico appears to have arrived on the global trade stage, with all key metrics advancing.

The E*Dray platform will enhance the ability of beneficial cargo owners and their truckers to aggregate containers into peel-off piles at the ports — and with the new system the potential is there for a substantial reduction in truck turn times.

The port of Halifax has three objectives in mind with its tech upgrades, and if the port is successful shippers and other trade stakeholders will benefit from all three.

A crop of logistics startups has been gradually aiming to change India’s paper-based ocean freight processes, building several different technology models to tap into demand for better access to rates and visibility of shipments.

Uber’s decision to scrap its autonomous trucking plans does not mean there will not be “driverless” trucks someday, but it does dispel a notion that had caught fancy, in some circles.

APM Terminals is in the midst of a whirlwind trade outreach program, with the goal of attracting more customers to its recent ease-of-doing-business measures.

The largest global transport operator is amping up its efforts to develop electric trucks as fuel costs and emissions rules spur demand.

The decision may have positive implications for other public blockchain solutions reliant on a token to underpin transactions.

One thing is certain regarding blockchain technology circa mid-2018: it has the potential to transform and dramatically improve logistics efficiency. But that potential will remain only that — potential — until many paramount issues are resolved to universal satisfaction.

APL’s blockchain aims to include a range of container shipping processes, with an example of the platform’s utility being the elimination of the redundancy, needless rekeying, and back-and-forth of one essential task.

As Cosco continues to guide its customers through email transmissions for the booking of cargo, there was good news on Wednesday.

Log-Net’s $14.4 million jury verdict provides hope to small logistics providers seeking to defend their proprietary value added, but the case also serves as a note of caution for smaller, growing tech companies.

Since Cosco’s overseas operations have not been affected, communication with US offices is able to take place, although at a slower pace, a key Cosco official said Tuesday.

Singapore's local drayage market has historically been highly disorganized and reliant on outdated modes of communication.

The question shippers are asking is, “If you see the freight, can’t you let me know where there’s carrier capacity available?”

Pushing data back to users may very well prove to be the pivotal point at which the container shipping industry shifted en masse to portals. But getting to that step will likely require another cultural shift.

The government has set a firm Sept. 30 deadline for all ports and terminals to join the radio frequency identification (RFID) program; a decree allows stakeholders to apply a mandatory RFID user charge of about $2 per container.

Many experts argue that blockchain technology is tailor-made for container shipping’s international logistics work. But blockchain faces numerous hurdles — the biggest of which may be cultural.

The world’s biggest transport operator sees a combination of fuels and technologies as necessary to meet shipper sustainability goals.

Global trade-oriented blockchain solutions are moving from pilot to purported commercial viability in Asia and Europe, as shippers evaluate whether blockchain is something in which they should invest in the short term and which project to back.

Cell phone service providers may soon pull the plug on a key data pipeline underpinning domestic visibility software, but most companies have switched to other location systems. Shippers need to ensure that their providers aren’t overly exposed to this cell phone triangulation data.

Like the US airline industry earlier, the global container shipping industry has reached a point where cost cutting and mergers will yield little if any additional value. This is the view of a longtime carrier executive, a Maritime Hall of Fame inductee who argues creating value for customers will characterize the current era, with customer service the first visible change area.

Maersk's annoucement that it has used the start-up software provider to build its new e-commerce interface makes two points that all stakeholders in container shipping should note.

Technology, and in particular visibility and cargo track/trace tech, offers a multitude of benefits, including improved efficiency. But along with a monetary cost/benefit analysis, potential users should ask if they are willing to accept any operational adjustments that will be required to use it.

Shared worksheets and manipulatable charts are the standard in trucking logistics, as they are in other sectors, but there is a scenario that would see truckers, shippers, and others abandon them.

Heavy-duty and medium-duty electric trucks from the largest US truck maker will get a workout in applications such as drayage, as a step toward full production.

Nippon is expanding cross-border services as Asia-Europe demand increases and as five Mekong subregion countries adopt an agreement that could serve as a trade model for other regions.

Shippers have long pushed back against index-linked contracts, due to low rates from chronic overcapacity, but the methodology at the core of Xeneta’s new index might satisfy shippers — as well as solve several business operation problems.

Ocean carriers have begun investing directly in start-ups, and in some cases deploying these solutions more broadly. Furthermore, as the tech sector worked through initial roadblocks, the market for sensor technology to track international freight has been steadily warming the last two years, as shippers seek more-accurate and real-time information.

The new community, approved by the Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service and the Federal Customs Service, will work to speed port operations and and decrease shipper costs.

With its first-move advantage fading, the digital forwarding industry is entering its second phase marked by a mushrooming of providers, a pivot away from marketplaces, and a subsector seeking to give so-called traditional forwarders digital chops.

Krishnapatnam Port — a fast-growing, privately operated east coast gateway — has set up Rapiscan X-ray machines and radiation portal monitors for cargo inspection — touted as the first-of-its-kind customs’ initiative at Indian ports.

While terminals have made good strides in improving technology within their four walls, they are poorly connected with the greater supply chain in which they play a critical role as the interface between the water and the land; that connectivity has to occur for the industry to advance. And with International Longshoremen's Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union labor peace, there’s now time to do it.

The government, at a recent stakeholder review meeting regarding trade reforms, set a Sept. 30 deadline for nationwide radio-frequency identification operations.

The tech enhancements could have potential benefits for importers in terms of better visibility of their cargo from the vessel discharge process to the out gate process, and for exporters in terms of better gauging the best time to deliver laden boxes to terminals.

“No one’s coming to save us,” Bobby Harris, president and CEO of BlueGrace Logistics, tells shippers. He’s talking about the tight-capacity, high-priced, surface transportation market, which he expects will continue until late 2019. One BlueGrace solution — it is going to Chicago to hire help.

Shippers using the BoxTech database to track container weight and other information will get greater reach through the database, which now contains information on 40 percent of the world’s containers after Mediterranean Shipping Co. added its information.