Supply chain

While much of the wholesale and institutional food business remains depressed, foodservice distributors are finding new opportunities to add value to the food supply chain, such as helping restaurant customers open pop-up shops and online marketplaces.

Lawyers representing ocean carriers, OCEMA, and CCM have asked the FMC to dismiss ATA’s complaint into chassis, arguing the regulatory body lacks jurisdiction and only cargo owners can bring such a case.

Food logistics providers increasing their offerings in the "new" last-mile — from restaurants and grocery stores to consumers' homes — as demand for online grocery shopping and direct-to-consumer food delivery skyrockets due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With cargo volumes and spot rates out of Asia surging as the United States and other countries begin to climb out of the COVID‑19 recession, US importers are increasingly turning to non-vessel-operating common carriers (NVOs) to secure capacity.

Shippers using third-party vendors to help them manage auditing and paying their freight bills see a sizable advantage in process costs versus those that manage the function in-house, new research has found.

Forwarders can use logistics marketplaces to cater to small shippers that want to be able to secure international freight capacity, a group that is expanding during the COVID-19 pandemic, the head of Freightos’ marketplace told JOC Uncharted this week.

Convoy is providing shippers an avenue to avoid what it considers unnecessary procurement costs associated with negotiating annual truckload bids that aren’t generally honored by either the shipper or carrier.

The acquisition of CLW Delivery gives expedited trucking operator Forward Air custom final-mile delivery services and new territory, as its LTL and final-mile businesses converge.

German digital broker Sennder has scooped up Uber Freight’s European operations for an undisclosed amount, consolidating its position in a market defined by small carriers with employee drivers, not independent owner-operators.

Visibility software provider FourKites has unveiled a product designed to help shippers better track arrival times and delays associated with individual purchase orders rather than entire shipments.

A technology-focused forwarder in New York is using bots from automation startup RPA Labs to automate document management and response workflow for its customers, a signal that robotic process automation is making progress in logistics.

In what is still very much an evolving scenario, carriers are digesting what they were told by the Chinese government and how it will impact their businesses going forward.

Two Australia-based software providers, Mizzen and Maxamation, have developed a product that will enable container lines to strategize around profitability of dynamically quoted ocean spot pricing.

CEVA will use widely used forwarding software CargoWise to replace legacy systems across its global network of offices as it attempts to match new customer-facing digital capability with a more streamlined back-end system.

Uber Freight on Tuesday said it is providing large shippers with tools meant to complement their existing transportation management systems (TMSs), products that might signal an evolution from broker to software provider.

Logistics software startup Terminal 49 is aiming to arm forwarders and other software providers with an API to more easily convey its container visibility data to shippers.

Venture capital investors have come up with $4 million for TradeLanes, a software provider that helps exporters manage the logistics and compliance elements of trades to increase profit margin per shipment.

Uptake in digital quoting tools at top container lines suggests every carrier will need that capability even if the usage and benefits of such tools aren’t yet clearly defined.

Retail inventories declined during the second quarter and are expected to continue falling into the third quarter.

Third-party logistics provider Transplace looks to expand its shipper customer base through the acquisition of LeanCor, a supply-chain company focused on lean manufacturing.

Logistics software providers Qwyk and SimpliShip have jointly landed their second forwarding network as customers, signaling how small and medium 3PLs need technology to keep pace with larger competitors.

A proposed Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration pilot project would let truck drivers stop the hours of service clock for up to three hours and then resume driving, giving them more control over their schedules, but a longer day.

Research into finding a zero-carbon fuel capable of powering international shipping has continued even as navigating the COVID-19 pandemic consumed much of the industry’s attention in 2020.

Growth of Maersk Spot indicates the industry is past the point of no return on adoption of instant quoting tools, with container lines not having this capability lagging behind.

Li & Fung moves to transform its business model as the loss of large retailers, rise in e-commerce, trade wars, and COVID-19 change the sourcing game.

Technology has the potential to solve long-running financing tensions between suppliers and importers, and logistics networks and service providers are likely to be the focal point for these solutions.

Maersk’s recent entry into the TMS space highlights the range of players targeting different segments of a fragmented shipper market that’s gravitating toward web-based tools.

Amazon and UTi vet Ed Feitzinger has joined ClearMetal’s board, attracted by the company’s ability to translate visibility data in better supply chain coordination between large global shippers and their customers.

The disruption and dislocation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic puts a premium on shipper visibility into LTL networks via digitization, as well as “touchless” pickups and deliveries.

The flood of orders for items purchased online rides atop a wave of inventory replenishment further stretching capacity limits.

The less-than-truckload (LTL) industry is catching the wave of digitization transforming supply chains, as e-commerce heightens shipper demand for improved service and visibility.

A tech-enabled cross-border truckload marketplace is giving shippers access to instantly bookable contract rates for up to a year as it seeks to build density with enterprise customers.

Crowley Maritime’s switch to lift-on lift-off vessels a decade ago didn’t pay full dividends until it adopted an aligned terminal operating system to support its grounded operations at its hubs in Florida and Puerto Rico.

With e-commerce demand surging during the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon is taking steps to alleviate capacity constraints in its fulfillment facilities and last-mile delivery services.

The Latin American market can leapfrog past its supply chain inefficiencies by using technology, but there’s an uphill climb to overcome inertia and differences between markets, a Chile-based forwarder told JOC Uncharted this week.

Logistics managers have to negotiate dueling mandates around speed to market and carbon emissions reductions; a new tool from APL Logistics is designed to help them determine which metric is more important.

A new app marketplace connecting drayage providers and two terminals in Los Angeles could lay down a marker for how software integrations and common data standards will make harbor truckers lives more manageable in the Southern California port complex.

Facing record US domestic volumes due to a surge in e-commerce deliveries, parcel, trucking, and third-party logistics provider in May implemented a temporary peak surcharge on some ground residential and SurePost deliveries as well as large packages.

A data-sharing initiative between key container gateways in Europe and Asia underlines the need for shippers and service partners to be connected into multiple shipping networks.

Maersk’s march toward providing supply chain management services and tools for shippers continues with the addition of a control tower software suite aimed at small and mid-sized shippers.