Supply chain

The air cargo industry is gradually moving to electronic bookings between forwarders and airlines, but the evolution could still take time if previous digitization initiatives in the industry are any indication.

With the e-commerce boom accelerating during the COVID-19 pandemic, third-party logistics providers are offering inventory management, visibility, and fulfillment solutions to shippers to support the migration of sales transactions to an online environment.

New costs related to the COVID-19 crisis and lower revenues due to the pandemic’s effect on cargo volumes are threatening the financial viability of ports across the United States.

New technologies like machine learning and robotic process automation are helping forwarders manage a large volume of shipment data tied up in email inboxes that otherwise would be unusable.

The real weaknesses COVID-19 exposed in supply chains have been a hollowing out of knowledge, experience, and relationships among companies and their logistics teams and a shift toward a procurement mindset focused on cutting costs.

Mumbai-based forwarder Shipwaves has joined TradeLens, bolstering the Maersk/IBM-led shipping visibility and documentation platform’s moves in India.

Maersk will penalize shippers that make manual booking and documentation amendments starting Sept. 1; fees can be avoided if the changes are made on its website or through electronic platforms.

Blue Yonder and DHL’s partnership to build a robotics integration product and broader venture capital investment in that category is a sign contract logistics providers need help managing an influx of in-warehouse technology.

Building on a pilot paperless project launched in early June at selected locations, Indian Customs has made the transfer of export documentation via a single digital window mandatory across the country, effective this month.

The carrier block exemption from Europe’s competition law expires in 2024, but there is a growing view among shipping line customers that an evaluation of the regulation should be held as soon as possible.

Forwarding software provider Logixboard fine-tuned its approach in 2020 to focus on analytics and visibility and less on quoting to enable mid-market logistics companies to improve online engagement with shippers.

Kuehne + Nagel believes its loss-making first half performance was still a “good result” considering the challenges created by drastic global measures to combat COVID-19.

Mercado focuses on the aspects of global trade that happen before goods are handled by forwarders and transportation providers, which has helped it land two venture capital infusions in eight months.

A Miami startup intends to create a software platform that levels the playing field for small truckload carriers by giving them a backbone system that also makes their interactions with brokers more consistent.

Ryder, Blue Grace, and ARL Logistics have either started using or expanded existing relationships with truckload broker software provider Trucker Tool, signaling broader use of third-party tools as an edge in a fragmented market.

E2open is changing its pricing structure for data, connectivity, and system usage as it adapts to a logistics software market more keen to all-in pricing.

Federal Maritime Commissioner Rebecca Dye said the agency’s fact-finding investigation into the largest East Coast port would include three teams consisting of truckers, marine terminal operators, cargo owners, and transportation intermediaries, among others.

A startup that calculates door-to-door cargo shipping emissions has released an interface to convey its data directly to shippers and forwarders needing to meet emissions reductions goals.

CEVA Logistics has expanded the digital tools it offers shippers, part of a growing trend of global 3PLs providing self-service capabilities around quoting and visibility to transaction-oriented shippers.

Freight broker Convoy has enabled small carriers to bid for long-term dedicated freight contracts, expanding the pool of carriers shippers can access to secure such capacity.

The Port of New Orleans will use information from sensors attached to commercial tugs and barges to better position dredgers to keep sediment levels under control.

Microsoft continues to build on its position as a provider of web services to the logistics industry via an expanded relationship with C.H. Robinson, North America’s largest freight broker.

An appellate court has denied the commission’s request for a rehearing of an earlier decision that would shift responsibility for background checks and criminal investigations at the largest US East Coast port to New Jersey state police.

Uber Freight has expanded its network of transportation management system integrations by piping its instantly available capacity into the Blue Yonder freight execution system.

For so-called black swan events such as COVID-19, there’s little chance that logistics managers will have had the foresight to have a traditional plan ready for a pandemic or disruption caused by an unexpected natural disaster.

London-based digital cargo insurer Loadsure partners with Chicago-based Transship to more fully automate refrigerated containerized exports.

A machine learning software provider is tackling the problem forwarders and customs brokers face in converting the information within core shipping documents into usable data.

A founder with lineage in the freight optimization space has started a new technology provider to help trucking companies better account for unknown variables in their network planning.

Shipping’s long-running campaign to remain outside the European emissions trading system and continue to self-regulate through the IMO has ended.

Olaf Merk, one of the world’s leading container shipping critics, has spelled out his view of an industry that he says is unfairly advantaged by favorable regulations.

The Digital Container Shipping Association is targeting standard vessel schedule publishing to allow ports and cargo interests to get more real-time arrival and departure data.

APM Terminals is rolling out a set of data connectivity tools, initially at two US ports, to inform shippers of container status and vessel arrival on a more real-time basis.

Transplace has begun providing managed transportation-like services to customers that have their own transportation management system but want to be able to benchmark against the data of the $11 billion of freight the 3PL manages.

On the path from static quotes to instant quotes, a key stepping stone is better connecting forwarders’ rate management tools with the transportation management systems they use.

High-growth retailers have a better sense of their deficiencies in transportation management and other supply chain components than their low-growth peers, a new study has found.

With phase 1 of the Georgia International Trade Park now complete and a new headquarters for Port City Logistics being built a few miles from the trade park, the Savannah area is adding new warehousing and distribution capacity at a time when space is especially tight.

Mexican businesses and their US and Canadian partners are focused on rebuilding supply chains shattered by COVID-19 and the recession, but they shouldn’t forget USMCA.

The turmoil unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic has barely subsided, evidenced by numerous reports of service failures that continue to come in from stakeholders throughout the food supply chain.

While food service and the retail grocery sectors adapt to new pandemic-linked realities, consumers’ food preferences remain unchanged.

Data2Logistics has been struggling through a system outage this week that is leaving its shipper customers unable to pay carriers through its platform.