Logistics Technology News

A sizable investment in a yard automation startup this week is a signal that shippers and logistics providers need to prioritize efficiencies in their warehousing and distribution facilities to cope with the speed of supply chains.

Lufthansa Cargo will offer instant air freight quotes via an application programming interface with digital forwarder Fleet, a company in which the German airline invested in 2018.

The truckload freight marketplace Transfix is allowing shippers to guarantee forward spot rates up to a year out based on an machine learning model it has been using internally for more than a year.

US shippers are demanding more precise delivery times for their goods, as retail charges for late deliveries and better awareness of truck driver hours of service raise the stakes in visibility.

The New York Shipping Exchange has begun allowing shippers and freight buyers to migrate their long-term contracts with container lines onto the NYSHEX platform, essentially allowing contracts negotiated outside the exchange to be fully and mutually enforceable as if they were transacted within the exchange.

A survey of delivery drivers projects that missed deliveries and time wasted due to outdated and incorrect maps and navigation aids results in $2.5 billion in added costs.

The heavily-funded forwarder told JOC.com Tuesday the layoffs are aimed at redirecting resources away from “over-invested” existing process areas into ones that “help us serve clients efficiently.”

Automating certain components of their transportation procurement and management processes can yield more accuracy in handling freight bills, according to Chris Stauber, chief product officer of transportation management software (TMS) provider Haven.

Traditionally, shippers have been responsible for receiving freight bills and ensuring those bills are accurate, but some are flipping that script through “self-invoicing.”

Shippers, as much as carriers, are driving toward electronic or digital bills of lading, as the need for speed and more responsive, detailed customer service increases.

Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) in southern Malaysia has begun using Portchain’s software to automate and optimize berth planning operations.

The forwarding software providers say they’re integrating SimpliShip’s freight rate management product with Qwyk’s vessel schedule, visibility, and booking tools to create an “out of the box” TMS.

JDA caters to some of the world’s largest importers and exporters, but the challenge it faces, like many incumbent software providers, is staying ahead the innovation curve and making sure the market recognizes that innovation.

New York Shipping Exchange (NYSHEX) said 96.4 percent of contracts last year were fulfilled, meaning that carriers accepted the cargo for the sailing it was booked for and cargo owners and non-vessel operating common carriers delivered the containers they contracted.

A London-based logistics process automation software provider has landed $7 million in funding to fuel growth of its platform, which is designed to help forwarders unearth data lodged in emails and disparate systems.

The group pushing process and data standards in the container shipping industry has released a new set governing the tracking and tracing of container shipments across systems and carriers.

Bolloré Logistics has picked the COO of its Asia-Pacific operation to head the company’s Americas business, which covers 45 offices in eight countries, including the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Supply chain technology providers tell JOC.com logistics practitioners are more interested in automating specific processes than pure self-service models for procuring and managing freight.

The trend of TMS vendors partnering with ancillary visibility and capacity providers continues apace, this time with BluJay Solutions creating an integration with Chicago-based visibility provider project44.

APL Logistics is providing a visibility product that mingles its ability to connect directly to carriers across modes with its “boots on the ground” to fill in gaps in data completeness and timeliness.

The freight broker GlobalTranz is expanding its reach in the managed transportation services market with the acquisition of Cerasis, a broker that effectively acts as provider of transportation management software and often runs the software for its less-than-truckload, parcel, and final mile customers.

Visibility solutions provider Arviem, which aims to help shippers leverage cargo data into trade finance products, is piloting a process to ease inventory financing burdens on shippers in and out of Austria.

Indian logistics player Allcargo has secured a $53 million investment from Blackstone that will be used to develop logistics parks in key consumption hubs across India.

Shipper demand, lower modal boundaries, and changing procurement practices lead LTL technology provider SMC3 to add truckload functionality to its bidding software.

Tender and bid management software provider Winmore is trying to amplify investments by 3PLs into customer relationship management-based tools by allowing them to assemble bids more quickly and measure the effectiveness of those bids.

A roundup of investment into international logistics and maritime technology has found that, outside of a $1 billion investment into the forwarder Flexport, total venture funding into startups fell from 2018 to 2019.

“Continuous” truck moves collaboratively arranged by networks of shippers and carriers are the goal of Transplace’s acquisition of Lanehub.

Two technology firms are taking an ambitious step toward bringing shippers, trucking companies, and logistics providers together on one transportation management platform.

A secret shopper study of top forwarders by an equipment marketplace provider finds that most are uninterested in providing shipper-owned container options to small or unknown shipper customers.

Knight-Swift and DAT test a truckload rate forecasting system as shippers and their transportation and logistics providers push out the boundaries of supply-chain visibility.

TradeLens container line participants have filed an antitrust exemption agreement with the Federal Maritime Commission to allow them to discuss how to share information and develop products on Maersk and IBM’s blockchain-based technology platform.

Insight into the location and predicted arrival of freight across modes can no longer be confined to a single entity in a freight environment where outcomes between trading partners and service partners are intricately linked.

The electronic logging device (ELD) eventually will help shippers find trucks more quickly, help trucking companies better manage drivers, and help drivers better manage hours. But more integration of ELD data with other systems and more development are needed to deliver bigger benefits.

Confronting cyber threats and trying to minimize their risk is the focus of a new coalition of port stakeholders at the Port of New York and New Jersey.

It took decades to break up shipping conferences’ control and fixing of shipping rates, but now freight forwarders face a new threat from the carrier-backed TradeLens, a group that has already taken control of much of the world's container cargo data.

Gaining visibility into truckload movements allows shippers to improve transportation execution and efficiency, as well as accurately benchmark carrier performance and enforce minimum service standards for providers.

The high-profile financial failings of so-called disruptors like Uber, Lyft, Grubhub, Blue Apron, and WeWork should serve as a warning to investors in the budding digital freight brokerage space.

With true end-to-end shipment visibility unlikely to come from a single provider, shippers and 3PLs are thinking about visibility as something that needs to be pulled together using data from multiple sources.

Seaports on the US West Coast aim to regain some of the market share they have lost over the past five years to the East and Gulf coasts by building infrastructure and implementing technology needed to move cargo cheaper and faster.

Virtually every notable new domestic freight broker in the US tied up at least one direct integration with a major transportation management system (TMS) provider in 2019, a trend that will likely continue in the coming years.