Logistics Technology News

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Former INTTRA executive said shipping lines, 3PLs, and shippers could learn from the way retailers and their suppliers have set up data-sharing arrangements to provide mutual benefit.

TMS and supply chain modeling software providers combine to build an integrated “what if” scenario capability for shippers that normally wouldn’t have the resources to acquire and staff such a solution.

A software startup aiming to be the connective tissue between data from disparate warehousing systems has received venture capital as retailers’ distribution needs get more complex during the COVID-19 pandemic.