Logistics Technology

Fresh from Amazon’s transportation shop, Kenny Wagers sees technology and integration within XPO as the keys to accelerating less-than-truckload growth.

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.

“We do expect a big peak this year because the economy is so good,” Bradley S. Jacobs, chairman and CEO, said in an interview. “...We’ve started staffing up already. That’s one of the reasons we began adding all the technology we’ve been developing.”

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Amazon’s new network could help reduce shipper costs, and even aid other transportation providers, as volumes outstrip capacity. But as one might sense, Amazon’s latest play also will affect resources in an already beyond-tight US trucking sector.

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.

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.

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.

Spending on third-party logistics providers is expected to rise 5.5 percent by 2019 as shippers rely upon logistics providers to manage capacity constraints on the highways and rails while offering long-term solutions through technology.

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 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.