Companies like Lyft, Airbnb, and Kickstarter use technology platforms to connect customers with service providers. And that same concept has made its way to the trucking markets, where companies like Convoy, Transfix, Uber Freight and Loadsmart are using algorithms to pair carriers with shippers who need their loads delivered. This is no passing fad either. …
Freight-tracking software startup FourKites Inc. has raised $50 million in new funding less than a year after its last round to back its expansion beyond trucking and U.S. domestic shipping. The Chicago startup gathers live location data on shipments from suppliers such as Land O’ Lakes Inc. to retailers and factories that help businesses at …
By Gary Forger, special projects editor Digitization of the supply chain is not new. Either as a concept or as a reality. But it does find itself in an interesting spot these days. Consider these three perspectives. “The ‘digital supply chain’ will be the logistics technology concept of the year.” That’s from Clint Reiser in …
The trucking industry is at an exciting but confusing point when it comes to digital load-matching technology and shippers will be brought along for the ride. A few years ago, the domestic truckload market was seen as a logical place for the sharing economy to take hold. The theory went something like this: The …
The rapid growth of e-commerce is driving deep changes in logistics, from tightening up trucking capacity to elevating the importance of final-mile delivery processes. To respond, logistics managers now need to think in terms of systems that they can leverage today to make processes more efficient, while also keeping an eye on longer-term developments that …
Convoy, backed by billionaire tech pioneers Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, and Uber Freight, an offshoot of the globally disruptive ride-sharing giant, are trying to grab a slice of the fragmented US truck brokerage market, taking different routes to lure skeptical drivers and capacity-hungry shippers. The two technology startups are attempting to persuade US shippers …
