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Tag: freight forwarding

Point of Origin Quality Control in Morocco

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Leading freight forwarding and logistics company, Davies Turner is launching the tried-and-tested point of origin quality control and compliance procedures developed for clients sourcing from Turkey, into a new operation for clients sourcing from Morocco.

The development has seen Davies Turner open a quality control inspection facility with its partner in Morocco for a large online fashion retailer, which sources product from the country, for shipment to fulfilment centres in the UK, the USA and mainland Europe.

Until recently, Davies Turner has provided in-country warehousing, consolidation and overland trailer services from Morocco to the client’s fulfilment centres in the UK and mainland Europe, as well as air and ocean freight services to the fulfilment centres in North America.

Quality control on the commodities contained in those shipments typically took place at the fulfilment centres once the trailers arrived at destination, with products not featuring on the retailer’s website as being available for order until they had cleared all quality control procedures after delivery to the fulfilment centres.

With the new system, those quality control procedures will take place upstream in Tangier. This means that any items from a consignment that are selected for a quality control check, which fail to meet the online retailer’s quality achievement rate, will achieve an earlier fault/concern capture from the consignment origin, enabling them to be returned to the supplier in country for reprocessing.
This will facilitate a reduction in the possibility of ‘sub standard’ product departing from the origin hub in Morocco, which improves freight and transportation costs, whilst also reducing ‘sub standard’ product arriving at the fulfilment centres overseas, improving space and labour costs at those centres.

Alan Williams, Director of Davies Turner & Co Ltd says: “Based on past experience in Turkey, this re-engineering of the management of these particular aspects of the online retailer’s supply chain should improve the overall transit times from receipt of consignments in Tangier to availability on the online retailer’s website for purchase. The point of origin quality control process takes place on the day after arrival of the shipments into the Tangier freight hub.

“The re-engineered service is underpinned by our award-winning P2D (purchase to delivery) software system. This is a system that has been designed in house by our IT and business analyst team, which provides an online portal that enables customers to monitor and manage shipments at SKU & Purchase Order (PO) level, delivering full visibility of products moving through their supply chain for all concerned.

“By re-engineering the part of the online retailer’s supply chain for which we are responsible we are improving visibility from origin, of product quality, appearance, composition, compliance and presentation. Through the application of the P2D online portal, we are improving reporting tools for the online retailer on supplier trends, performance, developments and successes. We are also improving lead times for the client from point of origin reception through to the the availability to sell, whilst reducing costs at various points in the supply chain.”

Transporeon Unveils Platform Innovations

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Transporeon, a leading Transportation Management Platform and a Trimble Company, has announced new platform innovations that enhance its spot quotation, contract rate benchmarking and freight audit capabilities. With a robust network of 1,400+ shippers and retailers and 150,000+ carriers and logistic service providers, Transporeon’s neutral Transportation Management Platform (TMP), which provides equal benefits to both shippers and carriers and enables companies to simplify collaboration, will now further streamline internal operations and embrace new business opportunities.

Stephan Sieber, CEO of Transporeon, commented: “In today’s fast-paced world of transportation and logistics, adaptability is key for companies to survive and thrive. Digital technologies can significantly reduce cumbersome, manual processes. We have seen that when companies adopt more collaborative approaches, improved efficiency often follows. This is precisely what Transporeon’s platform enables. With our latest platform innovations, logistics teams can gain access to even more detailed market insights and codify tedious manual tasks into fully automated processes – not just within their own company, but between business partners.”

Autonomous Quotation

Price negotiations remain opaque and manual in the growing freight spot market. Freight forwarders, brokers and LSPs spend considerable time manually researching and building quotes.

Transporeon’s Autonomous Quotation solves this challenge by enabling brokers and LSPs to prioritise incoming transport requests easily and automatically serve customers with instant, accurate pricing for truckload spot transports based on predicted market rates.

By fully automating the spot bidding process with Autonomous Quotation, brokers and LSPs can increase the volume of opportunities they quote for, which in turn, can lead to new business opportunities. Automating the process can also unlock cost-savings by minimising the manual work involved in the quotation process.

Autonomous Quotation generates quotes based on companies’ individual quotation strategies. Users can define their own tactics based on criteria including margin requirements, equipment type, distance, stop location and pick-up and delivery windows. The module is based on a customised trained prediction model and is backed by data science and machine learning algorithms that incorporate bidding outcomes over time to increase accuracy.

Jonah McIntire, Director Procurement and Chief Network Officer at Transporeon, said: “Freight brokers and logistics service providers have faced an uphill battle when competing in the spot market, navigating time-consuming manual price negotiations and freight auction portals. With Autonomous Quotation, companies can decouple their spot revenue growth from their staffing costs to win those shipments by issuing quotes instantly, accurately and at scale. No more manual admin but more opportunities. After all, you can only win what you can quote!”

Rate Benchmark

Rate Benchmark extends the capabilities of Transporeon’s existing Market Insights solution, which democratises truckload pricing by providing real-time insights into markets, lanes and their development. Rate Benchmark takes Market Insights one step further by allowing companies to benchmark their contracted rates against the market.

With Rate Benchmark, users can easily spot opportunities and make informed procurement and pricing decisions and improve tenders. It calculates average monthly contract rates on a postal code level and compares them with the user’s rate on the same lane.

McIntire explained: “Shippers, carriers and logistics service providers have very few reliable and neutral data sources that deliver high-quality freight rate information. When Transporeon launched Market Insights, it had a transformative effect on our network. Rate Benchmark builds on this success, permitting customers to compare their contracts against the market with precision. We’re delighted to share this development with our network.”

Freight Audit

Freight Audit represents the next evolution of Transporeon’s audit functionality. It allows customers to audit shipments executed on Transporeon’s platform and combines a variety of specific capabilities, including cost allocation, online dispute management, invoice legal information audit, billing instructions, accruals and accounts payable. Freight Audit doesn’t require additional customer input as it uses existing platform data, such as rates and transport orders.

Freight Audit minimises invoice discrepancies through upfront billing instructions. Fully integrated with the Transporeon platform, it helps to eliminate the need for separate tools for freight buyers and logistics providers. Moreover, the product is not limited to the invoice audit – it provides an accounts payable file, fully automating the accounting process.

Each process within Freight Audit has a complete audit trail for compliance, and invoices are approved according to governmental invoice requirements. In addition, it enhances data accuracy by ensuring all data is confirmed by shippers, carriers and FAP (freight audit and payment). As a result, Freight Audit enables companies to eliminate transport overspend and simplify internal and external compliance.

Stefanie Bergfeld, Director Audit and Payment at Transporeon, added: “With fragmented finance and audit processes, it can be easy to overspend on transport and make compliance missteps. Not only does Freight Audit address these problems, but it also significantly reduces manual processes with a high level of automation, minimising administrative work. Thanks to its seamless integration with the Transporeon platform, Freight Audit can also be used by smaller customers who wouldn’t normally look for a standalone audit solution.”

The three innovations were unveiled at Transporeon NEXT, Transporeon’s flagship bi-annual launch event, which is taking place this week at its annual summit.

Freight Marketplace Launched

Transporeon furthermore announced the launch of Freight Marketplace, a neutral (of equal benefit to both shippers and carriers) deal-making hub for freight procurement.

Both buyers and sellers of transportation services face ongoing challenges in aligning capacity and assessing fair pricing. In addition, insufficient transparency and fragmented systems can lead to low relevance on carrier tender invitations and inefficient alignment with shippers’ service preferences. Negotiating efficiently and fairly is also a challenge due to the lack of standardised data sets, which hinder like-for-like comparisons and make it difficult to consider factors beyond price, such as sustainability and service levels.

Transporeon’s Freight Marketplace addresses these challenges head-on with a new solution designed to transform logistics procurement and redefine how companies buy, sell, negotiate and contract. Its key benefits include:

  • A central location for deal-making: Freight Marketplace unites carriers and shippers ‘under one roof’ to do business based on their specific needs, capabilities and requirements. It taps into Transporeon’s extensive network of 1,400+ shippers and 158,000+ carriers for instant scale, creating a definitive catalogue of buyers and sellers.
  • Simplified negotiations: Freight Marketplace uses advanced algorithms to simplify negotiations and optimise the procurement process.
  • Multi-dimensional negotiations that factor in sustainability: Negotiations between shippers and carriers often focus solely on price, disregarding other factors such as volume, lead time and sustainability. Freight Marketplace solves this challenge, enabling shippers and carriers to factor pricing, volume, CO2 emissions and more into negotiations. Buyers can prioritise low-emission options, while sellers have a platform to showcase their efforts in reducing emissions.
  • Enhanced visibility and transparency: Freight Marketplace allows logistics providers to build comprehensive profiles that include their expertise, services, performance metrics and fleet data. To establish transparency, it blends self-declared facts with third-party verified information and real-world insights from the Transporeon platform. Shippers have similar profiles, enabling both parties to search for partners that precisely match their specific requirements, ensuring a smooth matchmaking process.

Platform neutrality

Freight Marketplace drives value for both buyers and sellers through neutrality, ensuring an environment where all players can benefit equally:

Buyers benefit from pre-structured, standardised data that simplifies finding new partners through high-quality profiles. Freight Marketplace makes it easy to access fair pricing and optimise decisions based on other factors such as volume, lead time, and sustainability.

Sellers gain access to a broader range of shippers and mini tenders, allowing them to win new business. Since every event is structured the same way, sellers can also evaluate opportunities more efficiently, meaning they no longer need to decipher shipper-specific jargon or endless Excel table names.

Sieber said: “Finding reliable partners, aligning capacity and securing fair agreements is a long-standing industry challenge. That’s why we built Freight Marketplace to take freight procurement to the next level. At its core, our new solution is a one-stop shop for deal-making, empowering buyers and sellers alike to connect, negotiate and close new business. This is supported by advanced algorithms, full transparency and a focus on sustainability.”

Chris Keating (pictured, left), Group Head of Strategy at Trimble, has been announced as the incoming CEO of Transporeon as Sieber will be stepping down and leaving the business at the end of this year. Additionally, it was revealed that, following Trimble’s takeover of Transporeon, the Transporeon brand will be withdrawn towards the end of 2024, meaning the business will be henceforth known purely as Trimble.

Seafrigo Acquires Specialist UK Forwarder

Posted on by David Priestman

Seafrigo has acquired the specialist UK-headquartered forwarder Perishables Movements Limited (PML); with the formal signing of the deal taking place in London on July 10th 2023. Effective immediately, all PML employees will join the Seafrigo Group which will provide the group with a platform for future investment and growth in the region.

In the coming months all PML locations will operate using a new co-branding with a view to eventually becoming Seafrigo. PML operates from three locations in Britain: Heathrow, Lincolnshire and Kent and across air, ocean and road forwarding while also offering warehousing and value-added services to customers.

Seafrigo Regional CEO, Jason Knox says: “With its excellent market reputation and our shared expertise in the management and distribution of temperature-controlled goods this deal is the perfect fit for us. Through an expanded airfreight capability which PML will bring to our operation, all our customers will be able to benefit from an improved service offering, expanded geographic coverage, scale of operations, improved buying power and enhanced service solutions”.

Business as usual across PML’s UK network

Adds PML CEO, Mike Parr: “For us this new era is very much business as usual for all our customers. We are delighted to become part of the Seafrigo Group which has more than 40 years’ specialist leadership in the temperature-controlled food logistics market. The deal provides us all with the opportunity to grow and enhance our business and to truly control the global logistics chain from origin to destination for our customers.”

The UK PML operation will plug-in seamlessly to the global Seafrigo network enabling both companies experts in their fields to leverage their knowledge to deliver an even better service for customers.

Says Seafrigo Group CEO, Eric Barbé: “I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our new colleagues from PML. Together we have the synergies and determination to build the world’s leading end-to-end temperature-controlled organisation and I am delighted to have their team onboard”.

Opportunities for global growth

For more than 40 years, Seafrigo Group has positioned itself as the world’s leading specialist in temperature-controlled food logistics. The Le Havre-based Company is experiencing a strong development both in France and internationally. Today, Seafrigo Group has its own infrastructure in 26 countries and has built a network of specialist global partners. Seafrigo Group employs 2,500 committed experts who organize the international transport of goods on five continents on a daily basis. It is also leading authority in controlled global logistics chains including: reception of goods, container drayage, and storage at ambient or controlled temperature, order preparation, container loading management, shipping and delivery to the final recipient. Historically the company has positioned itself as an expert in the fields of food products, wines and spirits and E-Commerce.

Hellmann Achieves Record Result

Posted on by David Priestman

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has concluded the 2022 financial year very successfully, continuing the company’s strong performance of recent years in the face of persistently challenging market conditions. Hellmann was able to increase its total sales by 24 % to EUR 5.0 billion (2021: EUR 4.1 billion) as well as shipment volumes, which grew significantly year-on-year to just under 20 million (2021: 18.1 million). At the EBIT line, Hellmann was able to achieve an increase of 31 % vs. the prior year, delivering an EBIT result of EUR 210.8 million (previous year: EUR 160.1 million). Thanks to the improved cash flow from operating activities of EUR 268.7 million, liquidity improved by a total of EUR 124.7 million despite a significant increase in investments.

Beyond its positive financial performance, Hellmann also successfully continued its strategic development last year. For example, even during continued market disruptions from the COVID pandemic and the war against Ukraine, the Group stuck to its digitalization strategy and invested significantly in digitalization of business processes and forward-looking technologies. Hellmann also made several acquisitions in support of further growth, such as the takeover of the joint venture in Peru and the acquisition of OptimNet, an overnight express provider operating in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The international growth course and the expansion of the Hellmann network also continued to show success: Having already expanded its business activities to Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Oman and France since 2020, Hellmann also opened its own country organization in Switzerland last year to expand its product portfolio and its footprint into the Swiss market.

An important topic of the last year was the continued development of the company culture, particularly as regards the sustainable positioning the global family-owned Hellmann Group. With the guiding principle of ‘For the better. Together.’, a vision was defined that unites the global Hellmann FAMILY and shapes the daily behaviour of all employees. In a rapidly changing world, Hellmann is living up to its goal of assuming responsibility for its employees and customers and to contribute to overcoming the current social and ecological challenges.

“2022 was once again a challenging year in many respects: While the first half of the year continued to be characterized by capacity bottlenecks, particularly in the air- and sea freight sectors, demand for transport services declined significantly from the summer of 2022 onwards due to changes in consumer behaviour worldwide. This in turn led to overcapacity on global trade lanes in almost all product areas during the second half of the year and consequently lower freight rates. Despite these challenges, thanks to our strong global and regional teams and our solid network, we succeeded in offering our customers tailored logistics solutions throughout the year and were able to achieve another record result in 2022,” said Jens Wollesen, Chief Operating Officer, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

“The goal is to continue to expand our global competitive position across all product areas in the coming years. As such, we are planning further strategic acquisitions as well as sustainable investments in the modernization of our systems and processes,” added Martin Eberle, Chief Financial Officer, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

“Our vision for all of our actions in the years to come is “For the better. Together.” In this context, sustainability is of central importance. Together with and for our customers, employees, and partners, we are committed to further developing our sustainable logistics solutions,” emphasizes Reiner Heiken, Chief Executive Officer, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

Hellmann Logistics Expands in North Germany

Posted on by David Priestman

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has opened a new branch in Neumuenster. From the site located 50 km north of Hamburg, road activities in Schleswig-Holstein are to be further expanded. The aim is to develop the company’s own network in the strategically important region between Hamburg and the Danish border and to establish further general cargo lines. At the same time, the logistics company wants to further enter the Scandinavian region through strategic expansion in the north. With the opening of the new location, Hellmann is also responding to the increased demand for storage facilities available at short notice between the Port of Hamburg and Scandinavia.

Both the location and the technically state-of-the-art 4,500 m² logistics facility offer long-term and strategic advantages for the distribution network. Thus, the new branch also has the corresponding growth capacities to meet the needs of both existing and new customers. At the same time, the location will be integrated into the general cargo network called NG.network, which was successfully launched under the new brand on January 1, 2023. As the largest network partner and as a shareholder, Hellmann is now represented in the cooperation with 17 branches and, together with NG.network, is significantly driving the further development of the joint Germany-wide network.

“The decision to open our own branch in Neumuenster was made for various reasons: The region in the triangle of Neumuenster, Crivitz near Schwerin and Hamburg offers a lot of potential, especially with regard to the food industry as well as renewable energies, which we want to use even more in the future. By selecting this location, we are strengthening the network and thus also our capacity and service quality,” says Jonathan Adeoye, COO Road Germany & West Europe, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

Since its foundation over 150 years ago, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has developed into one of the largest international logistics providers in the world. With more than 12,300 employees, the company is active in 60 countries and generated sales of around EUR 4 billion in 2021.The range of services includes classic forwarding services by truck, rail, air and sea freight, as well as a comprehensive range of CEP services, contract logistics, industry and IT solutions.

Saudi Ports Record 13% Rise in Freight

Posted on by Keith McKinley

The Kingdom’s maritime Saudi ports trade hubs have seen a yearly increase of 13% in cargo throughput during the year 2022, handling an estimated 237 million tons compared to 210 million tons in the preceding year.

The annual results mirror the mission of the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) to transform the nation’s ports into an operationally-efficient and robustly-regulated industry thriving on streamlined processes, high-impact partnerships, world-class infrastructure, global connectivity, digital transformation, and top-tier customer experience while fulfilling the Kingdom’s logistics hub ambitions set by the National Transport and Logistics Strategy (NTLS).

The year-end statistics for 2022 highlight a 3.2% surge in container volumes at 10.3 million TEUs in contrast to 10.04 million TEUs a year earlier. A further look at the sub-categories reveal a 5% boom in imported and exported boxes to 4.8 million TEUs from 4.6 million TEUs in the previous period. Similarly, trans-shipments inched up by 2% to hit 5.5 million tons in comparison to 2021’s tally of 5.4 million TEUs.

On the commodities front, Saudi ports unloaded around 3.93 million cattle heads across 2022, up 9% year-on-year over the prior year’s total of 3.62 million. Likewise, 973,000 cars rolled off incoming vessels at a 25% growth rate versus 778,000 units previously.

The Kingdom’s trade gateways also welcomed 933,000 passengers over the course of 2022, a 36% spike from 2021 when 688,000 pax landed on the country’s shores.

About the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani)

Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) was established in 1976 to oversee the operations of the Saudi ports. Since its inception, Mawani has been keen on transforming the Saudi ports into investment platforms and facilitating the Kingdom’s trade with the rest of the world. The Authority seeks to achieve an effective regulatory and commercial environment supported by an operating model that enables growth and innovation in the Kingdom’s maritime industry. It also envisions developing a sustainable and prosperous ports sector to consolidate the Kingdom’s position as a leading global logistics hub. Mawani strives to realize Saudi Arabia’s economic and social ambitions by ensuring reliable and efficient logistics operations, as well as creating a safe and sustainable maritime environment. Developing the Kingdom’s industrial capabilities to fulfill the objectives of the National Transport Strategy in line with Saudi Vision 2030, has and will always be one of Mawani’s main objectives, thus contributing to making Saudi Arabia a pioneer in the ports sector.

 

How will inflation impact road freight transport?

Posted on by David Priestman

The road freight transportation market emerged from the pandemic with strength, but things have not been “business as usual” ever since. Today, the sector is having to deal with a new set of challenges, spearheaded by inflation and an anticipated recession heading towards the end of 2022, which all signal a further rise in costs and threaten the well-being of carriers.

Economic outlook on Europe

As the latest data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), indicate, inflation is rising in all European countries, reaching a record high annual rate of 9.9% in the Eurozone this September, compared to 9.1% back in August 2022, and weighing on costs and demand. Germany experienced one of the steepest increases with a rate of 10.9%, higher than the other major European economies of Italy (9.4%), Spain (9%), and France (6.2%). All in all, more than half of the eurozone’s 19 countries recorded double-digit levels of inflation in September 2022, Eurostat’s data shows.

The highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation came from the energy sector. In September 2022, energy prices rose 40.8%, up from 38.6% the previous month, according to an estimate by Eurostat. And what about fuel, the transportation sector’s biggest headache? According to the EC’s weekly oil price bulletin, the EUR27 weighted average automotive diesel oil came close to 2,000 euros as of November 7, 2022, compared to the 1,500 euros level that was reached at the beginning of January 2022, which is an increase by 33.3%. Diesel prices have been elevated since March 2022, when the EUR27 weighted average reached its peak, but have otherwise somewhat stabilised.

Recession in Q4/2022

The data mentioned previously amount to a pessimistic outlook on the EU’s economy in the nearest future. According to the EC’s Autumn 2022 Economic Forecast, published on November 11, 2022, most EU countries and the eurozone are heading to an economic recession in the last quarter of 2022, with inflation still set to peak at the end of this year; the contraction of economy is expected to continue into the first quarter of 2023, before starting to ease.

“Real GDP growth in the EU surprised on the upside in the first half of 2022, as consumers vigorously resumed spending, particularly on services, following the easing of COVID-19 containment measures. The expansion continued in the third quarter, though at a considerably weaker pace,” Brussels explains. “Amid elevated uncertainty, high energy price pressures, erosion of households’ purchasing power, a weaker external environment and tighter financing conditions are expected to tip the EU, the euro area and most Member States into recession in the last quarter of the year.”

According to the EC’s revised forecast, inflation will average at 9.3% in the EU and 8.5% in the euro area. And although it is expected to decline in 2023, inflation will remain high at 7.0% in the EU and 6.1% in the euro area next year. Adding to the noise, Brussels says that the economic outlook remains surrounded by „an exceptional degree of uncertainty,” as the war in Ukraine continues and the potential for further disruptions remains. “The largest threat comes from adverse developments on the gas market and the risk of shortages, especially in the winter of 2023-24,” the EC states. “Beyond gas supply, the EU remains directly and indirectly exposed to further shocks to other commodity markets reverberating from geopolitical tensions.”

Q3 performance and what to expect

The average price for a load in Europe has long reached record-breaking levels, but the unrolling of the European Commission’s (EC) Mobility Package, the continuously rising inflation, and the ongoing geopolitical tensions, followed by an energetic crisis, have all sent out a ripple effect to local economies, potentially increasing the already rising costs of transportation in Europe further by up to 10% in the upcoming few months.

“The outlook for the end of 2022 is for inflation to continue to persist in most economies and fuel price to remain elevated, so it is quite likely that road freight rates will remain high as they are currently. Results from Q4 – the busiest period for the road freight transport – will allow to see the situation on the market better, however, given the current circumstances, rates may potentially increase further by up to 10%,” says Andrejs Petrovs, Sales and Business Development Director at Girteka Europe West.

“Due to the broader effects of high inflation and a probable recession in Europe in the upcoming months, we should expect to see a further decrease in consumer demand, which could result in a slowing road freight volume growth and thus, help ease the push on rates as available capacity meets fewer loads. We will be able to see the situation more clearly in the Q1 of 2023,” he adds.

Road freight rates on the rise

According to a jointly prepared report by IRU, Ti, and Upply, discussing the Q3 2022 for the industry, despite lower consumer spending, average European road freight rates rose again in Q3, with the main factors behind this trend indicated as diesel prices, driver shortages and drought in certain regions in Europe. The report sees prices softening only towards the end of the quarter: “The contract market’s increase was 80% of last quarter whilst the spot market grew at just half the rate it did in Q2, suggesting the upwards pressure on rates is easing.”

Indexes for the contract and spot market, as provided by the Ti, Upply and IRU Benchmark, both reached new all-time highs, although the rate of acceleration has slowed down. Contract rates reached 127.9 index points, up by 19.6 points year on year. In the spot market, rates hit 142.6 points, up by 26.4 points year on year. Carrier costs significantly increased in Q2 of this year due to the war in Ukraine and the ensuing oil price rise, the report notes. But the slower rate of acceleration in both spot and contract markets in Q3 when compared to the previous quarter, indicate that “the market has adjusted to higher costs whilst higher production costs and lower consumer spending power have started to ease the upward demand-side pressure on rates.”

Supply-side pressure

Prices rose in Q3 also due to supply-side pressures. High diesel prices have created a more costly environment for carriers operating in the European road freight sector. Diesel costs amount to one third of the total operating costs in the road freight transport sector, “but given the increase, they may now account for 50% of costs,” the report states. Furthermore, driver shortage, already pushing up labour costs, is expected to continue to grow further until the end of 2022, with an estimated 40% rise in unfilled truck driver positions in Europe.

Another worrying aspect are signs of falling consumption and production across Europe, particularly in the continent’s biggest economies such as the UK, France, and Germany. “Low order books, high energy prices and gas supply uncertainty are deterring production expansion in the coming months. Falling consumption and production is accompanied by high inventory levels across Europe, with warehouses already full and prepared for the peak period we can expect demand for imported retail goods to be low in Q4,” the report describes. All in all, the European road freight growth is set to slow down dramatically, expanding by a meagre 1.1% in the next year, as data from Ti indicates.

 

Vector.ai rebrands to Raft

Posted on by David Priestman

Vector.ai is rebranding under the name Raft. The name change to Raft emphasises its evolution to a comprehensive operational platform for freight forwarders.

Since 2017, when launched as Vector.ai, the company has delivered industry-leading AI to automate document and email processing for freight forwarders. While AI for automated document and email processing remains at the core of the company’s technology, the rebrand to Raft points towards the greater need for forwarders to have a single platform for their day-to-day workflow.

“Raft’s purpose is to help forwarders optimise their whole shipment process, across the entire lifecycle,” said James Coombes, CEO, Raft. “Yes, we use the industry’s leading AI implementation in our platform, but we now provide much more capability on top of each shipment, like emissions visibility, which allows our forwarding and brokerage customers to provide ever-better service to their end-customers on the back of the standardisation we already provide. It’s a really powerful concept that has resonated with our customer-base.

“Our global ambition is to understand every event of every shipment, to automate everything, and this rebrand – and the mindset that goes with it – is another step towards that mission.”

On average, Raft currently saves forwarders over an hour per shipment across its platform’s product offerings, helping its customers save in excess of $2.1m in net workforce productivity every year. Multinational forwarders naturally achieve far greater savings. It says this meaningful impact is helping to carve out its position as the foremost – and only – intelligent operating platform for the industry.

To celebrate the successful evolution from AI-provider to intelligent platform for forwarding excellence, Raft has also fully re-branded with a new design, logo and website.

DispatchTrack unveils industry-first CO2 tracking tool

Posted on by David Priestman

DispatchTrack, a global leader in last mile delivery solutions, has announced the availability of AI-powered carbon emissions tracking to help companies meet their supply chain sustainability goals. Available as a feature in the DispatchTrack routing console, CO2 tracking enables companies in any market worldwide to better understand their existing carbon output on a per-route, per-stop, and per-vehicle basis, optimise routes to reduce CO2 output, and gather data to illustrate the impact of their sustainability initiatives.

Fuel consumption in last-mile delivery is one of the largest contributors to emissions in the modern supply chain, as well as one of the greatest costs for delivery companies. Using DispatchTrack’s AI-powered route optimisation engine, companies can discover green delivery options that leverage the most efficient routes with fewer miles driven and less fuel used. By taking into consideration all of a day’s stops and shortening the total distance that drivers have to travel in order to fulfil their orders, DispatchTrack can help last-mile delivery companies reduce fuel consumption across their fleet by at least 10%.

DispatchTrack’s new CO2 tracking feature can be easily added to a customer’s existing DispatchTrack portal. Emissions data is included within routing and reporting screens, allowing users to visualise carbon emissions for each stop, and will dynamically update as routes are changed, all based on configurable emissions expectations based on different vehicle and load types.

Alex Buckley, General Manager of EMEA and APAC Operations at DispatchTrack, commented, “Consumers are making more and more of an effort to make sustainable choices. What better way for brands to help them do that – and show off their own success at boosting sustainability – than by being able to seamlessly track and report the reduction of CO2 emissions in their deliveries?”

“When it comes to the last mile, businesses around the world are taking sustainability seriously. There’s mounting pressure to do better and to invest in initiatives that actually reduce CO2,” said Satish Natarajan, DispatchTrack co-founder and CEO. “With the industry’s first AI-based CO2 tracking capabilities, we’re helping our customers double down on their net-zero commitments and achieve their sustainability goals. By providing CO2 emissions numbers in real-time and route optimisation powered by AI, DispatchTrack is helping our customers reduce their emissions with confidence and become even more competitive.”

 

Decathlon partners with Zeus Labs to handle UK freight

Posted on by David Priestman

Zeus Labs, which is disrupting the freight industry with its next-generation digital solutions, has teamed up with the world’s largest sports retailer Decathlon to help handle its UK freight. The partnership means that Zeus now handles nearly half of all the retailer’s restocking in the UK.

Established in Lille, France in 1976, Decathlon opened its first UK store at Surrey Quays in 1999, and now has 70 sites across the UK with plans to open hundreds more over the next decade.

The partnership comes after Zeus has undergone phenomenal growth since its founding in 2019 by young entrepreneurs Jai Kanwar and Clemente Theotokis. The firm now serves more than 40 enterprise-level clients handling over 660,000 tonnes of cargo annually, worth circa £6bn.

Zeus has also experienced a 100% conversion rate from manufacturers who trialled their platform in 2021, which offers a near ‘zero-touch’ approach to managing road freight, with complete end-to-end tracking, reconciliation and system integrations.

The platform reduces road freight administration for both shippers and hauliers, while helping small-medium fleets grow quickly with fast payment terms.

It also features a generous loyalty programme that includes 50% discounts on premium truck tyres – which amounts to a potential saving of more than several thousand pounds a year to small fleets.

Zeus, which aims to reduce the industry average of 30% of trucks running empty to just 5% by 2025, achieved a 326% growth in total volume in 2021, and is on track to deliver a 400% growth in revenues by the end of 2022.

Zeus Labs Co-Founder Jai Kanwar said: “The addition of major brands like Decathlon is a testament to the great benefits we are bringing to the logistics sector. Our easy-to-use platform is not only helping companies streamline their supply chain but also help move the industry towards better sustainability by reducing the number of empty HGVs on UK roads. Every manufacturer that trialled Zeus in 2021 has awarded business to us this year, showing just how effective our service is in modernising road freight management.”

 

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