Transport Intelligence

Analysts expect the percentage of cargo booked and shipped through completely digital platforms to double to nearly 20% by 2024. To accommodate this rapid growth, large forwarders are investing heavily in digital offerings for booking, quoting, tracking, and invoicing—the ones who don’t will be left behind.

We speak with a number of logistics experts to capture their views on the overall impact that e-commerce is having on moving the nation’s freight. One thing is for certain: The current level and speed of churn has irrevocably altered the pattern so many had become accustomed to managing.

Three of our top parcel industry sources offer their respective takes on the most consumer-facing segment of freight transportation and logistics parcel and last-mile delivery. Even though pandemic-related conditions have changed, high pricing remains, which is increasingly putting shippers in the position of carefully considering their options.

New research confirms that the current risk mitigating trend in the third-party arena will continue this year. Indeed, eighty-five percent of logistics managers expect that their outsourcing budget will increase by more than 5% in 2020, according to Gartner, Inc., with a sizeable portion of that aimed at choosing multiple third-party-logistics (3PL) partners. Much of the same advice is offered in a new report from the London-based consultancy, Transport Topics (Ti).

Industry experts agree that costs across all sectors worldwide will continue to rise in 2018, and the most successful shippers will be those that are able to mitigate their impact on profitability. And, the right technology will play an increasingly vital role in driving efficiencies across the global logistics network.

According to “Global Logistics 2017,” a recent report released by the London think-tank Transport Intelligence (Ti), the overall contract logistics market is estimated to have grown by 3.9% in real terms in 2016.

The trend set over the past few years for mergers and acquisitions has hardly subsided, and a fresh injection of equity investment is transforming the marketplace, at the same time, shippers may expect to see 3PLs continue to purchase high-tech “solutions” and hire young professionals for implementation.

According to Global Logistics 2017, a recent report released by the London think-tank, Transport Intelligence (Ti), the overall contract logistics market is estimated to have grown by 3.9% in real terms in 2016.

A new report released by the London-based think tank, Transport Intelligence (Ti) notes that the logistics industry has undergone a “transformation” with a dramatic shift in service sector domination.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently caught up with Tom Racciatti, a director in West Monroe’s Operations Excellence practice, to get some fresh perspective on Amazon’s supply chain.

The maturation of multi-channel distribution has put added pressure on all major modes of freight transportation, with “Just-in-time” and “just-in-case” strategies now having to meet the “just do it” demands created by today’s highly impatient consumer.

Regardless of who is winning the race for volumes and profits, consumers continue to spend and the e-commerce logistics market continues to grow.

Logistics Service Providers have profited from aligning themselves with the e-commerce giant’s rapid growth, however, as Amazon evolves, many LSPs risk being left with their head in the sand.

Trade and transport analysts see a negative international market outlook worsen, though some contend that this trend could be reversed later in the year, meanwhile, logistics managers should brace for a volatile period of rate fluctuation.

European Union regulators have unconditionally approved FedEx Corp.’s acquisition of Dutch parcel company TNT Express NV, ending a six-month antitrust investigation that had been one of the biggest hurdles for the nearly $5 billion deal.