The accelerated pandemic-driven pace of VC investment in and adoption of logistics technology is normalizing, though – like the demand for freight market intelligence – many strides made in tech adoption in the industry are being sustained even if the pace of logistics providers investing in new tech slows.
This adjustment, alongside the general decline in freight rates and volumes, is leading to some high-profile bumps in the logtech road, including the recent reshuffle at Flexport. But significant investments in logtech startups – including a growing focus on AI – continue, and milestones in familiar areas like data standardization, digital forwarding, and drone delivery continue to be hit as well.
The following is a roundup of some of the logtech highlights from the past month:
AI for Logistics
Maersk aims to handle all cargo by AI (ShippingWatch)
VCs Bet AI Can Improve Supply-Chain Management (WSJ)
Logility acquires AI-based Garvis (Logisticsmgmt)
SoftBank backs self-driving truck startup Stack AV (Techcrunch)
Digital Forwarding/Services
Amazon announces Supply Chain by Amazon (Techcrunch)
OOCL Logistics launches trade financing solution for shipperse potential (JOC)
India’s Kale Logistics raises $30M (Techcrunch)
Port Houston joins Portchain’s vessel arrival network (JOC)
Logistics software helping blur lines between forwarder, shipper processes (JOC)
Autonomous Delivery, EV, and Trucking
Nikola asks customers to return electric trucks at risk of fires (FreightWaves)
Estes expands use of Optym for LTL (JOC)
California Senate votes to ban driverless trucks (FreightWaves)
Drone delivery breakthrough for UPS (DigitalTrends)
Walmart, Wing partner on Dallas drone delivery (FreightWaves)
Data Standardization
FMC seeks industry input for data initiative (JOC)
‘Steady as she goes’, despite need for speedy adoption of eB/Ls (Loadstar)
