We don’t know about you, but at FreightorGator, we are constantly excited and impressed with the rapid revolution taking place across the freight industry. Outdated legacy systems are being bulldozed and in their place, a new generation of shipping logistics technology is being built. While its one-of-kind cloud-based freight exchange service is acknowledged by many to be a part of this wave of freight industry changes, but FreightorGator is only one small piece of the larger picture of logistics trends going forward.
We’ve put together a handful of tech trends that you need to keep your eye on, as they represent the chief agents of change affecting freight logistics for the future.
Omnichannel Supply Chains
The ever-growing consumer demand for a variety of sales point options requires a central pooling of stock to maintain balance. The coordination of getting products to buyers across stores, online, vending, franchise and concession is achieved by what is known as an Omnichannel supply chain.
Projecting the future of Omnichannel supply chain popularity calls for examining the growth of Omnichannel retail, as the two are naturally tied. Omnichannel retail sales have consistently doubled every 4-5 years for the last 15 years with no slowdown in sight. A similar pattern is predicted for Omnichannel supply chain expansion through to 2025.
Cloud-Based Technologies
One of the most important dynamics in technology is Cloud Computing. Its advent allows companies to store and interact with data on remote servers rather than hosting high capacity server farms themselves. The benefit of this approach is that companies only pay for the space utilized on a remote server and that these cloud computers can be accessed by many, both inside and outside an organization.
These benefits have allowed many new technologies to blossom in the freight industry because of their convenience, low cost, and scalability. A multitude of freight logistics services are now offered through the cloud. FreightorGator represents one such service – a simplified solution for shippers and a reliable partner of carriers – all through virtual coordination in the cloud. The efficient and effective results of cloud-based freight shipping logistics services are evident to everyone in the industry.
APIs
One of the biggest challenges to anyone in the supply chain is obtaining timely and accurate date from their partners in every phase of the transaction, whether it be rate quoting, shipment tracking or download of documents. The information between a carrier and a shipper has been transmitted in many ways over the years—first and most commonly by telephone and email, then from system to system with the EDI protocol (Electronic Data Interchange) and most recently with APIs or application programming interfaces.
API is known as the “EDI of the 21st century.” EDI is a “store and forward” technology, so by design, it is not real time. Information passed via EDI can be old and unreliable. It is rapidly being replaced with API, which is an interface that allows you to access rich and relevant data in systems in real time, providing timely and accurate information directly from its source. APIs can be accessed directly by logistics companies and carriers or they can be accessed through a single API providing access to many carriers as is provided by Project44.
Internet of Things Factor
If the aforementioned applications, incubators, methodologies, and services are serious about entering the latter half of the decade under a banner of success, they need to factor in the Internet of Things (IoT).
For example, Omnichannel supply chains will soon be faced with an exponential spread of sales points. Companies investing and encouraging pioneering logistics services will need to quiz contestants on their approach to IoT. And APIs are the plumbing of the IoT. They will need to account for the clutter of countless data sets all trying to access the same handful of service portals at once.
Increased Funding of Freight and Tech Entrepreneurs
The potential for a fundamental paradigm shift in the freight shipping industry is driving millions of dollars’ worth of calculated speculation every quarter. Companies are focusing explicitly on the procuring, adopting, mentoring, maturing, and ultimately growing of pioneering transport logistics systems.
Going into 2016 and beyond, there is an unprecedented amount of investment capital being made in startup companies solving and reinventing the way freight is moved from point A to point B.
“We are looking to create solutions that replace the cumbersome systems of the past, utilizing the new technologies that are available to us today to solve the real world problems that cripple businesses. We seek to create painkillers, not just vitamins.” says entrepreneur and founder CEO of FreightorGator, Augie Grasis.
And no entity better demonstrates the passion for improved logistics like the recently formed Lamp Post Group. Lamp Post Group seeks to incubate tomorrow’s leading logistics companies with a three-month program for teams to participate in, the most successful of which will receive additional funding for future growth.
Logistics systems and management are long overdue for a fundamental change. The proliferation of mobile technology, the integration of personal data through interactive products, and the clamoring for multiple options for ordering, receiving and sending products adds up to huge pressure placed on product providers. This, in turn, ratchets up the demand for more responsive logistics, a trend likely to continue long past 2016.
