Polar Vortex can disrupt logistics movement pushing up freight rates due to a shortage of trucks and drivers. Shipments may be delayed either due to rerouting away from snow-blocked highways or, being detained due to traffic bottlenecks. Multi-modal transport via railroads and ports are also affected.

We saw last mile delivery being used as the key input in all omnichannel strategies. We saw localization in distribution strategies centered around making last mile delivery more effective. We also saw machine learning being implemented successfully in logistics and field workforce planning. These trends would be the greatest influencers in 2018 for logistics and field workforce management.

Amazon opened its first brick and mortar retail store in Seattle, Washington, United States. The novelty of this store is that customers can just pick up whatever they want and just walk out of the store. Amazon would just charge the price of the items taken to their Amazon account. They call it the ‘Just Walk Out’ technology. Would it become a game-changer or disruptor in retail?

The U.S. government shut down at midnight on Friday, 19th January, 2018, after Democrats and Republicans, locked in a bitter dispute over immigration and border security, failed to agree on a last-minute deal to fund its operations. Democratic leaders wanted to include protections from deportation for about 700,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children.

Here we are in conversation with Mr. Alok Gautam, the Country Logistics Leader at Dow Chemicals. He is an industry veteran with more than two decades of experience in the Chemicals and Oil & Gas industry. He is celebrated as a change maker and a man of keen intellect driving transformations across the industry.

It is time our industry stopped chasing Uberization and created an Airbnb model. In trucking, Uberization is still transactional brokerage. There are key differences in the personal transport versus the freight market. What we need is a pay-per-day model that allows for short-term dedicated capacity, rather than long term dedicated contracts.

There is a way to bridge this gap, between the expectation and outcomes. And it is ‘tech-backed optimization’. Cloud-based optimization of resources, routes, and deliveries is the best way to ensure that your company not just matches industry benchmarks, but also breaks and resets them continually.

Tech evolution must always be around a purpose. The purpose of the upgrades mentioned here, and many more that are regularly communicated to the clients through mailers, is singular. To optimize resource movement with a view to reduce operations costs and improve overall process efficiency.

Here are the top features of the year that created the most value for our clients. These features have the highest usage among managers. These managers keep sending back their delightful feedback from time to time. Based on our own analytics and market feedback we have collated this list of the top features which created the most business value.

This Christmas, make sure you plan and optimize all last mile deliveries to avoid delays and detentions. People need their gifts on time and Santa needs some help, so make sure your customers are delighted on Christmas Eve with on-time deliveries and error free invoicing.