Under-utilized capacity carries a clear cost which adds to the cost-per-unit carried by the resource. It isn’t feasible to run under-utilized resources to fulfill the ever-increasing demand created due to expectations of on-demand, same, or next day deliveries. On-demand and preferred slot delivery (or pick-up) is made more efficient with the use of an auto-allocation engine.

Traditional trade occupies close to 90% in key developing markets. By leveraging cloud-based technology, last mile delivery can be optimized for such distribution networks, bringing in organized patterns within the industry and generate more value for all the stakeholders involved namely the retailers, the distributors, the manufacturers, and the end-customers.

We recently integrated with Alexa, Google Assistant, Cortana, and Siri. Now, the manager can simply relax and instruct their personal assistant to fetch the information for them. Almost anyone can use the personal assistant without any hassle. It doesn’t matter if they are tech-savvy.

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.