Supply Chain Logistics and Transportation Start Ups

Transportation & Logistics Start Ups 

 Matternet is a transportation system made up of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), landing stations and routing software. The system aims to transform the way we move goods locally, starting with the pharmaceutical delivery market in areas inaccessible by traditional infrastructure.

 Freightos A website – and a network of freight forwarders – that provides automated freight quotes and a contract management system for shippers.

 Transporteca: A website giving shippers and consignees a much-needed tool to easily compare shipping and transportation prices from freight forwarders.

iContainers: An end-to-end pricing tool and freight forwarding service offering best available prices for ocean and sea freight as well as international moves. With iContainers you can get a quote online instantly from multiple carriers.

 Shippo" Shippo  is “shipping made easy”. With the Shippo API and apps you can get discounted shipping rates and labels within minutes. Shippo is basically selling discounted labels when connecting shopping cart apps with carriers such as DHL, FedEx and UPS – making things easier and cheaper for those who want to ship.

Retigence : A company specialising in " providing predictive analytics, which will help retail  and businesses to align inventory to the real time demand of the product.By mapping inventory in real time it helps retailers predict ' demand forecasting  better

Freight Filter An easy-to-use service to help you find the best shipping options. It’s divided into three simple steps – get the price, book it, and ship.

Xeneta A service that ads transparency to the shipping industry by enabling companies to benchmark their ocean freight rates. Useful for both importers, exporters and freight forwarders, e.g. for understanding the market and when negotiating prices.

source :jonathanwichmann

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The numbers behind the Trucking Industry: Infographic

The numbers and data behind the US trucking Industry: top 5 trends

1. Trucking statistics in the United States The trucking industry employs a total of all most 9 million, out of which 3.5 million are truck drivers 
2.  There are currently 62 million unregistered vehicles in the United states and approx 6.4million unregistered Vehicles Out of which 32% consists of heavy vehicles including construction Vehicles, bulldozers, and heavy machinery vehicles out of which 2 million tractor trailers. 
3.  The US economy is heavily dependent on Trucking industry to deliver 70% of freight transported annually
4.  Approximately 671 billion of manufacturing and retail goods are transported by Trucking industry in one year.Truck Transportation of goods to Canada makes up $295 billion of the truck trade and $195billion with Mexico
5.  1 out of 9 truck drivers are independent, a majority which are owner operators Approx 5.7 % of truck drivers in the United States are the woman.

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Reviewing Less Than Truckload Shipments

Explaining LTL Shipments (Less than Truckload ) Shipments in Logistics and Transportation

A shipment that does not require a full 48- or 53-foot trailer can be shipped via less-than-truckload or LTL. Shippers use this option, which can be cost-effective and environmentally friendly when they only need to ship a small amount of product.

LTL shipments involve shipment of relatively small freight. To put it in simple terms, general freight carriers offer two types of service, Full Truckload (FTL) service or Less-Than-Truckload (LTL).

While the FTL carrier moves full containers or trucks of one product from one customer, the LTL carrier moves goods from many different customers on one truck.

 LTL shipments typically weigh between 151 and 20,000 lb (68 and 9,072 kg). Less than Truckload carriers use "hub and spoke," operations, where small local terminals are the spokes ('end of line') and larger more central terminals, are the hubs (also called Distribution Centers or DC's).

 LTL shipment rates s are determined by class, weight, lane (i.e., pickup and delivery locations), and additional required services, if any. LTL carriers normally offer better rates than parcel carriers for competitive reasons and economies of scale. A separate cost added on top of the line haul, the fuel surcharge is the cost of fuel associated with the lane, specifically the distance between the shipper and the consignee. The fuel surcharge changes weekly due to barrel costs.

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Reviewing Logistics & Transportation Scheduling: Static Scheduling

Once the vehicle route has been scheduled, the frequency of collection and dispatch not only depends upon the demand and supply but also on other constraints.The firm has to keep  in mind  the firm has to choose between 2 strategies  for optimal utilization of the resource.

Take the example of Amul Dairy  and milk marketing cooperative in India. Here schedules are announced in advance  and the local farmers know at what time the vehicle will visit their village for milk collection.In other words,  it works with static schedules which are pre-decided for milk production
Auto companies to work with static schedules for part collection from their vendors.

Companies  like Unilever clusters all dealers into 6 groups and each static group gets served on a working day and even within that day, the route followed by the vehicle is announced well in advance. Static schedules result in, by and large, uniform load on the depot and transport system and helps the dealer in planning the work ahead  because the dealer knows the exact slot  within a week when delivery can be expected.

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Review of Supply Chain: Cross Docking and Best Practices

As we explained Cross Docking here.  In this article we look at  the benefits of cross docking and across which industry and circumstances can it be used. 1) The first benefit is that it allows manufacturers to prevent costs on warehouses as the incoming materials are directly picked up by outbound trucks.
2) This ensures transportation costs are minimized and kept under control.

 However, this concept of cross docking is only possible only if a firm is working in an environment of predictable volumes which lowers transit types. For example, if 3 trucks bring in incoming materials to be loaded onto outgoing 3 trucks, all the 6 trucks must be available at the single point at one destination. if this is not available cross docking cannot take place, otherwise, the firm needs a physical distribution point or a warehouse to take care of the inventories piled up In the absence of cross docking, the manufacturer does not have to tightly control the logistics flow.

 And the material can be directly shipped, however in this model the cost of transportation increases. In cross docking the " need for tightly controlling the logistics as it has to ensure that the entire ecosystem has to be tuned in to ensure both incoming and outgoing trucks are available in real time and a predestined point. Walmart is one company that has been using cross docking extensively which has ensured that its transportation costs are kept low. For this reason, Walmart has been using its own vehicles so that it can have more control over the vehicles.

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Reviewing the role of Information Technology in enabling effective Supply Chain decisions

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND SUPPLY CHAIN DECISION  MAKING 

Information technology plays a huge supporting role in ensuring the right mix of decisions and designs that helps supply chain managers take the right decision Information technology helps managers to access information on the functions and status of all other supply chain across geographic units.

For example a retail store can not only afford to figure out the store inventory, but also need information on consumer demand, lead times and associate variability’s like “logistic and transportation “

1. The IT department provides seamless and friction less support across the supply chain implementation , which forms the core of the supply chain. Any process related to order and purchase, manufacturing , inventory, transportation and logistics , and warehouse are mapped and tracked
2.  IT provides internal collaboration across departments, which are shared across the internet and cloud . It helps vendors, suppliers and other stakeholders across the supply chain to co-operate and collaborate.
3.  IT based decisions support systems is used to aid better decisions through the supply chain mechanism and ecosystem. Any critical issue on delivery, demand fluctuations ,lead time and risk can be “ tracked in real time” therefore giving the operational managers, the flexibility and the time to ensure compliance 
4. The role of Information Technology in terms of  measuring the entire supply chain performance and aid the operational managers to set internal metrics and benchmarks and observe “ their effectiveness”cannot be more emphasized. Business Intelligence tools includes a technology stack with layers for reporting and analysis

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Reviewing The Top 10 Logistics & Supply Chain Management Softwares

From tracking vehicles to knowing where your transporter has kept  the goods.  From  knowing if your distributor has received the goods in the warehouse,  to knowing when your next shipment would be picked up.  Below are the top 10 most used  supply chain logistics and Fleet  tracking software   All the  logistics   supply software's are  analysed according to users,size of the  customer base  and social media recommendation... 

Top 10 Transportation & Supply Chain Softwares from Retigence Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

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