The absolute largest problem in container shipping right now, is the dire shortage of empty containers in key locations, especially in Asia. This is what is driving spot rate markets to historical highs, and it is what is causing significant grief to shippers looking to get their product moved in a timely fashion. This also means that the question with the highest priority for everyone in the industry is: when will the equipment shortage be resolved? In issue 492 of the Sea-Intelligence Sunday Spotlight, we attempted to answer this question, by modelling the overall state of the market based o ..read more

The way vehicles are powered is changing but there are many challenges ahead that need to be addressed. During Logistics UK’s conference leading experts in the sector tried to explain how the sector can transition to a more sustainable future ..read more

‘Pay-as-you-go’ Robots as a Service (RaaS) finance solutions are increasingly seen as a highly cost-efficient means of introducing state-of-the-art robotic automation to parcel handling, e-commerce and traditional third party logistics operations. RaaS allows companies to lease - rather than purchase - robotic automation to support key operational tasks. In many ways it is a similar concept to the established Software as a Service (SaaS) model that has proved so popular with companies operating in the logistics and supply chain space as a way of rolling out such essential IT tools as transport ..read more

Micro Fulfillment Centers (MFCs), a highly recommended popular e-commerce strategy, is an effective way to meet the rising volumes, the changing geographical nature of e-commerce demand, and the growing desire for same-day delivery. As per LogisticsIQ’s ,,latest market research study, Micro Fulfillment Market is expected to have a cumulative opportunity worth ~$10B in next 6 years by 2026 with an installed base of ~2000 MFCs if the technology and concept remain permanent. Year 2022 is going to be the cornerstone for Micro Fulfillment market touching a billion-dollar mark and setting the base f ..read more

A new report from Logistics UK, the business group representing the industry which is at the heart of the UK’s economy, has highlighted the severe impact Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the sector’s underlying skills shortage. Logistics UK’s Skills and Employment Report 2020 launches this week as the organisation calls for interest-free loans or grants to support HGV driver training, Apprenticeship Levy reform, and an urgent catch-up of HGV driver tests cancelled due to COVID restrictions, to attract new recruits into the sector and ensure that goods and services can continue to ..read more

Brexit turned taxation and VAT into a very important topic but not many companies seem to understand the nature of the change in these two areas that is about to happen on the 1st January 2021. According to Lionel Van Reet, Partner at PwC, Brexit with or without a deal will be the biggest economic earthquake that Europe has experienced in the last 50 years. His words are echoed by David Henig, Director, UK Trade Policy Project at European Centre for International Political Economy, who says: ‘After January 1st whatever we took for granted won’t be certain and many people do not understand that ..read more

Speed in logistics is put on a pedestal as companies try to be the fastest while executing deliveries. But speed and efficiency do not always go hand-in-hand. Route optimisation shouldn’t just look at speed and sometimes choosing a bit slower route can be more beneficial. Even for the customer, the goal may not be the delivery which is as fast as possible. Generally there are many objectives that the company should try to optimize: speed, costs, number of vehicles, emissions, safety, etc. This makes the problem much more complex ..read more

Bayer S.p.A. (part of Bayer AG) operates in Italy with a vast supply chain of transport and logistics partners supporting their pharmaceutical logistics. The visibility of their distribution processes was proving to be a headache as the company had no way of tracking each step of the process in real time. As they could not monitor the progress of goods within the supply chain, any problems with shipments only came to light when customers received the delivery. The company needed a solution to track goods from warehouse to customer in order to eliminate blind spots and improve security, transpa ..read more

Pick-by-vision has completely transformed during the last six years. Today the technology is able to provide not only better accuracy but also durability and reliability. Johanna Bellenberg, Director Marketing & Communications, at Picavi shares with us how pick-by-vision can help in the era of Covid ..read more

Webfleet Solutions, Europe’s number one telematics provider and part of Bridgestone, is expanding its OEM.connect programme by utilising BMW and MINI CarData. The programme enables vehicle manufacturers to connect their vehicles directly with Webfleet Solutions’ fleet management solution WEBFLEET, eliminating the need for after-market hardware installations. This integrated telematics solution makes it faster, easier and cheaper for fleet managers to benefit from rich OEM data. All that is needed to connect the vehicles is the vehicle identification number (VIN). “With the recent extension of ..read more