IN BRIEF: New Services & Solutions-December 2021

Technology

• TMS provider Axele upgraded its software to include new factoring and loadboard integrations and new dispatch and settlement features. The latest upgrades enable the software to optimize driver schedules with the most profitable loads.
• Shippers of all sizes get access to real-time supply chain data with the latest updates from Centerboard. The neutral, shipper-centric transportation management solution’s core platform, WIN, by Centerboard, now includes advanced shipment notifications on all order tracking messages and tender response reminders, reducing the need for shippers to contact carriers.
• TIE Kinetix received Microsoft Co-Sell Ready status for its supply chain solution, EDI-2-FLOW for Dynamics 365. The solution is available on Microsoft AppSource.

• The PrimeRevenue SurePay platform streamlines B2B payment services to enable early and on-time payment solutions for the entire supply chain. Customers can consolidate their entire supplier base onto one payments tool.
• E-invoicing and accounts payable automation provider Tradeshift now lets companies doing business in China send and receive electronic purchase orders and invoices with cross-border trade partners. The company bridged its China-hosted platform with its Tradeshift Network.
• The GoExpedi online procurement platform now identifies environmentally friendly products and certified veteran, minority, and women-owned businesses to help companies select and track products and suppliers that align with their environmental, social, and governance goals.
• Logistics technology providers Imaginnovate and eTrac teamed up to streamline final-mile shipment delivery. Imaginnovate’s Fleet Enable software links with eTrac’s data integration platform to connect shippers and carriers, delivering carriers’ data flows, exception management, and compliance metrics to shippers’ transportation management systems.
• Carriers can respond to shipper requests more quickly with an optical character recognition (OCR) feature recently added to EBE Technologies’ SHIPSMobile enterprise solution. The OCR function speeds the billing process, letting carriers review images for accuracy through a web-based verification portal.
• enVista unveiled a new shipment experience management solution. The track-and-trace Software as a Service enables shippers to keep customers informed of in-transit shipment status and expected arrival date and time, improving the customer experience.
• CSX opened an intermodal terminal northeast of Raleigh, North Carolina, with access to Interstate 95. Located on 330 acres on a CSX mainline, the Carolina Connector (CCX) intermodal terminal—one of the most cutting-edge facilities on the CSX network—features three wide-span, zero-emission electric cranes with a lift capacity of 110,000 containers per year.
• The new PopPick solution from Geek+ is a goods-to-person picking system that lets businesses handle different types of storage units. Its picking robots transfer pallets or mobile racks to a PopPick station where intelligent robot arms retrieve totes or boxes of ordered goods and give them to the operator at two picking points, boosting throughput capacity.

Services

• Qatar Airways Cargo is replacing its entire unit load device (ULD) fleet with fire-resistant containers from aircraft equipment maker Safran. It took delivery of the first batch in September 2021. Over the next five years, the cargo airline will replace its fleet of more than 10,000 ULDs, aiming to exchange 70% of the units in 2022 to enhance cargo safety and address risks posed by lithium battery shipments.
• Liquidity Services, an e-commerce marketplace for retail, industrial, and government surplus, opened a 100,000-square-foot warehouse in northern Pennsylvania for its retail segment. The new location offers customers improved shipping cycles, lower freight costs, and an onsite pickup option.
• Wearable technology provider Kinetic announced a new subsidiary, Kinetic Insurance, to offer workers’ compensation insurance. The new Kinetic workers’ comp offering equips policyholders with wearable technology that is designed to reduce injuries and losses while maximizing a policyholder’s safety program and culture.
• CFI, an operating company of TFI International, reorganized and expanded into a portfolio of five service categories: three asset-based services (truckload, dedicated, and temp-control) and two non-asset services (Mexico and logistics). To form the dedicated service, Transport America rebranded and integrated into CFI.
• The Lift-Rite Edge, a motorized, lithium-ion pallet jack, with a 3,300-pound capacity, is designed for use in tight spaces. The latest addition to Lift-Rite’s range of materials handling vehicles, the compact 27-by-45-inch Edge is maneuverable with its pinwheeling capability and can be used in narrow aisles, retail backrooms, docks, warehouses, and mezzanines.
• DB Schenker and Lufthansa Cargo will extend their weekly CO2-free freighter flights between Frankfurt and Shanghai until March 2022. Telecommunication network provider Nokia recently signed up to the initiative, avoiding greenhouse gas emissions by using the freighter flight every week. The service is 100% covered by Sustainable Aviation Fuel, produced from renewable waste, such as used cooking oils.

Products

• The Oyster Edge from Digital Matter is an ultra-rugged, indoor/outdoor battery-powered asset tracking device and Bluetooth Gateway with more than 10 years of battery life. Utilizing cloud-based location solving, it tracks assets when they’re on the move and enters sleep mode when stationary to save power.
• The FlexBuffer application cell from ABB is a modular unit that can store and sequence items for logistics applications. Consisting of a robot, grippers, a software package, storage racking, and infeed and outfeed conveyors that feed and dispatch goods, the FlexBuffer can handle smaller batch sizes, mixed pallets, and individual orders.
• Spireon unveiled updates to its Intelligent Trailer Management suite, including a new FL Flex suite of products and IntelliScan cargo sensor under its FleetLocate product line. Its new volumetric-capable sensor enables trailer managers to see if the trailer is loaded or unloaded with 99% accuracy, as well as the percentage of trailer floor space available for loading.
• Honeywell’s next-generation Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS) leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to help warehouses and distribution centers receive, process, and fill orders faster and more accurately while reducing storage footprint. The solution helps operations manage more than 20,000 SKUs and delivers a 40% increase in throughput over manual picking operations.
• Timestrip, a developer of smart indicator technology, introduced a temperature indicator that helps healthcare professionals avoid vaccine wastage. The Vaccine Freezer Monitor VFM -7°C shows a clear alert if temperatures rise above -7°C or 19.4°F.

Transportation

• Dachser Mexico’s cross-border trucking and customs clearance service connects customers to Dachser USA’s LCL service between China and U.S. West Coast ports. It includes picking up the cargo at either the Port of Long Beach or the Port of Los Angeles.
• Atlas Air expanded its partnership with Cainiao Network, the logistics arm of Alibaba Group, and now offers daily Asia-Latin America chartered flights. Atlas added a B747-400F to fly between Hong Kong, China, and Santiago, Chile, bringing the total dedicated fleet that Atlas operates for Cainiao to five aircraft.
• J.B. Hunt Transport Services launched a transload service to assist shippers in the New York metro area experiencing congestion. The new service is managed through a recently expanded facility in Jersey City, New Jersey, that provides port drayage, transloading, and inland linehaul solutions.
• OOCL strengthened its China to Southeast Asia service network by introducing the China Straits Service 3 (CSS3) in December 2021. To supplement CSS1 and CSS2, which were launched in 2020, CSS3 provides direct connections between multiple ports in China with Singapore and Malaysia.
• American Airlines Cargo enhanced its transatlantic services with direct service from London Heathrow (LHR) to nine U.S. cities starting in November 2021. The airline operates twice-daily service from LHR to John F. Kennedy International Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and daily service to Boston Logan International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Miami International Airport, Philadelphia International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, and Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
• ATRAN Airlines, a cargo carrier within Volga-Dnepr Group, introduced a freighter call to connect Xi’an, China, and Cologne, Germany. The connection offers dedicated solutions for e-commerce shipments and other types of cargo.
• UPS Healthcare is opening a new set of facilities, amidst expansion in the United States, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. The company is building or expanding facilities in Australia; Czech Republic; Germany; Netherlands; Poland; and Mira Loma, California, among others. Its Louisville facility is the company’s first U.S.-based logistics facility to offer reusable cold chain packaging options.