IN BRIEF: New Services and Solutions

PRODUCTS

  • The new BG Line Sorter from BEUMER increases the handling mix of materials handling operations by utilizing active slat-belt technology and offering the handling capabilities of a high-speed, cross-belt sorter. With the ability to be reconfigured, the BEUMER system offers scalability and uses low-friction components.
  • Panasonic Connect North America unveiled the TOUGHBOOK 40, a rugged, modular laptop for mobile workers. About one pound lighter than the previous generation despite having a larger display, the laptop offers multiple cellular and connectivity options and increases usability for workers in industrial environments.
  • The new Palletizer Highrunner HR9 from Qimarox automates the unloading process. Designed for logistics operations handling many different products in short batches, it offers a pattern generator to optimize the processing of boxes. When equipped with a 3D product scanner, the system can operate autonomously.
  • ZLS Series Floor Height Lift Tables from Southworth have a panstyle platform that, when lowered, sits nearly flush to the floor, allowing them to be loaded and unloaded with a standard hand pallet truck. Designed for forklift-free loading and unloading, ZLS Lifts give workers unobstructed access to loads from all four sides. Once loaded, the hydraulic lift table can be positioned to any height up to 35.4 inches.
  • Kassow Robots, a developer of 7-axis cobots, partnered with BlueBay Automation, an industrial automation solutions provider, to extend its reach in the United States and provide companies with Kassow’s product portfolio and BlueBay’s integration capabilities. The KR series of 7-axis lightweight cobots provides a reach of about 3–6 feet and payloads around 11–40 pounds for applications such as pick-and-place, quality inspection, and palletizing.
  • The new P3 pallet from ORBIS is a reusable plastic pallet with a low-profile 5.1-inch height; it can be double-stacked in racking systems and maximizes truckload space. Designed for primary packaging, food and beverage, and CPG applications, the 40-inch-by-48-inch P3 pallet integrates with manual and automatic materials handling equipment.
  • Zebra Technologies introduced the ET4x series, rugged tablets for a wide range of use cases for delivery drivers, retail associates, and fulfillment personnel. The ET4x series features a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera to capture photos for proof of condition, while the 5-megapixel front-facing camera supports video calls. An integrated 2D scanner enables fast barcode data capture.
  • The new EC-Polar series mobile powered cart from Newcastle Systems has a battery that can last up to 16+ hours in temperatures as low as -4 degrees Fahrenheit, making it ideal for cold chain applications.
  • The MX2 and MXL Series 4-wheel electric pneumatic forklifts from Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas Group—the manufacturer and provider of UniCarriers Forklifts across North, Central, and South America—range from 5,000 to 12,000 pounds in capacity. These battery-powered forklifts are now available to all UniCarriers brand dealers across North and South America, as well as the Caribbean. They provide visibility as a result of their optimized mast, steering wheel, inclined and narrow dashboard, and counterweight design.

SERVICES

  • Logistics provider cargo-partner expanded the warehouse capacity of its logistics center near Ljubljana Airport in Slovenia. The new warehouse offers more than 18,000 pallet slots.
  • 3PL Evans Distribution Systems expanded into a 265,000-square-foot warehouse in Allen Park, Michigan. The facility is located on expressway I-94 and a few miles from the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
  • Performance Team–A Maersk Company announced plans to open a new cold storage facility in Dayton, New Jersey, in October 2022 to serve imports and exports. The facility features 167,812 square feet of space with 13,000 rack positions, 30 dock doors, a dry sprinkler system, refrigerated dock, trailer plug-ins, in-house clearance, refrigerated and frozen storage, and a back-up generator.
  • Ryder System unveiled its third omnichannel distribution center in Columbus, Ohio. At nearly 440,000 square feet, the facility is the largest Ryder e-commerce distribution center in the Columbus area and is the first to open under the company’s new supply chain offering: Ryder Ecommerce by Whiplash.
  • 3PL MD Logistics opened its first warehouse in Garner, North Carolina—the sixth total for the Midwest-based company. This expansion extends current client partnerships and serves the life sciences and pharmaceutical industry on the East Coast.
  • World Distribution Services increased the warehouse capacity of its Linden, New Jersey-based distribution facility. Additional racking to maximize space will allow for more than 20,000 racked positions and 200,000 square feet for bulk storage at the 480,000-square-foot facility.
  • SSA Manzanillo International Terminal in Panama is equipping its 21 ship-to-shore cranes with ABB Crane OCR technology to improve safety, efficiency, and data quality. Leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to enhance read rates, ABB’s optical character recognition system automates container information handling and transmits key container data to the terminal operating system in near real-time.
  • Americold Realty Trust introduced its newest facility in Dunkirk, New York. With 181,000 square feet of cold storage and operational space, this LEED-certified facility features 25,000 pallet positions to support cold storage needs in the western New York region.
  • Aeronet Worldwide opened a new station in Louisville, Kentucky—its first facility in the area. The 9,600-square-foot warehouse facility is located 4 miles from Louisville International Airport.
  • Leonard’s Express constructed a temperature-controlled warehouse in Shortsville, New York—a distribution point for Upstate New York, eastern Canada, and the Northeast Corridor. The 114,500-square-foot refrigerated warehouse meets stringent requirements for storing temperature-controlled products and consists of five 20,000-square-foot rooms, each of which can be temperature controlled between -10 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Europe-based palletized distribution network Pall-Ex Group is seeking new master license holders in the United States as it launches plans to overhaul the U.S. pallet freight model and develop its current use beyond big and bulky loads. The model, which operates on a hub-and-spoke basis, will enable independent trucking companies to develop and diversify their services under an independent brand.

TECHNOLOGY

  • Circular.co launched its full-service digital platform for buying and selling sustainable commodities at scale, starting with a focus on recycled plastics. Circular’s digital infrastructure tools simplify supply chain functions, including sourcing, vetting, matching, contracting, shipping, and billing.
  • HERE Technologies entered a five-year collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help organizations improve supply chain visibility, transportation and logistics, fleet routing, and estimated times of arrival from the first to last mile of delivery. The location data and technology platform will list its solutions in AWS Marketplace.
  • RJW Logistics Group, a provider of retail logistics solutions for consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, launched Edge Insights, a supply chain analytics platform that delivers data for better decision-making and supply chain control. With demand forecasting and access to dashboards, suppliers can optimize inventory costs and analyze product performance.
  • Wiliot, an Internet of Things (IoT) platform provider, introduced the Wiliot Reusable Transport Item (RTI) solution, built on its IoT platform. The new RTI solution features the company’s IoT Pixels that can attach to ordinary plastic crates and make them smart using Wiliot Cloud services. Debuting with Israel-based retailer Shufersal, the RTI solution helped the company create an intelligent farm-to-store supply chain.
  • Nulogy, a provider of supply chain collaboration solutions, partnered with data cloud company Snowflake to provide CPG supply chains with data insights. As part of the Powered by Snowflake program, Nulogy offers artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities for the Nulogy supply chain community of CPG brands and their suppliers.
  • Shippeo, a provider of multimodal shipment visibility solutions, released products and platform enhancements, including a new CO2 emissions calculator and monitoring capabilities for its Ocean Visibility solution. In addition, it introduced ETA accuracy advancements to its Road Visibility product and migrated to Google Cloud and Snowflake.
  • Gemini Motor is set to launch a fleet of autonomous hydrogen fuel cell trucks by 2025. The first prototype is under development and will start testing in 2023. California-based Gemini Motor is a cleantech company building autonomous, zero-emission semi-trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The RoboTruck, its first product in line, will have a range of up to 1,400 miles and can be refueled in less than 20 minutes.
  • Orange EV, a manufacturer of zero-emission trucks, introduced the e-TRIEVER all-electric terminal truck—the third generation of its electric yard trucks. Featuring sensing and remote diagnostic capabilities, the e-TRIEVER offers zero tailpipe emissions and digital truck systems technology designed to integrate with autonomous control systems.

TRANSPORTATION

  • OOCL launched the Transpacific Latin Pacific 6 (TLP6) service to offer express linkage between China and South America’s West Coast. TLP6 provides direct connections from China to Mexico, Guatemala, and Chile, offering a 22-day transit time from Shanghai to Puerto Quetzal and 32 days to San Antonio, Chile.
  • Yang Ming started loop SA8, its latest Far East-West Coast of Latin America service, in July 2022. A fleet of eight 2,400-3,700 TEU vessels are deployed on the weekly service; two of them are from Yang Ming. The SA8 port rotation includes Ningbo, Shanghai, Qingdao, Pusan, Manzanillo, Lazaro Cardenas, Puerto Quetzal, Buenaventura, and Valparaiso.
  • Nippon Express (China) launched a multimodal transport service linking China and neighboring Southeast Asian countries via truck transport that utilizes an international railway connecting China and Laos. The service transports cargo by rail between Kunming, China and Vientiane, Laos and then by truck from Vientiane to Thailand and other neighboring Southeast Asian countries across the international border with Thailand’s Nong Khai Province.
  • Bamboo Airways is growing its Asia-Pacific cargo operations with the help of agent ECS Group. The airline is expanding its network beyond Vietnam to the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia, and other regions. Current services include thrice-weekly flights between Saigon and Singapore and twice-weekly flights between Hanoi and Singapore.
  • Roadrunner, a less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier specializing in long-haul nationwide metro-to-metro shipping, added five direct lanes to its service network and improved transit times by at least one day in 66 of its major lanes. The new direct services include Phoenix to Chicago, Detroit to Dallas, Indianapolis to Atlanta, St. Louis to Dallas, and Cincinnati to Atlanta.
  • Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa Cargo added Swiss WorldCargo to their joint venture, which offers shippers more direct connections and access to the shared network via the booking systems of the three partners. Initially, the airlines will cooperate on routes from Hong Kong to Zurich and Frankfurt. Traffic to and from Hong Kong and the rest of Europe will be added later in 2022.
  • UWL, in partnership with Swire Shipping, linked a new dedicated barge service from Phnom Pehn, Cambodia, to its express ocean transportation service between Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, and Seattle, which allows shippers in Cambodia to reach the U.S. West Coast in 25 days. The new feeder service provides importers with guaranteed access to equipment and capacity in Phnom Penh.
  • LATAM Group now offers direct air cargo service from the Huntsville International Airport in Alabama, to Brazil, in collaboration with freight forwarder DSV. The new LATAM Star service has weekly Monday morning departures from Huntsville and is scheduled to arrive the same day in Viracopos, Brazil.
  • PITT OHIO will provide direct LTL service to and from New York starting on August 14, 2022. The company reached an agreement to acquire Teal’s Express, which has provided LTL service within New York state for more than 96 years. Teal’s Express and PITT OHIO have partnered to provide LTL service to and from the state since 2016.