IN BRIEF: New Services and Solutions

Products

• The Insert Tubs shipping and storage solution from S&S Plastics lets shippers store up to eight stock-keeping units in a single standard tote. The tub is made from 100% recycled plastic and provides separation inside totes.
• The CW 800 packaging machine from ACMA wraps consumer goods such as spherical chocolates and is equipped with OptiMate Premium, a proprietary programmable logic controller from Coesia. OptiMate lets users control the machine as well as optimize production and the consumption of material and energy.
• Brother Mobile Solutions launched the PocketJet 8 series of printers designed to increase warehouse efficiency. Suited for distribution centers as well as back-of-store retail environments, the PocketJet 8 series offers increased print speed and quality, USB Type-C connectivity, and a broader range of compatible media, including thicker paper and labels.
• Secured NFC tags from Infineon offer brand protection for original equipment manufacturers, with 304 bytes, 1 KB, 2 KB, and 4 KB of user memory. The near field communication tags prevent mechanical and electrical intervention from non-compatible, sub-standard accessories and parts and can be embedded in a range of products, such as power tools, electric toothbrushes, and medical devices.
• The QuickCollect GO! Cube from Bell and Howell is a scalable indoor freestanding automated order pickup system that allows customers to obtain orders in seconds. The QuickCollect GO! Cube is part of the GO! product family that helps retailers reduce the cost, complexity, and environmental impact of last-mile delivery by enabling unattended pickup of a variety of items and packages, including grocery orders, from automated kiosks.

Services

• Expedite All launched an expedite transportation network that gives shippers on-demand access to more than 1,000 carriers offering 5,000+ expedite vehicles at rates up to 10% lower than traditional expedite. The short-, medium- and long-haul expedite services can be utilized for routine shipping needs.
• 3PL Evans Distribution Systems acquired a license from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, permitting its Romulus-based warehouse to store alcoholic beverages. The warehouse offers 330,000 square feet of warehouse space with 30 dock doors. The facility is also food-grade certified, rail-served by CSX, and operates as a general-purpose foreign trade zone.
• Omni Logistics opened its new, 366,711-square-foot, three-building Dallas campus, located 8 miles from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Offering space for cross-dock, warehouse, and distribution operations, the gated campus is C-TPAT certified, protected by guards, and can accommodate shippers with high-security needs.
• The Suddath Companies launched NXTPoint Final Mile, a new business line specializing in the delivery of over-dimensional, heavy goods. NXTPoint Final Mile provides customized options for the delivery of items such as furniture/case goods, mattresses, exercise equipment, and electronics. Service options range from to-the-door delivery to white-glove-level assistance, as well as reverse logistics solutions for managing removals and returns.
• Drayage provider CDL 1000 now offers a 24-hour turnaround guarantee to pull containers out of yards, or it will pay shippers demurrage late fees and storage costs. CDL 1000 created an escrow account that will pay demurrage and storage fees on behalf of customers, if CDL 1000 does not meet its promise of moving containers on time.
• EDRAY, a logistics platform for global importers and exporters, launched a new service, Street Turns, for U.S. exporters, leveraging its visibility, volume, and destination management services. Its end-to-end capabilities provide a container equipment solution for U.S. exporters designed to resolve equipment problems as well as administrative challenges.
• Marine Repair Services-Container Maintenance Corporation (MRS-CMC), a provider of intermodal services, opened a new depot facility at Port Houston. The facility expands its storage, distribution, repair, and capacity services in the region and provides shippers more service options, including loaded container storage, empty container storage and repairs, chassis start/stop and repairs.

Technology

• Loadsmith, a third-party capacity-as-a-service logistics platform for shippers and carriers, launched Loadsmith Driver App, a mobile app for truck drivers that provides 24/7 access to view available loads in the Loadsmith Freight Network and book loads with a tap. Available now in the Apple App Store and on Google Play, the app lets shippers and carriers better manage loads and their time, giving the latter control over load scheduling, tracking, and billing on their own schedule.
• American Express introduced American Express Global Pay, a digital solution that enables U.S. businesses to securely make domestic and international business-to-business payments. Through this new solution, enterprises can send payments funded from their business bank account to their suppliers in more than 40 countries, across a range of currencies.
• Shippers can improve real-time transportation visibility and supply chain execution management in a global platform with the partnership between supply chain SaaS platform e2open and Shippeo, a real-time multimodal transportation visibility provider. The platform enables users to see inside the truck or container to understand the specific goods being moved, how transportation performance impacts the customer experience, and proactively take corrective action.
• Extensiv, which provides omnichannel software solutions, introduced Parcel API, a new application programming interface for Extensiv 3PL Warehouse Manager customers that allows virtually any small parcel shipping provider to integrate to 3PL Warehouse Manager and make their services available to its more than 1,100 3PLs. Third-party logistics providers can now quickly add the most efficient and economical shipping option to support the shipping provider their customers demand.
• Supply chain visibility company FourKites launched a platform upgrade that enables organizations to leverage supply chain visibility data across their enterprise. The new release integrates real-time transportation visibility and facility-specific data, across all modes, to help drive efficiencies and prevent disruptions across the end-to-end supply chain.
• Enterprises can improve the environmental and social impact performance of their global supply chains with a new suite of sustainability solutions from o9 Solutions, an AI software platform provider. Embedded in its integrated business planning platform, the solutions include product and enterprise environmental footprint measurement, traceability, ESG risk management, ESG-enabled business planning, sustainable sourcing, and supply chain circularity.
• Tech Mahindra, a provider of digital transformation solutions, and Tada Cognitive Solutions, a digital twin-enabled supply chain software provider, are partnering to digitally transform supply chain networks. The joint offerings let manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, and retail enterprises build real-time end-to-end visibility across the entire supply chain network with control tower implementations.
• Trailer Bridge launched the new MasterMind TMS with Mastery Logistics Systems to increase visibility into customers’ freight movement and efficiency in its operations. Aiming to expand services to better serve shippers, Trailer Bridge pushed out the new software to its 12 logistics branches across the United States and is currently working with Mastery to further develop the platform for its ocean business targeting a late 2023 launch.
• Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN), a not-for-profit technology consortium building a blockchain-enabled operating system for global trade, rolled out Cargo Release in Latin America, starting with ports across Mexico and Panama. Since its debut in China in 2021, Cargo Release—a blockchain-enabled application—has been rolled out across Southeast Asia, Europe, and now also Latin America, serving more than 10,000 customers.
• GT USA Wilmington received its first shipment of summer fruit into the Port of Wilmington, Delaware, from the West Coast of South America via a new, fortnightly service that will operate through October 2022. The citrus fruits were delivered from Valparaiso, Chile, to the port on the M/V Everest Bay, a refrigerated cargo ship. The 2,200 pallets of cargo were transported by Seatrade and Global Reefers and are heading to U.S. supermarket shelves.
• SEKO Logistics unveiled the latest version of SEKO Live to help retailers deliver big and bulky goods. Reducing the risk of returns, it gives SEKO’s last-mile delivery specialists and consumers quick and direct access to product technicians and exception management specialists located within SEKO’s Control Tower operations and network operations centers or to a retailer’s own product and customer service teams. Customers can share, stream, and connect with central resources during product installation to resolve any concerns.

Transportation

• Sterling Transportation offers a three-day LTL and FTL service from Florida to Texas and the West Coast, in addition to its Los Angeles-to-Florida service. The company’s Miami facility is U.S. Customs bonded, open 7 days a week, and located close to Miami International Airport.
• Lufthansa Cargo is expanding its long-haul route network in the 2022-2023 winter flight schedule with additional flights to high-demand destinations such as Hong Kong, Kansai, Seoul, Mexico City, and Chicago, and including a new destination: Hanoi. Hanoi will be served twice a week from Frankfurt via Mumbai from the beginning of November. In addition, service from Frankfurt via Kansai to Seoul will increase from three to four weekly flights. The frequency to Hong Kong, China, will also be increased from four to five weekly flights.