As FedEx and UPS beef up automation to keep pace with surging e-commerce and a potential threat from Amazon, they’ve been stumped at a crucial stage: loading and unloading trucks.
Challenge: A global third-party logistics provider (3PL) was looking for distance calculations between fixed locations to be used for cost analysis, bid response and rate quoting. The company also wanted predictive calculation capabilities for shipment delivery delays based on real-time traffic incident data.
Challenge: A European leader in freight exchange solutions wanted to further enhance its successful planning and calculation program for transport companies by providing near real-time truck location information to telematics and logistics managers.
Amazon’s announcement registered loudly in the halls of its competitors: e-commerce companies and old-line retailers that will now have to start investing just as furiously to keep up.
Amazon.com Inc. will spend $800m in the current quarter to reduce delivery times for top customers to one day from two, trying to revive its main e-commerce franchise and ward off greater competition.
Startup Phantom Auto announced an expansion into logistics, providing remote operation capability for forklifts, delivery robots and “yard truck” tractors that move trailers around warehouses.
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