3 Global Logistics Trends in 2017

I am working last 7 years in the trucking industry and I am also CEO at Cargofy, startup which set the goal to reduce manual work in logistics, so here my assumptions where the market will go this year.

1. Less manual work

Today shippers spending up to 60 minutes to book single truck because of lack of automation, most operations handled manually. Expenses for the staff reaches 72% by the general cost of each delivery. Most operations will be automated: price calculation, selection of a suitable truck, document management, delivery tracking, reviews.

2. Price calculation based on neural network

Technologies have reached a point where the brokers can be replaced by the help of algorithms.

How can we automate such a large and fragmented market? Where carriers: self-employed drivers and large trucking corporations on the one hand and shippers: manufacturers, trading companies, retailers on the other hand.

Answer: Collect a lot of data and automatically analyze them. Collect data from carriers, from each truck: location, parameters, empty space, status and a lot of another metrics via mobile app or integration via API. Also, collect data from shippers that shape the demand for services.

Comparing this information: supply/demand, the ratio of goods and trucks in each region, allow us to immediately calculate the price using the neural network, taking into account the price dynamics, seasonality, and other parameters. Without loss of time for auctions (bids) and calls, the shipper can be sure that he will receive the best market price.

3. Maximizing the truckload

Low fleet utilization rate also the huge problem, 27% of trucks are running the half or totally empty, 1 out of 4 trucks is insufficiently loaded. With the help of mobile application, drivers will be able to submit information about the empty space in the trailer and system can automatically select the appropriate freight for partial loadings, like UberPOOL for passengers.