Port of Savannah Boosts On-Port Rail Capacity and More News

Products

• The new Movu Robotics line offers a range of products, including atlas pallet shuttles, escala bin shuttles, and ifollow autonomous mobile robots for pallets and roll cages that work either stand-alone or as collaborative robots. Movu Robotics provides automation solutions for warehouse applications such as storing, conveying, picking, and handling.

• Storopack’s new air cushion film, AIRplus BIO Home Compostable, reduces shipping weight as well as plastic waste. Air cushions made from the lightweight organic film protect light- to medium-weight goods in transit.

• The new TLD970 Dynamic Pallet Dimensioner from METTLER TOLEDO automates the capture of cargo dimensions, ensuring speed and precision. Utilizing light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, the TLD970 provides the measurements of a single cargo item within seconds regardless of lighting conditions.

• The Qimarox Highrunner HR8 palletizer can stack boxes of frozen foods into stable pallets, even if they are not form-fixed or fully filled. By placing the boxes with their ribs (a structurally robust part of the box) exactly on top of each other, the Qimarox HR8 prevents boxes that are not completely filled from collapsing. Since the resulting pallet is sturdy, wrapping the load requires less film.

Services

• ODW Logistics added a 540,000-square-foot warehouse in Columbus, Ohio, bringing its Central Ohio warehouse space total to more than 4 million square feet. The class-A facility marks the 14th distribution center in Central Ohio for the 3PL provider.

• Roadrunner offers a Smart Guarantee LTL service offering—a priority service that ensures less-than-truckload freight is delivered by the promised delivery date or it’s free. Shippers can take advantage of the new offering for an additional 25% charge. In the event of a transit delay, Roadrunner waives 100% of the bill for guaranteed shipments.

• Arrive Logistics expanded into Canada with an office in Toronto, enhancing its cross-border and intra-Canada freight services.

• To enhance its cool chain capabilities in the United States, Etihad Cargo, the cargo and logistics arm of Etihad Airways, expanded its network with Worldwide Flight Services (WFS). Etihad Cargo’s customers receive end-to-end cargo services via its PharmaLife and FreshForward offerings in addition to the cargo handling facilities and services offered by WFS at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, and Washington Dulles International Airport.

• Consolidated Chassis Management (CCM), a cooperative chassis pool manager, rolled out the South Atlantic Chassis Pool, SACP 3.0 on October 1, 2023. The new SACP 3.0 brings 45,000 new or refurbished chassis to the South Atlantic region.

• Third-party logistics providers Worldwide Express, GlobalTranz, and Unishippers formed a new corporate identity, WWEX Group. With a network of carrier partners, including a strategic relationship with UPS, WWEX Group’s companies offer SMB, mid-market, and large enterprise shippers parcel, less-than-truckload (LTL), full-truckload (FTL), managed transportation, and expedited services.

• The Port of Savannah’s Mason Mega Rail Terminal boosts on-port rail capacity and offers shippers three-day transit time from vessel discharge to cargo availability in North Carolina via the Carolina Connector direct rail service. Georgia Ports and CSX provide 7-day-a-week rail departures between the Mason Mega Rail Terminal and the railroad’s CCX Yard in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

Technology

• Dexterity AI and FedEx Corp. unveiled an industry-first solution: an AI-powered robotics system that can load boxes into trucks and trailers. Dexterity AI designed the mobile robots with a suite of intelligence ranging from the ability to see, touch, think, and move quickly to pack trailers with stable, dense walls of randomized boxes. Its mobile robot, DexR, navigates autonomously to the back of trailers and connects to a conveyor system that feeds the robot boxes directly from the sortation system.

• Kitov.ai’s new K-BOX line of machine vision systems combines artificial intelligence, 3D imaging, and robotic planning technologies for product inspection applications. K-BOX offers APIs that connect Kitov software to most standard and collaborative robots on the market, allowing companies to add advanced visual inspection capabilities to their existing robotic solutions.

• DAT Freight & Analytics launched an AI-powered identity-fraud detection and prevention platform through a partnership with Verosint to help prevent the unauthorized use of customer login credentials and combat identity theft. The new technology allows DAT to leverage AI and machine learning to validate user identities and scrutinize suspicious accounts. Users can now verify the identity of the entities they are doing business with and ensure the legitimacy of load postings on the DAT load board.

• Net Feasa’s IoTPASS Smart Container Tracking solution added a new device that forms a security bridge between the locking bar and the container and uses Net Feasa’s Context Aware AI functionality to interpret security infringements. The device transmits data while the container is in transit, including unauthorized door opening, route deviation, prolonged dwell time, and other shipment anomalies.

• Trimble introduced Appian Daily Planner, a cloud-based solution for multi-stop, multi-vehicle route optimization that aims to improve asset utilization, on-time deliveries, and customer service. By combining a configurable interface with the Appian optimization algorithm, Appian Daily Planner lets fleets transition from batch routing to a real-time planning approach.

• Treston’s new AI-powered ergonomics assessment service is designed to help companies reduce work-related injuries. Treston ErgoID employs AI computer vision software, along with the expertise of its own ergonomics specialists, to analyze workflows and provide insights into workplace ergonomics. Users receive personalized recommendations—from ergonomic improvement suggestions to positioning techniques—based on video assessment results.

Transportation

• ZIM’s new service provides a direct link between Georgia Ports and the West Coast of South America. Direct service on the ZIM Colibri Xpress leverages the Port of Savannah’s refrigerated cargo infrastructure and partner network that can support a range of services, such as agriculture inspections, cold treatment/retreatment services, fumigation, and repacking. The Port of Savannah has the capacity to power more than 3,000 refrigerated containers simultaneously.

• Strengthening its Intra-Asia service network, ​OOCL started a service that directly connects multiple ports in Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The port rotation includes Bangkok, Laem Chabang, Ho Chi Minh, Ningbo, and Shanghai.

• Lufthansa Cargo started a route from Helsinki and Copenhagen once a week as well as added a weekly Copenhagen-to-Frankfurt route. The new services accommodate late deliveries in Helsinki and Copenhagen and offer connections from Frankfurt next morning to the Lufthansa Cargo network.

• Norfolk Southern (NS) and Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) expanded their domestic interline intermodal services in Florida. NS introduced service to FEC’s Fort Pierce and Fort Lauderdale facilities. The additions increase direct access to and from markets in Chicago; Cincinnati; St. Louis; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Kansas City, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; Lathrop, California; and Southern California.

• Shipping company Finnlines is introducing two new vessels on the daily Kapellskär – Långnäs – Naantali (Sweden to Finland) route to increase cargo as well as passenger capacity. The first vessel M/S Finnsirius (pictured) made her maiden call at Sweden’s Port of Kapellskär and was welcomed with a celebratory water salute in September 2023. The second vessel Finncanopus will arrive in January 2024.

• Cathay Pacific resumed its nonstop service from Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Hong Kong International Airport on October 3, 2023, after a three-year pause. The resumption of the three-times-per-week flight, with a capacity for 14 pallets in the belly of the A350-1000 aircraft, complements Cathay Cargo’s eight-times-per-week dedicated freighter service to Hong Kong.