IN BRIEF: New Services and Solutions

Products

•  Carrier Transicold’s new thin-profile Vector 8400R refrigeration unit for domestic intermodal containers offers improved fuel efficiency and lifetime compliance with California’s latest emissions standards. It provides efficient refrigeration and freezing performance in a compact design.

•  Ropax Roto-Compactors from Epax Systems compress recyclable material and waste in warehouses and distribution centers. The industrial-grade machines use a rotating drum with metal teeth to tear, rip, shred, and compact a variety of items including cardboard boxes, fruit and vegetable crates, plastic waste, and packing filler.

•  The Port of Longview’s two new 130-ton Kalmar Super Gloria Reachstackers have increased the port’s breakbulk capacity. Previously relying on its two Liebherr mobile harbor cranes for both dockside and laydown yard operations, the port now utilizes the new stackers in the laydown yard, allowing heavy-lift operations to proceed both on-dock and in the yard simultaneously.

•  The new attached-lid FliPak container from ORBIS is designed for split-case picking and distribution. The reusable plastic containers take the place of corrugated shipping boxes for long-term packaging savings and improve warehouse cleanliness by eliminating fiber and dust. FliPak totes stack when full and nest when empty.

Services

•  C.H. Robinson opened a cross-border logistics facility in Laredo, Texas. With 400,000 square feet, 154 dock doors, and room for 700 trailers, it expands the company’s footprint along the Mexico border to 1.5 million square feet.

•  cargo-partner expanded its warehouse in Zagreb, Croatia. The upgraded facility now includes 20,000 pallet slots as well as a nearly 10,000-square-foot mezzanine where the local team provides e-fulfillment and value-added services. In addition to short- and long-term storage, the Zagreb warehouse offers daily pallet and parcel distribution to EU- and non-EU countries, a customs bonded area, and customs brokerage services.

•  Dimerco opened its second bonded warehouse within the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Free Trade Zone in September 2023. Designed for high-tech companies, the new facility offers customizable shelving options, 10 storage bays, and floor space to accommodate ecommerce clients with picking and packing operations.

•  Aeronet Worldwide opened a new station in Savannah, Georgia—located 8 miles from the Port of Savannah and 6 miles from Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport. The 179,800-square-foot facility operates as a hub for inbound and outbound ocean freight and domestic and international air freight services.

•  3PL Evans Transportation launched an in-house parcel solutions division. The new division aims to provide cost savings, carrier diversification, and operational insight and accountability through contract optimization, audit and recovery, and business intelligence services.

•  Fulfillment by FHB Group upgraded its logistics center in Svätý Jur and opened a new facility in Senec, both in Slovakia. The logistics centers are equipped with multilevel mezzanine shelving systems for storage and picking. Artificial intelligence-guided systems optimize reception, storage, picking, and other parts of ecommerce fulfillment.

•  Southeastern Freight Lines, a provider of regional less-than-truckload services, opened a service center in Austin, Texas. The new service center, located at 10001 E US Hwy 290, employs 57 associates and features 120 dock doors, an appointment warehouse, office, and a fuel island for drivers.

Technology

•  Upply, a digital platform for freight transportation, now offers its Connect solution in Germany, Spain, and Belgium, in addition to France. Shippers can work with their own carriers or with new operators sourced by Upply, find spot transport solutions, and digitalize and automate administrative tasks.

•  Imaginnovate’s new artificial intelligence (AI) tool automates logistics pricing. Called the Dynamic Pricing Engine, the technology automates pricing practices based on historical buying and selling patterns, aggregated market data, and personalized pricing rules. The tool sets pricing ranges for logistics services based on variables such as demand, competition, lanes, equipment, and types of transportation.

•  The expanded integration of FlockDirect—a shared truckload solution from Flock Freight—and e2open’s transportation management system (TMS) increases the capacity choices for shippers. Users of e2open’s TMS can access real-time, dynamic quoting and booking capabilities to ship via FlockDirect.

•  Retailers can match orders with demand in close to real-time with WARPstock, a new inventory distribution service from WARP. Using its proprietary algorithm, WARP facilitates the movement of goods in/out of customers’ warehouses, to distribution centers, and in/out of stores based on real-time sales.

•  Wiliot added real-time humidity sensing to its ambient Internet-of-Things visibility platform, letting companies monitor the humidity of products—in addition to temperature, location, and carbon footprint—to enhance quality, freshness, safety, and sustainability across the supply chain. When an IoT Pixel—a self-powered postage stamp-sized device affixed to products and packaging—is exposed to different humidity levels, the information is relayed wirelessly to the Wiliot Cloud.

•  Flexport now offers a self-service, end-to-end, AI-enabled supply chain solution for entrepreneurs. They can access Flexport’s solution at no cost, and enterprises that want more features can join Flexport+, a membership program offering supply chain financing, priority shipping services, and access to supply chain experts.

•  Supply chain visibility provider FourKites launched Fin AI, a natural language interface that helps customers find insights, identify opportunities for optimization, and automate tasks. Fin AI lets users assess the impact of disruptive events on their supply chain, diagnose why a shipment isn’t tracking, and bring it online to increase visibility throughout their network.

•  Manhattan Associates upgraded its returns management solution to create a more streamlined returns process. The solution is designed to optimize a product’s return path and inventory placement based on assortment and current stock levels—reducing retailers’ shipping costs and improving the sustainability of a return.

•  ORTEC Americas introduced a supply chain optimization solution for the foodservice distribution industry. ORTEC’s Foodservice Solution Suite provides insights and planning tools that help companies optimize operations—increasing final-mile efficiency and balancing cost of delivery, customer satisfaction, driver satisfaction, and environmental impact.

•  Origify by Bosch offers manufacturers and retailers a solution for authenticating individual products. Using an optical recording of the product’s characteristics, a digital and tamper-proof stored fingerprint is created. In addition to verifying the authenticity of manufactured goods, companies can track products in the supply chain and detect deviations.

Transportation

•  DHL Express launched a dedicated network flight to Argentina. The new flight operates six times per week between Miami International Airport and Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a stopover in Santiago, Chile, before returning to Miami. Operated by DHL Aero Expreso, the Boeing B767-300 aircraft provide a payload capacity of 52 tons per flight.

•  Lufthansa Cargo increased flight offerings to Asia, Africa, and Mexico. Its winter flight schedule includes 83 weekly B777F connections with increased frequencies to Tel Aviv, Cairo, Hong Kong, and Mexico City, and new services to Riyadh and Taipei.

•  Ocean Network Express (ONE) selected Broward County’s Port Everglades as the U.S. port of call on its new FLX service that brings refrigerated fruits, vegetables, and seafood from farms in South America to South Florida. The FLX service launched in September 2023 and connects Port Everglades to Callao and Paita (Peru), and Guayaquil (Ecuador).

•  DSV now offers a new route in its air freight charter network that connects North America to the Middle East through its collaboration with Qatar Airways Cargo. DSV’s “Gateway Star” route departs from Mexico City to Doha, Qatar, via Huntsville, Alabama, as well as Luxembourg.

•  Canadian National Railway Company (CN) unveiled an upgrade to its Falcon Premium Intermodal Service. Because of operational changes by its business partner, Union Pacific, shippers save a full day of transit time using the Canada-United States-Mexico service, which is designed for intermodal customers shipping automotive parts, food, freight—all kinds, home appliances, and temperature-controlled products.

•  Ocean cargo shippers can expect cost efficiencies with a new operational cooperation agreement between ZIM and MSC. The cooperation scope includes services connecting the Indian subcontinent with the East Mediterranean, the East Mediterranean with Northern Europe, and services connecting East Asia with Oceania.

•  Norfolk Southern and CN launched a cross-border domestic interline intermodal service that links Atlanta with six Canadian locations (Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta; Vancouver, British Columbia; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Toronto and Montreal) and Kansas City, Missouri, with Toronto and Montreal.

•  The CSX Carolina Connector Intermodal terminal gives North Carolina importers and exporters a direct rail connection between the Port of Savannah and Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The Georgia Ports Authority and CSX teamed up to provide 7-day-a-week rail departures between GPA’s Mason Mega Rail Terminal in Savannah and the Eastern North Carolina location, offering customers three-day ship-to-shore transit time.