IN BRIEF: New Services and Solutions

Products

• The BIT Air Scale from Blue Ink Tech, which makes the BIT ELD, lets carriers see how much weight each of their trucks is carrying at any given moment. Utilizing two small, wireless sensors, BIT Air Scale installs in less than 15 minutes and provides efficiencies for shippers, freeing drivers from having to visit an off-site scale.
• Brother Mobile Solutions’ new PocketJet 8 printer series accommodates a broader range of media, including labels and thicker paper. The new printer provides users with increased printing speeds (up to 13.5 pages per minute), higher print quality for small fonts, detailed graphics, complex barcodes and QR codes, as well as simplified connectivity compatibility with multiple operating systems.
• Forklift manufacturer Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas launched the Cat DP60HP-DP100CP forklift series with a 13,000-22,000-pound capacity. Including a Kubota V3800 engine, the internal combustion pneumatic tire lift trucks can lift and haul heavy loads at high speeds.
• The new Raymond High Capacity Orderpicker is designed to facilitate order picking a full rack higher than models currently on the market. The orderpicker offers an elevated height of 456 inches, which allows for increased rack storage access to 11% more pick slots. The increased elevated height enables operators to optimize storage capacity for more usable space and improved SKU count without increasing a facility’s footprint.

Technology

• 4flow introduced new software for rapid modeling and analysis of supply chain networks: 4flow NEVA (Network Exploration, Visualization and Analysis). 4flow NEVA improves supply chain planning quality with visualization and analysis tools and helps businesses react quickly to changes in their supply networks.
• project44 launched a supply chain visibility platform called Movement by project44 to provide transparency to supply chain stakeholders. The platform allows supply chain partners, including shippers, carriers, and other logistics providers, to collaborate, providing order-level visibility across all modes globally.
• Trucker Tools enhanced real-time shipment tracking within its Smart Capacity platform by integrating with the Verizon Connect Reveal fleet management platform, which provides in-transit location updates. The integration with the new ELD software and hardware lets shippers manage load status, delivery scheduling, and truck capacity planning.
• Supply chain visibility company FourKites was awarded a U.S. patent for its ocean shipment solutions, which provide visibility into the documentation requirements at each leg of an ocean shipment. Its Dynamic Ocean capabilities give shippers actionable intelligence and automation to address missing, incorrect, or incomplete supporting documentation.
• Fleet Enable launched a forecast tool for final mile operations. Analyzing real-time data for carriers and warehouse operators, the Fleet Enable Intelligence tool can predict warehouse volume shifts, identify patterns and anomalies in markets, and forecast delays in deliveries and appointments.
• IntelliTrans, a provider of multimodal solutions for bulk and break-bulk industries, introduced the Global Supply Chain Visibility Platform for ocean shipments. Shippers can plan, book, execute, and track ocean shipments and gain visibility into shipment lifecycles on one platform.
• Honeywell Smart Pay enables on-the-spot payments in retail, parcel delivery, public transportation services, and other businesses. The software payment solution enables the company’s mobile computers to become secure and compliant payment terminals, accepting contactless mobile payments from anywhere a business sells or delivers goods and services.
• Microsoft unveiled supply chain software to help companies track and coordinate supply chain systems by combining data from its own programs and tools from software providers Oracle and SAP. A supply-and-demand insights module uses artificial intelligence to predict shortages and supply constraints.

Services

• Maersk inaugurated a new Chicago Air Freight Gateway near O’Hare Airport to add more supply chain integration opportunities for shippers. Also serving Maersk’s air cargo hub in Rockford International Airport, the new facility is a Bonded Container Freight Station with U.S. Customs and operates as a U.S. Transportation Security Administration Certified Cargo Screening Facility to ensure timely, secure handling of air freight.
• FlexCold opened a Jacksonville, Florida, cold storage facility, which spans more than 150,000 square feet and offers 25,000 pallet positions. Located three miles from the Jacksonville Port, the facility is divided into four areas: two convertible rooms that can be used for refrigerated or frozen products; a freezer room where temperatures are maintained below 0 degrees F; and a blast freeze room where products like poultry can be frozen to 0 degrees F within 36 hours.
• Expedite All now offers a nationwide reefer van network to give shippers on-demand access to refrigerated small vehicles. Through an online platform, the new transportation network lets shippers find and book refrigerated sprinter vans, box trucks, and straight trucks in the United States.
• ContainerPort Group, a multimodal transportation provider, started a Dedicated division to provide high-volume, high-touch, white-glove freight services. Dedicated services are designed to provide shippers with high-efficiency, premium support to ensure the consistent dock-to-doorstep delivery of goods.
• FlashBox, a technology-based, same-day delivery company, launched in Vancouver. The company, which started in Toronto, Ontario, lets shippers deliver to customers same-day, with orders scheduled through an online dashboard every morning before 11:00 am and delivered to residential addresses between 4 and 10 pm.
• Lineage Logistics launched Lineage Fresh to provide storage options for importers, grocers, and producers of fresh fruit and produce. Leveraging its cold storage technology and logistics network, it offers capabilities such as re-pack and bagging services, reconditioning, restacking, multi-temperature zones for produce, cold treatment, fumigation, container drayage, and the integration of customs bonded facilities.
• U.S. e-commerce businesses can now more easily expand their global reach with the new partnership between e-commerce platform BigCommerce and DHL, which provides streamlined online sales processes, international shipping expertise, and discounted rates. U.S. merchants will also have access to DHL’s On Demand Delivery tool, which provides proactive notifications and flexible delivery options worldwide.
• RLS Logistics opened a cold storage facility in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. The temperature-controlled facility features a mobile racking system that allows it to hold 40-45% more pallet positions than the standard double-deep racking. The facility uses a refrigeration system that consumes less electricity than traditional ammonia-based systems.
• The 320-foot-tall Liebherr LMH 600 is the second mobile harbor crane to be deployed at Florida’s Port Canaveral and is part of a new mobile harbor crane product line recently launched by Liebherr Group. Port Canaveral signed an agreement with Liebherr to acquire the second mobile harbor crane from the company to support its growing cargo operations. The port’s first mobile harbor crane was entered into service in early 2019.
• Beyond Warehousing, which offers storage, e-commerce fulfillment, distribution, transloading, and other services, opened its second warehouse in Kansas City, Missouri. The facility has 40 dock doors and adds 330,000 square feet to Beyond Warehousing’s capacity. The new building’s 40-foot ceilings allow for up to 35,000 pallet positions.

Transportation

• China-based Nippon Express Logistics now offers a cross-border transport service connecting Zhuhai and Hong Kong by truck via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB). Cargo from South China and other parts of the country is consolidated and sorted at a Nippon Express warehouse in Zhuhai, transshipped to double-licensed trucks at a cross-docking facility in Zhuhai, and then transported via the HZMB to Hong Kong International Airport or designated delivery destinations.
• Samskip increased the capacity of its multimodal connections between Germany, Sweden, and Finland by launching a three-times weekly blocktrain service connecting Duisburg and Rostock together with Hector Rail. The all-electric train service links the Duisburg Hohenbudberg terminal and the Rostock Trimodal terminal and creates a new routing option to connect Germany’s Ruhr area and the Netherlands with Sweden, Finland, and other Baltic markets.
• Qatar Airways Cargo started freighter operations from Doha, Qatar, to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Boeing 777 freighter operates twice a week, offering cargo capacity of more than 110 tons per flight, in addition to the carrier’s belly-hold cargo capacity on its passenger flights.
• Lufthansa Cargo’s A321 freighter now connects the Evenes Airport in Norway to global markets via weekly freighter flights. The service aims to deliver fresh fish and seafood to global markets, transporting produce from Norway directly to the Frankfurt hub and from there on to worldwide destinations.
• The South Florida Container Terminal in the Port of Miami welcomed the new CMA CGM Medgulf service on Oct. 20, 2022. The weekly service offers Florida-based shippers a first port of call to/from the West Mediterranean before proceeding into the U.S. Gulf and Mexico. The route also offers an improved transit time from the Indian Subcontinent via Tanger, with a 29-day transit to Miami.