XPO Logistics Joins Push to Digital Freight Booking

The company announced on Wednesday that XPO started a service called XPO Connect earlier this year as a pilot with about 50 shippers and is now opening it wider. The shipper can book and track products online and monitor changes in carrier capacity, spot exchange rate, and loading status for each geographical location

Mario Harrick, Chief Information Officer for XPO, says: "We started using the intermediary network today, and we moved to XPO Intermodal, a department that manages traffic remotely by train or truck."

Most retailers and manufacturers book cargo shipments directly from the shipping company and the rest are booked through brokers such as brokers and freight forwarders. Many of them are small companies that rely on telephone or fax machines to set and track the load.

Start-ups such as Uber Freight, Transfix, Convoy are challenging how online platforms, applications, or cloud-based software connect shippers to carriers. A new batch of product support companies said that they can process goods more efficiently and reduce transparency of pricing while reducing transportation costs

Robinson Worldwide Inc., a large company like C. H., is the largest cargo broker in the United States and XPO and the global logistics company DB Schenker are investing millions of dollars in technology. Some people invest directly in online freight transport platform or purchase directly

Last year, JB Hunt Transport Services Inc., one of the largest cargo companies in the US, launched its own digital cargo market. This year, about 500 million dollars are expected through the service, that is, about 24 thousand items are expected to be booked. This also applies to 30 thousand items in the previous year. This allows the shipper to track shipment and grasp data such as price.

Mr. Bart De Muynck, a traffic analyst at Gartner, B. Hunt's brokerage business was $ 1.02 billion last year, and Uber, Transfix, Convoy points out that it may be "accounting for 3% of the total".

De Muynck said that Digital Challenger ultimately encourages brokers to adopt more technology and reduce fees. He said that a group of brokers that manage phone bookings will allow brokers and operators to enter information into the digital market, so the business of large companies will be more automated.

With XPO, transactions reserved through the new platform depend on the combination of broker and automation. "Over time, more will be non-contact items," Harrick said.

Mr. Harik added that the market is limited to existing customers, "This is not something that someone can make a quote on the spot and move the shipment."

4) XPO Logistics (XPO) "We think that our overweight XPO, it is Tesla for cargo, we like XPO's technology-driven space strategy," the report says . Morgan Stanley's XPO logistics target price is $ 60, rising 13% from Wednesday's closing price. This is my last week 's The Verge and Recode column - I will write the column of last week anywhere. Since 1991, I have been doing this almost every week starting from the "Wall Street Journal". Meanwhile I understood the manufacturers of the technology revolution and were able to reflect on their creation - even violence - sometimes.

One of the companies promoting online cargo reservations is OurCrowd Portfolio Company Freightos. It digitizes international logistics processes through a seamless cargo reservation platform. With Freightos, importers and exporters can immediately reserve air cargo and ocean freight for reservation. It is being offered by Freightos technology being used by over 1,100 global freight forwarders using Freightos to improve cargo sale automation. In the Freightos Marketplace in 2016, there are more than 1,000 B2B customers and dozens of sellers. Among these processes, Freightos has created the world's largest database of price spans in excess of 750 million points.

Freighthub is a freight forwarder and digital interface to manage the logistics of that user. Freighthub revolutionizes international freight forwarders through a digital process that provides customers with real-time insight and transparency. Freighthub is a full-service freight forwarder that provides global FCL, LCL, air transportation and is technologically supported by an experienced logistics expert team. Established in 2016, headquartered in Berlin. It combines digital and logistics industry talents and technologies, including past, present and future shipments, tracks lost files, uploads all files and stores for future use, supply chain overview It is operated by an entrepreneur who provides. It also provides users with transparent quotes from various operators. Customers can schedule shipping based on price, duration, and operator comparison options.