On a recent episode of Fuller Speed Ahead, Craig Fuller, founder and CEO at FreightWaves, was joined by Mark Picarello, managing director at SecurSpace and CargoWise Landside, to talk about the state of the market and highlight recent enhancements in their CargoWise platform.
Fuller notes that WiseTech Global, the parent company, has made a number of acquisitions across the supply chain space. Picarello notes that one of the big, positive impacts from the recent acquisitions has been the gains in automation within the CargoWise platform.
“I would say providing our customers with electronic ways of dealing with transportation, where things have been paper and slow, [and] it’s now really all-electronic, that’s what all of the areas, all of the products within that CargoWise platform, including CargoWise Landside, are about. Automating that interaction between shippers, carriers, and the rest of the supply chain.”
Picarello highlighted the COVID freight boom and bust, but believes that even if you took out the pandemic, there would still be a sustained increase in volumes, just not at the extreme level of the past four years.
For CargoWise Landside, its particular interest is in intermodal drayage. “A lot of what we do is around drayage and getting things out of the port efficiently,” he says.
“The challenge when things come into the port, is that you only have a certain number of days for them to sit there before you start getting charges, and they might not have an alternate destination yet.” The added challenge then becomes knowing where the assets are, how to move them between these different areas, and the types of transportation needed to make it happen, Picarello explains
“Visibility is an overused term, but really understanding ‘where is that piece of equipment?’, ‘that container,’ ‘my merchandise,’ so that I know what I need to do to get it to the ultimate destination.”
For drayage operators, a top-of-mind concern continues to be port congestion on the truck side and less the container side. “You see the lines of trucks with these chassis either trying to get in or out. That’s time, that’s money, and while they’re sitting there in traffic, that costs them.”
It’s one thing to move the containers in and out, but for chassis and containers, Picarello notes that property space and places to park and store them remain a premium. Technology is an important piece but cannot be the only solution by itself. Regarding the application of technology, Picrarello says, “If you know where something is and when it’s coming in, you can plan ahead for those movements, schedule them in a way that [includes] maybe a certain time of day when there’s a little less congestion.”
Fuller notes that CargoWise’s legacy was in freight forwarding, but as it moved into surface or land logistics, it created the CargoWise Landside solution suite. Picarello says, “WiseTech has acquired a number of companies along their journey, and the whole product strategy is really to be the logistics operating system for the world.”
Becoming the Logistics operating system for the world
“So, if you think of it that way, all areas of transportation and all things our freight forwarders, 3PLs and even shippers need to deal with need to be covered by the platform.” Picarello goes on to highlight the recent acquisitions giving it broader TMS functionality, which includes landside logistics.
Storage and secure spaces for parking is another functionality that Picarello highlighted, as not all shipments need to move immediately. “There are times when you need to find some storage or parking, and that’s the part of the CargoWise Landside vision, to really provide that end-to-end visibility control whether it’s a freight forwarder, 3PL or shipper.”
The ultimate prize according to Picarello is end-to-end and door-to-door, from the origin in manufacturing all the way to consumers, from retail distribution centers or consumption points. “And that’s why we call it the logistics operating system,” Pircarello says.
When going outside the logistics ecosystem, collaboration is key
“We have a very extensive partner program, and we try to not get in our partners’ way. We have service partners that can do all the configuration to help customers get the process right through their platform. We’ve also got business partners who bring organizations to us that need it. And all of those different partners work with us to really drive more use of the platform and get customers to use it efficiently because sometimes—we’ve all done it—you buy software and you want to apply it to what you do rather than thinking about how can I [make it] efficiently work – maybe what I’m doing right now isn’t the most efficient way so why would I want to make the system work my [current] way?”
Pircarello adds the ultimate goal is to help those same business partners help customers eliminate a lot of those manual processes. “The capabilities within CargoWise allow our customers to do that, whether it’s the TMS as part of CargoWise Landside, or whether it’s the broader capabilities of the platform. It’s really about automating that workflow in a way that allows people to work most efficiently.”
This also includes connecting and integrating with airlines, TMS systems from other carriers, and digitization efforts like tracking, pricing, or processing bills of lading.
Looking ahead to the future
When looking ahead to the next 12 months, Picarello believes that despite the challenges lingering from the pandemic boom and bust, the drayage space looks promising. “I think there are multiple inputs, but it’s clear that volume went up a little bit [and] it’s settling down, which is a normal trend when you look at the industry. That settling at this point in the year really means that we have a good opportunity through the rest of the year and into the holiday season, where we’ll see increases in imports and containers.”
The exact extent of these volume gains remains a challenge. Regardless of the volumes and demand, Picarello believes that, at the end of the day, it’s about creating value. “I would say the WiseTech philosophy is to really deliver value, and I know it’s easy to say that, but we will not deliver something until we believe it’s right for the customer, even if it means it takes longer than what we would want it to be,” he says.
“It’s why [the] top 25 freight forwarders use our platform. If we get it right the first time, and they continue to expand their use of the platform, [it’s] because we’re adding that value, and that’s really our goal.”
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