Uber announced its fourth quarter earnings yesterday, with the results showing its market dominance in the cab-hailing segment and its extensive investment across different niche verticals it has expanded into recently.
There are currently about 30,000 carriers on the Uber Freight network, according to the company. That number is expected to continue to grow.
In the transportation and logistics circles, blockchain has been an enigma – a technology that holds extensive promise on paper, and yet on the flip side, is extremely hard to implement.
Electric vehicle startup Rivian announced a $700 million funding round led by Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) today, February 15. The investment comes after the Michigan-based company unveiled its all-electric R1T pickup and R1S SUV last fall.
Road Hunter, an app that provides tools for truckers, has launched a trip-planning feature on its platform that its active users can use for free.
The 2020 model year Freightliner New Cascadia features technologies that qualify it as a Level 2 autonomous, but drivers shouldn’t be scared off by that.
project44’s Jett McCandless, KeepTruckin’s Ori Franco, Transfix’s Drew McElroy, and Freightos’ Philip von Mecklenburg-Blumenthal were all panelists.
Ike CEO Alden Woodrow and TuSimple chief product officer Chuck Price discuss the value of being the first company to bring a fully autonomous truck to market, the trucking hardware challenge and how to get buy-in from the public and regulators.
Elroy Air is working to expand the reach of expedited logistics by introducing an aerial cargo vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) system that is designed specifically for carrying medium payload cargo over fairly long range distances.
“It’s all about the cost savings, and, by the way, we’re also using the lowest emission option.”
In partnership with Reliance Partners …Telecom operators are terminating cell phone based tracking services, which would be a game changer in the freight industry as many shippers and 3PLs depend on cellphone pings to track freight movement.
The Houston-based startup is run by executives with decades of experience in global logistics, and plans to tackle the oil and gas vertical first.
The nation’s top electricity regulator gives exclusive insight into how the infrastructure behind electric trucks could fuel the coming transportation transformation.
San Francisco-based logistics provider Flexport is rumored to be in talks to raise about $500 million in a deal lead by SoftBank Group Corp. (OTC US: SFBTF), according to an article published on Axios Wednesday.
Baraja raised U.S.$35m on the back of its ability to use lasers, prisms and the colors of the rainbow to grant sight to machines. It’s a critical step on the path to helping vehicles drive themselves. Photo – Shutterstock.
Convoy CEO Dan Lewis said that digital brokerage margins would expand until most participants adopted low-cost structure, then start compressing.
Plus One Robotics helps warehousing robots get scene perception, allowing them to identify and pick parcels from a cluttered pile.
The company will use the investment to grow its commercial autonomous fleet.
Food delivery startup Zomato is mobilising its last-mile workforce to move towards mechanical and electric bikes for delivery – a move that the company believes would drastically reduce its carbon footprint.
Aurora Cannabis revenues have jumped since the legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada. The company is ramping up production to meet the needs of Canadian consumers who contend with frequent shortages.
Little Rock, Ark.-based company trying to make fuel card processing less costly for truck stop operators.
An intersection in New Jersey has been deemed the worst for truck bottlenecks, plus Nikola Motor may be adding a purely electric truck; GM and Tesla are working together, and FedEx Express signs on to a new cargo terminal.
Visual positioning make make GPS old-school… Learn what UK-based Scape Technologies is doing to bring this technology to market.
Message from NATSO: Technology trends will force truck stop owners to reevaluate how they serve their customers.
TechCrunch reports that SoftBank, a Japanese multinational holding group, has led a $940 million investment in autonomous delivery startup Nuro.
Shippabo has created its own version of a fixed-rate contract, which helps small and mid-sized shippers gain access to direct-to-carrier contracts, allowing them to cut their shipping costs and secure reliable capacity.
Pronto built a high-performing Level 2 solution for commercial vehicles with dynamic throttling, braking, and steering.
Bergevin, Cristol, and Stauffer want to attack fundamental problems affecting the whole supply chain beyond truckload arbitrage.
Stakeholders within supply chains need to realize the potential of blockchain and look to work on pilot programs that can translate into commercial applications a few years down the road.
Zoovu solves issues that consumers face with massive inventory lists on ecommerce platforms, by asking relevant questions and displaying only the curated items that match the preferences of the consumer.
Fleets participating in the TCA Profitability Program (TPP) gain access to benchmarking data that can help them improve operations.
Lots of ideas for federal funding of infrastructure at Capitol Hill hearing, but the “pay-for” question still looms.
Postmates Inc., an on-demand food delivery service, confidentially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering (IPO).
The arrest came a little over month after the Farm Bill made hemp and all of its byproducts legal.
The compensation is contingent on the company going public or changing ownership, according to GM’s annual 10K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
There are a lot of companies out there and it’s a number that is likely to shrink, according to the panel. Also on the agenda: blockchain and making yourself stand out in a crowded field.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) joined with capital venture firm Sequoia and T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) to invest $530 million in self-driving vehicle startup Aurora Innovation according to Aurora’s press release on Medium.
Green New Deals are the rage in Washington, with benefits – and costs – for trucking.
Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) has made a $200 million minority investment in Finland-based RELEX Solutions (RELEX), a leading provider of retail planning solutions – including supply chains – according to a RELEX press release.
Chinese e-commerce newcomer Pinduoduo (NASDAQ: PDD) seeks to finance an operational expansion by raising $1 billion. The company’s filing with the SEC said that it plans to sell 37 million shares to raise necessary capital.
Indigo Agriculture has recently launched Indigo Transport, a digital logistics platform designed to connect shippers and carriers to more efficiently haul agricultural products.
Convoy, the powerful nationwide trucking network and platform for both shippers and carriers, is partnering with FreightWaves on the first-ever Shipper of Choice Award.
Autonomous truck technology has the potential to change the cost structure of the carrier industry. A McKinsey & Company report said that a fully autonomous trucking market would cut operating costs by 45 percent, saving carrier companies between $85 billion and $125 billion annually.
Predictive supply chain visibility platform FourKites has tripled its revenue since its Series B financing last year, and plans to expand its team, add features to its platform, and fund its zero deadhead initiative with the $50 million it has raised in the fresh round of investment this year.
Tesla’s acquisition Maxwell Technologies could have an impact on Maxwell’s fleet business, which counts more than 7,000 trucks using its products.
A new petition is seeking White House help to get two bills that would exempt most small trucking companies and owner-operators exempted from the ELD requirement reintroduced to Congress.
Convoy is now matching 100 percent of loads automatically in major markets, effectively eliminating the need for any person to call or communicate between the shipper and carrier.
Ruckit specializes in trucking management software for the heavy construction and materials marketplace and brings transparency by networking the TMS systems of the stakeholders involved in a hauling process.
With the growing complexity of supply chains, the technology advantage that managed transportation providers can provide becomes a key value-add for many shippers.
Workhound bridges the gap between fleets and drivers by actually listening to what drivers want and translating that into real-time actionable insights for fleets to help them reduce turnover.
Small, yet powerful satellites can now be deployed for just a fraction of the cost of more traditional satellites, potentially changing the way logistics companies access location and other data for assets.
Phil Connors, played by Bill Murray, is stuck in the same day, played out over and over again, in the film Groundhog Day. He repeats each day until he gets it right. In the real world, we don’t get the chance at a “do-over,” but delivery operations present an opportunity to do very nearly that.
A peer-to-peer delivery startup underscores what everyone knows but doesn’t always point out about the origin of sharing economy businesses – they draw on century-old practices common in developing countries.
JUSDA, a supply chain platform that spun off Foxconn Technology Group, has raised $356 million in its Series A round.
The financial tech and freight tech sectors both have a huge addressable market, and both have been traditionally resistant to change. Will the disruption continue, and what should we expect after similar patterns of explosive growth?
Uber Freight is giving drivers the opportunity to rate shipper facilities. The information can be used by both shippers to improve conditions and drivers, who will see the details of a facility before accepting a load.
Desktop Metal, an additive manufacturing [3D printing] firm which specializes in metal printing, announced last week that it raised $160 million from a financing round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), a subsidiary of Koch Industries.
Still too much reliance on spreadsheets for carrier procurement, Gartner exec says.
Inxeption has designed the first blockchain-based e-commerce platform for B2B that catalogs and digitizes product information.
New truck and trailer purchases currently include a 12 percent federal excise tax, adding tens of thousands of dollars to the purchase price. A new coalition is looking to lobby for the repeal of the tax.
Though semi autonomous trucks would be a reality in a decade, IRU believes that it would not displace drivers from the trucking ecosystem but would only make their jobs more sophisticated.
KeepTruckin recently nabbed the talents of Jairam Ranganathan, formerly Uber’s senior director of product.
CEO Frank McGuigan and CTO Jim French discussed customer-oriented technology, trends in digital brokerage, M&A, and the future of managed transportation.
As a slew of regulatory and tech changes hit the trucking and freight industries, the businesses that succeed will be the ones that are open to innovation — and surveillance.
Bringg is a delivery logistics startup that integrates with logistics players and also with brands, bringing them together on an open platform where they can leverage the network and serve their customers optimally.
As of December 16, 2019, anyone running an AOBRD must switch to an ELD. There are steps that can be taken now to ensure the changeover will be painless.
A.N. Deringer, Inc., a leading international logistics provider and customs broker, has joined the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA).
Company looks to link states on peer-to-peer platform.
SupplyOn, an IT service provider that specializes in intelligent supply chain management solutions for discrete manufacturing in automotive, aerospace, rail, and engineering, has joined the Blockchain in Transport Alliance.
Nova Dynamics is testing DAX the robot in the tiny town of Philomath, population 4,760.
Wheels, a relatively new entrant to the electric scooter-sharing ecosystem has raised an investment of $37 million, which further reinforces the explosive interest shown by investors towards this segment.
Chinese ecommerce behemoth JD.com is turning delivery schedules up a notch by introducing delivery drones in Indonesia and completing its first “government approved” drone delivery earlier this month.
Port truck operators could potentially increase their wages by using a new service from NEXT that helps them run shorter runs and return to ports with empty containers. The company just secured $97 million in funding to help it expand.
Sponsored by Redwood LogisticsWhile Redwood has moved freight in and out of the Southeast for quite some time, this acquisition provides the company with strong operational presence in the region. This geographical expansion is a key component of Redwood’s overall acquisition strategy.
David Rowan, founder and editor-at-large for Wired UK, will deliver a keynote address on Day Two of the upcoming Transparency19 conference.
Blockchain based supply chain startup Citizens Reserve has partnered with IoT platform Smartrac to assign physical items a digital identity that can be carefully and accurately traced along the supply chain.
Top supply chain trends and Rhode Island collects more in toll revenue than it expected, plus the growing scooter logistics sector and more container checks.
Bridgestone Europe is acquiring TomTom Telematics for €910 million, a definitive step towards bolstering its presence in the “mobility solutions” segment. This acquisition would provide Bridgestone the leverage to up-sell and cross-sell solutions to a broader customer base.
Regulators say a database designed to standardize and simplify training certification for new drivers will be ready on time next year.
By joining BiTA, Daseke will be at the forefront of shaping the development and deployment of blockchain technology in trucking and logistics.
Lattice materials can be used to manufacture stronger yet lighter objects through the technique of additive manufacturing. A good place to start would be the automobile industry, which could do well with reducing its dead weight for improved fuel efficiency.
VAYAVISION’s new software is an autonomous vehicle environmental perception engine that fuses raw sensor data together with AI tools to create an accurate 3D environmental model of the area around the self-driving vehicle.
The enthusiasm was infectious. While most companies are in the exploratory phase of blockchain, we’re starting to see more and more people taking action on blockchain.
The connected Smart Cities of the future require smart solutions that go beyond just autonomous vehicles.
Though cobalt is an integral part of our lithium-ion batteries, the extraction of the trace element is a huge cause for concern. Blockchain could provide respite by bringing accountability and transparency into cobalt supply chains.
Plus: Skewering Theresa May, B.C. rail investigations, California clean air program assessment
The advent of modern communications technology such as, obviously, the mobile phone, has created a new, yet poorly understood and under-researched, form of driver distraction. Australian road authorities are calling for research and are updating their road rules.
A growing number of factories, warehouses, and construction sites are integrating unpowered exoskeleton devices into their operations. Workers and companies using these devices are expected to benefit from increased safety and productivity.
“I thought: I can book a flight online, a hotel online. Why can’t I book a shipment online?”
FreightWaves joined in on the third annual Alexa Conference with its estimated 600 attendees from more than 12 countries. What’s coming in voice technology for transportation in 2019 and beyond?
Gig economy companies contend with Supreme Court ruling that mandates full time workers to be considered as employees and not contractors; oil supply reduces after Saudi Arabia’s drastic production cut; government shutdown strains supply chains across the country.
Simpson talks about legacy transportation companies adapting to change.
Vector is digitizing the trucking sector by extracting information that is offline and moving it online.
Walking the show floor at the Detroit Auto Show is an experience that transforms you from the here and now to visions of the future.
Autobon AI is building an aftermarket autonomous vehicle system that would allow any commercial truck to be turned into an autonomous truck.
The MOBi-ONE is large enough to move washers and dryers, and do so autonomously through the air, perhaps redefining last-mile drone delivery before it even gets started.
Australia is carrying out a series of large scale studies into its domestic supply chain; one study currently underway is into the nation’s freight data requirements. (Photo: Shutterstock).
Manufacturing supply chains must deal with counterfeit parts. One company is hoping that its blockchain-based tracking solution can help solve that while also providing transparency in the freight supply chain.
The TCA Profitability Program, or TPP, is an exclusive performance benchmarking initiative. The program’s aim is to help member carriers improve performance and profitability.
Toyota’s Concept-i Ride vehicle is designed to help people navigate life, especially those that may have mobility issues.
