Cargo Business Techwire

Friday, January 9, 2015

Top Story

Freightgate: Three supply chain trends to look for in 2015

Last week, logistics cloud solution company Freightgate released its 2015 list of trends for logistics and supply chains, noting shippers will be tested this year on how well they can navigate regulatory compliance, capacity congestion, and cloud technology options.

Freightgate reports that regulatory compliance will continue as a key issue in supply chain management. Shippers must adhere to complex regulatory requirements that include monitoring shipments and providing transparency. The ability to comply could mean the difference between success and failure in achieving market competitiveness and bottom-line profit.

The technology company also said that container congestion would continue to plague global ports in 2015 and that carriers would need to step in to resolve the problem. More super-sized container ships will be deployed, and excess capacity, container congestion, and chassis availability problems will grow. "We foresee the pendulum to swing back and carriers to take a more active role in counteracting these effects as well as container imbalances caused by inland moves, if not in late 2015 by 2016."

Freighgate thinks the third supply chain trend will involve the implementation of logistics cloud computing to improve shipping and delivery systems. They say that providers will choose best-in-class modules from different solution providers and integrate them into hybrid collaborative transportation management systems. Cloud logistics platform integration, they say, will allow shippers to shop for the best logistics management applications for their business processes.