UPS Capital, the financial services and insurance arm of the major carrier, has introduced an AI-powered solution to combat the scourge of porch piracy by creating a score indicating the likelihood of a package being stolen from an address, so it can be diverted to a safer pickup or delivery location. It uses AI and ML to assess billion of data points from deliveries, then creates a confidence score.
Zerobroker, a logistics technology firm that lets shippers eliminate fees by connecting directly with carriers without using a freight broker, has raised $6.5 million in a seed round that includes participation from Flexport, Funders Club and Streamlined Ventures, among others. It was part of the 2021 cohort of startup incubator Y Combinator.
Less-than-truckload platform provide Warp is looking to “gigify” LTL, much as the last mile space has been for the past several years, by letting shippers choose among various types of delivery providers, enabling faster service than waiting for a combined load with traditional carriers. The service, called gLTL, leverages Warp’s load-matching technology.
FedEx picked up a good bit of the 1 million packages a day that UPS said it lost due to shipper uncertainty in the runup to its July 31 contract deadline with the Teamsters, adding an average of 400,000 daily packages for its Ground and Express units by the end of the first quarter ended Aug. 31, and confident the new accounts will be sticky.
At its Accelerate seller conference in Seattle, Amazon announced a raft of interconnected services Tuesday, branded as Supply Chain by Amazon. It handles everything from logistics and forwarding from point of origin all the way to the customer’s door. For the first time, Amazon offers bulk storage, distribution and replenishment across channels from the same inventory pool, including retail stores.
The possibility of a major disruptive event, such as the Yellow Freight bankruptcy and a potential UPS strike, brought to light the vulnerability of the nation’s supply chain. From COVID-19 to ongoing issues with transportation and labor shortages, the supply chain had been on thin ice. Such scenarios emphasizes the importance of moving beyond a risky, overexposed single carrier approach.
FedEx Express package and freight standard list rates for U.S., U.S. export and U.S. import services, and FedEx Ground standard list rates will increase an average of 5.9% as of Jan. 1. The Sept. 7 release of the General Rate Increase marks the earliest announcement in company history. While it’s impossible to analyze every 2024 change, here are some important takeaways for shippers to note and assess.
Flexport is undergoing another reshuffle at the top, with former Amazon logistics executive Dave Clark departing, replaced at least for now by once-again CEO and founder Ryan Peterson in a shakeup pointing to a reset to the company’s core freight focus and a pullback from its aggressive growth plans. But experts wonder how Flexport will fare as freight volumes and rates fall in tandem globally.
Better Trucks, a Chicago-based parcel delivery firm, has enlarged its footprint through opening new locations in Texas and partnering with West Coast-based GLS U.S., giving the two firms same-day to two-day coverage of 32 markets in 20 states, representing 40% of the U.S. population. The deal is similar to the joining of regional carriers OnTrac and Lasership in 2021, though on a smaller scale.
FedEx, sensing an opportunity against its main rival, has posted a general rate increase for next year three weeks earlier than usual and lower than the current year’s figure, coming in at 5.9%, as UPS is dealing with a new union contract cost that the Teamsters estimates at $30 billion over five years. Analysts believe it will lead to a rethinking of UPS’s approach to its GRI strategy.