Category Archives: Rail/Road

FedEx Express today revealed the findings of its ‘Future is Now’ study among Gen Z (18–24 years old). As the fastest growing economy today, India is home to a fifth of the world’s youth, with half of its 1.3 billion population below the age of 25. The study offers valuable insights into the priorities of the younger generation in the country. With the future becoming more dynamic than ever, there is a substantial shift in the way generations are embracing ‘what’s next’, with new technologies and an interest in sustainability impacting both business and individual lifestyles. This is particularly true for Gen Z. According to the ‘Future is Now’ study, 38% of Gen Z respondents associated the phrase ‘Future is Now’ with technology advances in business, healthcare, education, and transportation, 33% to sustainable development; 13% to the rise in the use of robotics and artificial intelligence; 10% to living on Mars; and a mere 6% to expecting everything to be personalised for them. “The results of this study, particularly the responses of the younger population, reinforce our commitment to experimenting with sustainable technologies that benefit and align with our customers’ goals. As an industry leader, we have a responsibility towards the next generations and take bold actions by constantly innovating to meet future expectations,” said Mohamad Sayegh, Vice President of Operations for FedEx Express in India. “FedEx is a vocal advocate for modernising technologies that enhance the next generation of transportation vehicles and devices. Globally, we are testing Roxo, the autonomous FedEx SameDay Bot for last-mile deliveries, which is designed to reduce carbon emissions, traffic congestion, and noise pollution,” added Sayegh. The study also highlights what Gen Z considers when …

GEODIS has committed to offering humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine. This aid will be provided through the mobilisation of the group’s logistics capabilities for the transportation of essential goods, alongside a fundraising initiative in collaboration with the French Red Cross. GEODIS will provide free transport and storage of goods from France and other European Union countries to the regions that have taken in Ukrainian refugees. To deliver these services, the group will rely on its local teams, who are already setting up the appropriate transport and logistics resources to support the humanitarian aid and relief efforts. In particular, GEODIS will provide warehouse sites in strategic locations close to the Ukrainian border. The management of GEODIS has also decided to support the French Red Cross in its operations through a fundraising campaign that will be open for all employees of the group to contribute to. Every euro donated will be matched by GEODIS on a one-for-one basis. All donations received by the French Red Cross will be used to support people directly affected by the conflict by helping to meet their needs for water, basic necessities, medical supplies, first aid, and psychological and social support. Marie-Christine Lombard, Chief Executive Officer of GEODIS, said: “We want to express our support for the Ukrainian people, who are experiencing the horror of the conflict. In addition to financial donations, the entire GEODIS Group has decided to contribute to the humanitarian effort by exercising its expertise in organising transport and storage. Our network and our teams, whether at the head office or at the local level, are fully dedicated to facilitating the flow of goods linked to international solidarity.”

MSC is pleased to be part of the Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) data-sharing initiative, launched at the White House on March 15, 2022. This major project will help to clear supply chain bottlenecks by improving freight information exchange between key stakeholders and consumers, leading to faster delivery times and reduced costs for consumers. A diverse taskforce representing many stakeholders FLOW includes 18 initial participants, with the aim of welcoming more in the future. Representing diverse perspectives across the supply chain, partners include US-based port authorities, terminal operators, private businesses, logistics, and warehousing companies, as well as the ocean carriers MSC and CMA CGM. The FLOW partners will work together with the US Administration to develop a more efficient and transparent way of sharing information. The idea is to create a new digital tool where each company can share accurate, cargo-related data in real-time. “We are pleased to join and support the FLOW initiative led by the US Department of Transportation, as we strongly believe that a common and interoperable digital infrastructure throughout the container shipping industry is a critical step to making supply chains more efficient, secure, and resilient. Collaboration with governments and other key industry stakeholders is of paramount importance to MSC, and there is no doubt that this initiative will strengthen the foundation for the seamless, end-to-end exchange of information we all need to keep global trade moving today – and tomorrow,” said André Simha, Chief Digital and Information Officer at MSC. Shaping the future, together MSC is committed to building strong, cross-industry partnerships that pave the way towards a better future for shipping by taking advantage of digitalization opportunities. Examples of the company’s recent collaborations include …

The FIATA Multimodal Transport Institute (MTI) gathered to address the implications of the ongoing events in Ukraine for freight forwarding and logistics spanning sea, rail, and road transport. Aside from the catastrophic human repercussions, which the industry is particularly sensitive to, global supply chains, which have already been weakened by the effects of the pandemic and the current maritime crisis, are being severely disrupted. Driver shortages, difficulty transporting freight within the impacted zone, and capacity challenges have all been cited. Rising fuel prices are projected to be a concern for the whole industry. It was observed that multimodal solutions are critical to guaranteeing the movement of commodities throughout the impacted area during this war, with border crossings apparently feasible by rail transit via Moldova and the Port of Galati, or via Romania, which gives port access. Trans-Caspian routes are projected to be crucial. Members of FIATA should be aware of the sanctions imposed by certain countries in reaction to the conflict, and should visit the appropriate government pages on a regular basis. Countries currently enforcing relevant sanctions include, among others, Australia, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It is understood that more sanctions are being considered.

In the two weeks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there seems to be a negligible impact on container prices and leasing rates in China. Container availability has improved from soon after the Chinese New Year until Friday across key ports in China. However, with the announcement of nationwide lockdowns, the supply chain must prepare for more turmoil in the coming months, impeding the flow of container movement as importers worldwide prepare for the peak season later this year. At the port of Ningbo, average prices for a 40-foot high cube container fell by 10%, approximately from $5930 on February 14th to $5329 on February 27th. As of March 10, this price stood at $5248. Similarly, average prices fell by 10–15% at the ports of Shanghai, Qingdao, and Shenzhen till March 11. Shenzhen witnessed a drop of 8% in the past two weeks. However, the lockdowns in Shenzhen, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jilin, Suzhou, Guangzhou, and Beijing (19 provinces as of Sunday, probably more to come in a few days) imposed now will clearly heavily restrict container movement at these ports, which will, as we’ve seen in the past, prove to be further damaging to the global supply chain. Clearly, 2022 has not brought any cheer to the supply chain industry. On top of this, war will just prove to be another disruption amongst the other innumerable factors for China’s supply chain. Freight rates and container prices were already at a record high even before the invasion started, and what happened immediately due to the war was that the Russian ports were not being called by the national shipping lines anymore, the Black Sea being somehow closed, and the Asia-European railway being quite …

Recently, Jeena Criticare, the critical healthcare division of Jeena & Co., India’s trusted and reliable logistics company, recently announced having completed a milestone of 100 tonnes of COVID-19 vaccine deliveries across the country in the last year.  Throughout 2021—the year when the nation was on a fast track to completing COVID vaccination after a devastating 2nd wave—Jeena Criticare was at the forefront of these efforts. Be it as an appointed distributor of Serum Institute of India’s (SII’s) COVISHEILD vaccine deliveries for private hospital supplies across the country or as a part of the strategic collaboration for Asia’s first drone-based vaccine delivery project for the Telangana government, Jeena Criticare has played a pivotal role.  Apart from the above milestone, during the peak pandemic time till the end of 2021, Jeena Criticare has been instrumental in clearing and moving 3,000 MT of COVID care equipment that includes oxygen concentrators, RT PCR kits, PPE kits, hospital beds, medicines, and critical care drugs, masks, vaccines, and ventilators. Jeena’s Pharma Division has also been instrumental in getting fast-track import clearance, from the normal 24 hours to a special 5 hours flat, for COVID Care Aid and other healthcare transportation from countries like South Korea, Germany, USA, Taiwan, China, Italy, and also the WHO. With their global logistics support, Jeena has also been a part of India’s export chain, enabling healthcare to various countries and also for customers like the WHO (World Health Organisation). Jeena & Co., an over-100-year-old logistics company, has always been at the forefront of innovation in end-to-end logistics solutions and continues to be a trusted and reliable supply chain partner.  Speaking about the milestone achievement and the strong thrust on critical healthcare …

Wiz, a tech-enabled full-stack freight forwarding platform for the modern-day, has announced the start of a new business entity exclusively for handling bulk cargo. The business division, headquartered in Singapore, will cater to the niche market of dry bulk shipping. Wiz has also announced that Punit Oza has been appointed as the CEO of Wiz Bulk. He will start his new assignment on April 11, 2022. Punit is a veteran of dry bulk shipping and comes with over 29 years of rich experience in the industry. Over the years, he has held senior management positions in some leading shipping and trading companies. In his previous assignment, he spearheaded the digital transformation of Klaveness Dry Bulk before moving to the board of Klaveness Asia. We are extremely excited to announce Wiz Bulk, a new business entity of Wiz that will cater to the dry bulk cargo market, and we will utilise our tech expertise to improve the customer experience for this market,” said Ramkumar Govindarajan, CEO, Wiz. It was immediately clear that Punit was the right choice to lead Wiz Bulk. I am looking forward to working with him to develop Wiz Bulk as a leading name for dry bulk cargo movements.” Punit Oza said, “I am extremely excited to join the Wiz family and look forward to building a sustainable and customer-centric bulk shipping solution to provide greater transparency and value, leveraging technology to the maximum possible extent.” I am extremely impressed with what Wiz has achieved in the container freight solution space, and I hope that we can achieve the same success in the bulk freight solution space as well. Punit will work with Wiz founders Ramkumar Govindarajan and …

Logistics platform FreightFox recently announced a partnership with Yale researchers to develop a responsive index-based pricing model that facilitates dynamic transportation decisions. The new freight contract and pricing model will take into account the most important factors that influence truck placement, such as seasonality in industry and agriculture, significant skewness in month and dispatches, and limited trucking inventory. The contract model will be designed to ensure best placement of trucking fleets at different times to minimise movement disruptions and maximise truck dispatch fulfilments. This will not only keep operations flowing but also support better visibility, allowing manufacturers to plan shipments better and have contingency options in case of failures elsewhere along the supply chain. At the same time, both manufacturers and transport partners can be assured of fair pricing. With reference to the partnership, Dr Ryan, Assistant Professor of Economics, Yale University and an affiliate of the Economic Growth Centre said: “Failures in shipping and trade are a major concern for firms in India, and offering improved contracts could make shipping more reliable, lower-cost, and raise people’s incomes. The intention of the project is to innovate in new contracts and see if that reduces the costs of trade.” “We are delighted to collaborate with researchers at Yale to develop such innovative freight contracts and are committed to deliver superior logistic contracting methods by leveraging technology, data and the know-how available at Yale,” said Nitish Rai, CEO and Co-founder of FreightFox. A memorandum of understanding guiding the research was signed in January 2022. Given the fragmented nature of the Indian economy, manufacturers often encounter logistical issues when it comes to procurement and freight contracts. Most freight contracts are static one-year affairs …

LocoNav commits to empowering the driver community in India on the occasion of National Safety Day. Working towards their mission of positively impacting the livelihoods of 100Mn drivers and owners globally by 2030, LocoNav will be setting up e-Shram camps for the driver community at three prominent Transport Nagars in the Delhi NCR region on 4th March 2022. With the driver community being an integral part of the fleet management ecosystem, LocoNav has made a long term commitment and is making concerted efforts to strengthen the security and social wellbeing of the community. The fleet tech startup further aims to integrate access to the e-Shram portal by Government of India -Ministry of Labour and Employment into its platform in the future to enable fleet owners and operators. As per the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Indian roads witness 415 deaths per day in accidents, the highest in the world. About 1.5 lakh people are killed in road accidents and 3.5 lakh are crippled annually in India. Drivers also face several risks in their day-to-day work including regulatory fines, asset damage, and cargo theft. By creating awareness and facilitating education and easy access to the government’s e-Shram initiative on National Safety Day, LocoNav reinstates its commitment towards the upliftment of the driver community. The e-Shram portal was launched last year by the ministry of labour and employment of India to form a database of workers in unorganized sectors. Through these e-Shram camps set by LocoNav, drivers will be able to generate e-Shram cards for themselves and use it to gain all social security benefits of the Central and State Government for unorganized workers. Workers registered under the e-Shram portal will …

Even as the world is fighting a battle with the pandemic, the impact of the Russian-Ukraine war has hit logistics and cargo like a Damocles sword. The conflict has made commercial shipping through sea routes in Russia and Ukraine suicidal. Most ports in the region are closed and commercial ships are not accepting orders from Russia or making port calls. As per a statement, Container xChange, premier container leasing and trading marketplace, stated, “Due to disruption to commercial shipping on the sea lanes, we expect container build-ups at ports to exacerbate at storage areas in the region. The closure of airspace across Russia and Europe has reduced air freight capacity.” It added, “Maritime trade with Russia and businesses could be difficult in the near future. On Monday, the UK has banned all Russian ships from entering its ports. What’s more, the EU intercepted and seized one ship. On the Asia-Europe trade, we see more demand for maritime shipments and equipment out of Asia due to modal shift.” “Russian and Belarussian ports in the Baltic, Black Sea and Sea of Azov may see a build-up of boxes if carriers refuse port calls due to the precarious situation and sanctions. The full implications of sanctions are not yet clear, but the closure of the SWIFT system to Russia will make payments from Russian partners difficult.” An official said, “Borders with the EU are closed. We expect the war to add to the stretched nature of global container supply chains, bringing more inflation and delays.”