5 Technologies That Fuel The Freight Supply Chain

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Effective transport lets your products get to the consumer in good quality and at the right time. Competent freight services are critical to ensuring that your items reach your clients without delay. The links between suppliers and clients can either promote your business or derail it.

At times, getting the proper transportation means for your products might be a challenge, especially when you need specialized equipment during transit. However, to find freight to move your products, do a background search of all available service providers to get tailored solutions for your products and partner with reputable companies that can give you a reasonable freight fee.

In addition, you may need to take advantage of available technology for better services. Here are some freight supply chain technologies that you might be interested in:

 

  1. Sustainable Aviation Fuel

In the air transport industry, aviation fuel has been one of the areas where every transporter would like to strategize and lower their fuel costs.

Airline companies, in the recent past, have been investing in sustainable aviation fuel. Experts say that this fuel can be made using solid waste, used cooking oil, and plants. The fuel is the same as regular aviation fuel, and you can mix the two without affecting the engine.

Airliners feel that there’s a need to use fuel with a low carbon emission rate, which is a driving factor for using sustainable aviation fuel. This move is part of a strategy to decarbonize the aviation industry.

The future of the aviation industry also envisions electric air travel, which might be a decade or more away.

 

  1. Cloud-Based Freight Management Systems

Cloud-powered software is the fulcrum of the software industry, and transportation management systems (TMS) have joined the bandwagon. It’s no wonder why many logistics firms are moving to cloud-managed services or investing in in-house cloud-based software.

Here are some advantages of a cloud-based system for your freight services:

  • To automate your manual processes for streamlined workflow and efficiency.
  • It offers scalability either upwards or downwards, depending on your business changes.
  • It allows for advanced transportation data analytics for insights and informed decision-making.
  • Easy to integrate data from both external and internal sources, thus, giving more comprehensive visibility.
  • It’s cost-effective because you don’t need specialized hardware when using managed services.

 

  1. Track-Inspection Drones

Drones are quickly replacing the use of manual inspection processes. The drones use intelligent systems fitted with sensors and cameras to capture and record videos, images, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), and other relevant data and transmit them to remote operators in real-time. With this technology, you don’t need to follow your cargo on trucks, but you can monitor the transit miles away.

You can also use drones to inspect bridges, especially during floods. This information is essential, especially for trains that quickly run into accidents on a damaged bridge. Once a damaged route is detected, you can plan to use an alternative one.

It’s expected that drones might find sophisticated applications in the freight industry in the future.

 

  1. Digital Freight Matching

It’s also called load matching or ‘on-demand’ tracking. Here, you deploy web-based or mobile-based technology software to match available loads with available carrier capacity (trucks).

Using this technology is pretty simple. A shipper should post the load information detailing the weight, distance, rate, pickup, and delivery stations. In addition, you can specify the mode that you need. Moreover, you can review the postings and adjust the information according to availability.

Furthermore, load matching platforms can automate paperwork processes, saving you time from manual contracts, faxing invoices, and other documents. More advanced platforms provide predictive analytics of freight matching and send automated suggestions for improved efficiency, cost, and capacity.

 

  1. Battery-Powered Trains

Even though the train freight option has been one of the cheapest means of transport, significant advancements still aim to lower freight costs. In addition, industry players are looking into options that can help reduce emissions. Among the possibilities is a battery-powered train to reduce carbon emissions.

Current battery technology can power a 150-mile freight train. Typically, U.S. freight trains travel this distance every single day, on average. Furthermore, when compared to diesel vehicles, battery-electric freight may save 50% of the energy.

 

Final Thoughts

Efficiency is essential when it comes to freight in the supply chain. Organization and planning are key components of the freight supply chain.

As a result, the freight industry has noted the need to deploy technology that helps propel services into excellence. In that light, this article details essential technologies that are now the backbone of the freight supply chain.

 

Author Bio: Amanda Nelson is currently a professional content writer.