It is the bane of my work week. Each week I waste more time there than anywhere else. What is this place that is the sinkhole of my productivity? I’ll give you a hint – it’s the sinkhole of productivity for much of the East Coast of the US. Yup, that’s right – Interstate 95. There is a stretch of I-95 in the metropolitan Boston area that is always congested and always under construction. It is because of this constant grid-lock and never-ending construction that I find the headline about I-95 so amusing. After 60 years, I-95 will finally be complete in September! This declaration is due to the completion of the I-95 Interchange Project in New Jersey. Sure, it’s really mostly about assigning routes to roads. But still, I don’t think the word “complete” aligns with most people’s view of I-95 unless it precedes the word “mess.”
And now on to this week’s logistics news:
- Descartes Acquires PinPoint
- Maersk Container Ship Embarks on Historic Arctic Transit
- Mumbai Maersk sets world record
- BTS June 2018 North American Freight Numbers
- Uber Freight launches solution for shippers to speed load tendering process
- UPS blockchain patent aims to route packages on multiple carriers
Descartes Systems Group announced on Wednesday that it acquired PinPoint, a provider of fleet tracking and mobile workforce solutions based in Canada. PinPoint is a provider of Geotab, Skybitz, and FleetFreedom solutions. The offerings of PinPoint are complementary to the solutions currently as part of Descartes Routing, Mobile & Telematics suite.
Maersk stated earlier this week that it intends to send the container ship, Venta Maersk, through the Northern Sea Route from the Far East to its destination in St. Petersburg. This route runs along the Russian Arctic, whereas the Northwest Passage runs along the Canadian arctic. This journey is a trial designed to scope out that route and is not the launch of a new service route. The Venta Maersk is an ice-class ship and will also be assisted by ice breakers if and where necessary. This will be the first container ship to sail the passage, although COSCO has sent LNG tankers through the route a number of times over the last couple years.
Mumbai Maersk earlier this week claimed the world record with a load of 19,038 TEU containers. The ship left a dock in Malaysia over the weekend Maersk states that this is a Maersk and worldwide record for volume of TEU loaded containers on one ship. According to Maersk, the Mumbai Maersk is 2nd generation Triple-E class vessel with a nominal capacity of 20,568 TEU.
North American freight numbers for June show that $106 billion in freight was moved between the US-Canada and US-Mexico, across all modes, representing a 6.4 percent increase from June 2017. Truck border freight is up 2.7 percent with Canada and 7.6 percent with Mexico. Truck was by far the leading mode of transportation, representing over $66 billion of the $106 billion in total freight moved for the month of June.
Uber Freight announced earlier this week the release of Uber Freight for Shippers, a desktop application platform that provides access to carriers and transparency into shipments. The Shipper app facilitates the posting of a load, receiving a quote on the load, and informs the shipper of information such as how long it takes Uber Freight to book the load, and the GPS location of shipment.
UPS filed for a patent on a use of blockchain technology to plan, execute, track shipping routes globally. The text of the patent application includes the descriptive language “automated determination and facilitation of a transportation plan.” The application also notes that an advantage to such a distributed ledger may be the communication of information across logistics service providers and visibility and the ability to verify shipping across distributed delivery networks such as crowd-sourced delivery.
That’s all folks! Have a great weekend.
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