A New Era in Freight Transportation

7 essential aspects of a digitally transforming industry

Published in

shipzero

3 min readAug 16, 2019

Customer touch points are transformed and captured by specialized digital platforms
Increasing data availability enables radical processual changes
Environmental impact becomes additional performance parameter alongside the price
Commodity transportation seeks differentiation or opens up new business areas
Physical transport infrastructure becomes connected, automated and carbon-neutral
Consolidation and cooperation are driven by the demand for supply chain oversight

Carriers seek opportunities to expand value creation and efficiently broaden direct-customer relationships at a full-supply chain scope
Logistics Service Providers seek specialization to differentiate or become absolute market leader in a winner-takes all platform economy
Terminal Operators seek synchronization of transport chains and value-added services as intermodal data hubs for inland transports
Cargo Owners seek carbon-neutral, digitally connected and reliable transport chains with a strong focus on predictability of shipments
Asset Owners seek full utilization and additional service revenue streams based on their connected and data collecting fleet
Regulators need to adapt to digital processes and pave the way to build trust and allow innovative technology to unfold its full potential

Value-driven: Big data analytics to perform profitable actions on recurring patterns
Proactive control: Predictive modeling to manage market volatility
Customer-centricity: Clustering of behavior and preference data to optimize service offerings
Frictionless: Trusted and reliable real-time data exchange
Reliability: Elimination of manual gatekeeping tasks that are repetitive and error-prone
Speed: Effective use of unstructured visual, vocal and textual data to accelerate processes
Adaptiveness: Self-learning systems cope with everchanging external influences
Autonomy: Automated freight movement through robotics and self-driving

Efficiency increase through capacity optimization and synchronization of transport chains
Development of new business areas in data licensing or application development
Automation of repetitive processes by means of robotics, RPA and NLP
Risk minimization through higher decision quality based on comprehensive analytics
Use of more durable and energy-efficient transport infrastructure
Strengthening and expansion of market position through supply chain-wide cooperation
Increased customer loyalty through improved communication and preference consideration

Cost pressure: Thin margins and limited availability of investment capital
ROI: Uncertain long-term reliability and ROI of new technologies
Internal Data: Lack of data availability and readiness within the organization
Strategy: Short-sighted and rarely data supported management decisions
Market Overview: Lack of transparency due to a fragmented solution and provider landscape
Volatility: Rapidly changing market environment
Regulation: Unclear roadmap for regulatory changes and standardization

Acquire a comprehensive, internal overview of all key value drivers and future risks for the core business
Build aligned hypotheses on timing and extent of technological transformation
Establish a high-quality and scalable data and analytics infrastructure as the cornerstone of all future digital activities
Design agile and open-minded workflows that consider organizational acceptance
Develop a minimum level of cross-organizational standardization
Assemble motivated, experimental innovation teams to bring new ideas in production
Start off with clearly defined and business value focused use cases

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