2019

INDUSTRY RESEARCH
REPORT
ON LOGISTICS AND
TRANSPORTATION

By: RAGHAV
 KHOSLA

CODE BREW
LABS

11/11/201
9

Table of
Contents
List of Abbreviations
.............................................................................................. 3 Industry
Overview .................................................................................................. 5
Target Audience
..................................................................................................... 8 Scope of the
Report ............................................................................................... 8 Global
Logistics Market Segmentation– By Logistics Model ................................... 9
Global Logistics Market Segmentation– By Mode of Transport ...........................
10 Global Logistics Market Segmentation– By Industry
............................................ 10 Global Logistics Market Segmentation– By
Region .............................................. 12 Global Market Trends
.......................................................................................... 12 Global Market
Players .......................................................................................... 17
Geographic Insights
............................................................................................. 18 Consumer
Insights ............................................................................................... 19 Key
Challenges Faced By the Logistics Industry Today .........................................
21 Future Scope
........................................................................................................ 23 Citations
............................................................................................................... 27
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List of
Abbreviations

SCM Supply Chain Management IT Information

Technology E-commerce Electronic commerce CAGR
Compound Annual Growth Rate IoT Internet of
Things AIDC Automatic Identification and Data
Capture CoBots Collaborative Robots RaaS Robots-
as-a-Service (RaaS) 3PL Third-party Logistics 4PL
Fourth-party Logistics 5PL Fifth-party Logistics DIY
do-it-yourself AI Artificial Intelligence Inc.
Incorporation Ltd. Limited LSPs Logistics Service
Providers CEP Courier Express Parcel B2B Business
to Business B2C Business to Consumer GPS Global
Positioning System
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EDI Electronic Data Interchange RFID
Radio Frequency Identification T&L
Transportation and Logistics
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Industry
Overview

Industry
Origin
The Logistics industry owes its origin to its military application. Ever since the Second
World War, the term “logistics” has become an important function as was realized that
logistics and transportation add to the products’ value in terms of place and time while
enhancing the form and possession value added from manufacturing and marketing.

It was in the 1960’s that the interpretation of logistics as a business discipline started to
appear in the business-related literature when it was termed as physical distribution.

The focus at that time was on the outbound end of the logistics system. As Supply Chain
Management started emerging as critical, Logistics and Transportation have turned out
to play important roles since the supply chain managers found the coordination and
integration of the logistics systems of all businesses with the supply chain to be essential
for success.

What is Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Logistics

Management?
SCM is a process-based approach to the procurement, production and delivery of
products and services to the customers. SCM covers a broad spectrum of participants
including suppliers, sub-suppliers, trade customers, retail customers, internal operations
and end users.

In other words, SCM is a strategic theory incorporating the understanding and

management of a chain of activities from supplier to the consumer with the intent of
adding value to the product supply chain.

Logistics Management as a subset of supply chain management is used for planning,

implementing and controlling the efficiency and effectiveness of forward and reverse flow
alongside storage of goods, services, and other linked information between the point of
origin and the point of consumption so as to meet the user’s needs.
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In general, the objectives behind logistics are as
follows:
✓ Reduction in the overall
cost ✓ Reduction in the
capital ✓ Improvement in
services

Specifically, an ideal logistics solution must take care of the

flow of supply to the end-user (buyer), the:
✓ Right product ✓ Right
quantities and assortments ✓
Right time and places ✓ Right
price/cost ✓ Right condition
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Transportation versus
Logistics
The main difference between Transportation and Logistics is quintessential to be
understood. Transportation deals with the movement of goods from one place to another.
Logistics, on the other hand, is a broader spectrum which involves not only transportation
and the delivery of goods but also the storage, handling, inventory, packaging and other
aspects too.
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In short, Logistics refers to the entire “flow” management while Transportation is just a
subset of it.

Target
Audience

The target audience for a logistics company would cover the

following:
✓ Manufacturing based companies ✓ Supply Chain
companies ✓ Logistics companies ✓ Companies in the
Transportation sector ✓ Companies involved in
Distribution and freight forwarding

Scope of the
Report

The Industry Research report has categorized the Global Logistics Market by-Mode of
Transport, Logistics Model, Industry and Region. Moreover, there is information provided
on the key developments in the sector, Global market trends along with key players
globally, Geographic insights (region-wise trends), Consumer Insights, Target Audience
(Opportunity Mapping), Challenges faced by the industry and the Future scope.
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Global Logistics Market

Segmentation

Global Logistics Market Segmentation– By

Logistics Model

✓ 1st Party
Logistics ✓ 2nd
Party Logistics ✓
3rd Part Logistics
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Global Logistics Market Segmentation– By
Mode of Transport

✓ Railways ✓
Waterways ✓
Airways ✓
Roadways

Global Logistics Market Segmentation– By

Industry
 ✓ Manufacturing ✓
Consumer goods ✓
Retail ✓ Food and
beverages
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✓ IT hardware ✓ Healthcare ✓
Chemicals ✓ Construction ✓
Automotive ✓ Telecommunication ✓
Oil & gas ✓ Government and public
utilities ✓ Trade and transportation ✓
Banking and financial services ✓
Media and entertainment, and Others

On the basis of end-user, manufacturing accounts for being the largest segment with the
majority of the global share. Other major segments include healthcare, IT hardware,
construction, automotive, food and beverages, chemicals, oil & gas, retail, consumer
goods, telecom and others.
 Global Logistics Market Segmentation – By
Industry
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Global Logistics Market Segmentation– By

Region

✓ Asia Pacific ✓
Europe ✓ North
America ✓ Latin
America ✓
Middle East ✓
Africa

With respect to Region, Asia Pacific has the largest share in the market. This is followed
by Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle East and Africa.
Global Market
Trends

With rapid advancements, today’s logistics and transportation worlds have undergone
drastic variations on all fronts. Passenger transport, shipping, aviation, rail and freight
forwarding – mostly all modes of transport and business models have been influenced
with new
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technologies, varying customer expectations and new players accessing logistics and
transportation markets.

As the global marketplace expands, the concept of “Global Logistics” has come into the
picture. All the required logistics activities should now be managed by the experts in the
field within a global arena spanning a multitude of countries, cultures, languages,
government bodies and regulations. The requirement for global channel intermediaries
also arises with the marketplace expansion.
It is also reported that the Global Logistics Market reached a value of 4,730 Billion
USD in 2018. Furthermore, the market is projected to attain a value of 6,300 Billion
USD by 2024.

The emergence of E-commerce and growing digital literacy among the consumers has
led the global logistics industry to change significantly in recent years. Several factors
such as dual- income households, constant urbanization and disposable incomes have
motivated consumers from both emerging and developed economies for following
upcoming logistics trends. This, in turn, has further led to the fast-paced development of
retail channels needing robust warehousing and inventory management solutions to
enable customers for making informed purchase decisions.

As an effect of this, several companies have begun engaging with logistics service
providers for meeting the customized demand of the consumers, henceforth
anticipating the logistics market worldwide to register a CAGR greater than 7% by
the end of 2022.
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Following are the key trends expected to transform the
Global Logistics Industry in 2019:

Logistics Industry to be
Digitalized

With digitalization sweeping through mostly all the industries globally, logistics industry is
also surely to be affected by this. Considering the burgeoning rate of digital literacy along
with consumer awareness pertaining to the use of varied online platforms for customized
purchasing decisions, the fact that the logistics industry is undergoing digitalization has
come up as a key noticeable trend gaining much attraction. The introduction to
digitalization in the logistics industry is further anticipated to significantly reduce
procurement and supply chain costs alongside considerably boosting the overall
revenues.

Furthermore, the logistics industry is experiencing the integration of digital channels as

well, which is yet another major trend in this industry through which the service providers
are permitted to lend customers the transparency alongside optimizing solutions for
improved safety and efficiency.

Emergence of Blockchain
Technology
With the advent of Blockchain Technology, logistic companies have been able to failsafe
digital contracts. This upcoming technology has enables the various stakeholders in the
logistics industry (including manufacturers, customers, auditors, suppliers, warehouse
managers and others) to build an efficient and transparent system to record transactions,
managing all documents and tracking assets which are part of the logistics process.

Being one of the well-known trends in the industry, the effective use of Blockchain
technology has improved the transparency and efficiency of supply chains and is also
anticipated to affect everything from warehousing to top payment delivery positively over
the span of the subsequent few years.

Adoption of Data Analytics and Big Data

Logistics

The involvement of Big Data and Data Analytics in the logistics industry has enabled the
involved stakeholders in the business to take informed purchased decisions. Big Data is
being now used by companies in the anticipation of potential supply shortage in future,
busy periods and other insights to make strategic decisions for improving their market
value and also for offering enough competitive advantage over their counterparts.

IoT and Logistics

Automation

Over time Automation has gained a lot of attention in the logistics industry. Also, there is
an uninterrupted move towards the Internet of Things. The supply chain market worldwide
has been transformed significantly with the inception of logistics 4.0. With the rapid
integration of IoT in logistics, several shortcomings including operation errors, poor cargo
monitoring, thefts, transportation delays and outdated IT failures are being subjugated.
Moreover, it is very likely
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that Edge computing and IoT will be leveraged by this modernized supply chain
management so as to yield automated insights in real-time. Also, the emergence of
connected logistics has been boosted with the growing adoption of IoT and Logistics
Automation.

Logistics Safety as the Topmost

Priority

Nowadays, companies are immensely concerned about logistics safety and cyber
security owing to the greater internet connectivity. Alongside this, there is yet another
important concern pertaining to the security of consumer’s private data, which in turn, has
made the logistics solutions safety amongst the topmost priorities. As per the global
secure logistics market of Technavio, certain logistics companies inclusive of FedEx and
International Post Corporation are leveraging technologies like Automatic Identification
and Data Capture (AIDC) for tracking shipments in real-time, leading the market for
registering a CAGR of approximately 7% by 2022.

Execution of Collaborative Robots (Cobots) and

Chatbots

As per the Logistics Bureau, using voice-controlled chatbots to interact with users for
performing actions specific to different purchase points in a supply chain including
shopping, ordering, picking and others are anticipated to continuously trend in the market
of Global Logistics. Not only this, seeing the Ecommerce giants like Amazon involving in
the growing development of logistics robots for varied warehousing functions inclusive of
packaging, storing and picking. Additionally, the competing players in the market are also
making best use these cobots to facilitate effective order fulfillment in delivery and
warehousing solutions. Also, with the growth of the Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS)
subscription business model, it will be possible for third-part logistics firms, e-commerce
sites and retailers to leverage robots to address their fulfillment requirements, which, in
turn, would cause the global logistics robot market to grow significantly throughout the
predicted period.

Elastic
Logistics

The term Elastic Logistics caters to the flexibility of shrinking and expanding capabilities
to synchronize with the demands in the supply chain over a specific timeframe. This area
has been seen as amongst the to date logistics trends capable of helping companies
globally with enhanced customer experience, real-time visibility, agility and scalability and
joint business processes.

Elastic logistics has the potential to become the latest buzzword in the logistics and
supply chain industry.

Introduction of 3PL and

5PL

The global logistics market is anticipated to accelerate during the predicted period with
the proliferation of third-party logistics (3PL) and fifth-party logistics (5PL). It was during
2017, that 3PL contributed to the highest towards the market share of global logistics.
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3PL is accountable to encompass a wide range of logistics and end-to-end transport
needs including maintenance of travel insurance and inventory logs, transporting goods
as well as offering protection against property loss. The express delivery market of
Technavio in Brazil reveals 3PL as one amongst the advancements in supply chain
outsourcing providing diminished procurement expenses along with reduced delivery
times. The growing complexities within the global supply chain market do further ensure
the adoption of 5PL, in which the 5PL solutions providers frequently link e-businesses for
attaining minimum cost targets.

Productive Last Mile

Deliveries

As there is a continuous increase in the proliferation of e-commerce companies, there is

a major upswing being witnessed in providing efficient last mile deliveries to be one of the
most crucial aspect in the creation of differentiating services among the competitors.
Businesses these days are experiencing a greater emphasis with regards to including
delivery options on the same day for industries including foods, beverages and
pharmaceuticals. Alongside dame- day delivery, there are expectations for services at a
higher level while motivating the big retail players including Amazon and Walmart for
adding DIY last mile delivery divisions within their own companies rather than
outsourcing.
As a result of this, the logistics companies making continuous efforts to offer last mile
deliveries efficiently is anther trends in the industry which may offer promising market
growth over the predicted period. The need for delivering perfect orders and not just right
orders will also enable companies to offer maximum customer satisfaction.
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Integration of Smart Glasses and
Drones

As there is more integration of drones and smart glasses within the logistics industry,
there has been improvement in speed and flexibility of delivery, which in turn, has affected
the proliferation of last mile logistics over the predicted period. Autonomous and self-
driving vehicles and trucks have been capable of offering same-day delivery along with
high reliability in both rural and urban areas.

Adding on, with smart glasses supported by augmented reality being integrated within,
the deliveries will turn out to be much easier in the transportation and logistics industry
by face recognition making error-free deliveries, personalized deliveries and hands-free
route searches. Also, the operational efficiency of first and last mile logistics alongside
flexibility and speed of delivery is bound to increase with the adoption of smart glasses
with AI integration.
 Drone Logistics and Transportation Market trend over the period
2019-2024

Global Market
Players

Some of the major market players in the Logistics industry

are mentioned below:
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✓ AmeriCold Logistics, LLC ✓ Ryder
System, Inc. ✓ FedEx Corporation ✓
J.B.Hunt Transport Services, Inc. ✓ C.H.
Robinson Worldwide, Inc. ✓ CEVA
Holdings LLC ✓ Penske Logistics, Inc. ✓
Expeditors International of Washington, Inc.
✓ Kuehne + Nagel Ltd. ✓ United Parcel
Service, Inc. ✓ Kenco Group ✓ Deutsche
Post DHL Group ✓ DSV Air & Sea, Inc.

Geographic
Insights

As of today, the global logistics market is positively impacting the expanding global supply
chain while rapid technological advancements are also anticipated to improve the
operational efficiency in the long run.

The economic conditions and the development of international trade flow have had a
direct impact on the widening of the global logistics market. This also includes
warehousing, inventory, integration of information, packaging, transportation, material
handling and security.

The Asia Pacific (Japan, Australia, India, China, South Korea, Taiwan, and, rest of Asia-
Pacific) market has been projected to be dominating the market of global logistics due to
the availability of a strong manufacturer base within the region. Moreover, the trend
towards adopting outsourced logistics services has been propelling the regional market
to grow over the forecast period. Stable economic conditions, growing urbanization and
more number of export and import trading activities are leading to increase in demand for
logistic services in the region.

This region is followed by North America (U.S., Mexico, Canada) and Europe (Germany,
Spain, UK, France, Italy and rest of Europe) region with next largest market shares.

Then, we have the EMEA region (Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, UAE, and rest
of EMEA).

Also, the North America market is expected to face substantial growth considering the
intra- region trade activities.
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Consumer
Insights

With rapid advancements in today’s modernized world, Customer expectations are

growing significantly. Whether individual consumers or industrial customers, both the
parties desire to receive shipments faster and in a more flexible manner, and with higher
transparency and at lower cost. It is therefore undeniable that both the profitability and
the operating models across the industry are under strain. As a result, manufacturing is
turning out to be more customized than ever before, which is good for the customer but
requires an immense amount of hard work for the logistics industry. The pace of
transformation may turn out to be faster for retail and large manufacturing customers than
for private final consumers. In short, the logistics sector is facing acute and growing
pressure for delivering improved services at lower costs.

Though, the sector can benefit in this regard from intelligent and optimal use of modern
technology, from data analytics to automation and even to the ‘Physical Internet’. While
this will render improved efficiency, lower costs and the opportunity to make genuine
breakthroughs in the working of the industry, yet a challenge for this sector which is
currently lagging most of its customers in this respect is the ‘digital fitness’ factor.

Furthermore, some of sector’s own customers are beginning to implement their own
personalized logistics operations. New entrants to the industry are exploiting digital
technologies or new sharing business models to search for ways for carving out more
profitable elements of the value chain, and they don’t possess cumbersome existing
systems or asset- heavy balance sheets weighing them down.
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Adding on, a noticeable point here is that the entire sector is redefining collaboration.
This is evident from the fact that Sharing has been an integral part, whether in Uber-style
approaches to last-mile delivery, and to more formal JVs and corporate partnerships.

But inconsistencies in shipment sizes, IT systems or even processes hamper the growing
ambitions of this the logistics industry. Yet the Physical Internet entailing more
standardization in logistics operations promises great things for this sector.

Customers within the logistics industry involve both B2B and B2C segments. While B2B
transactions account for the major portion of the entire market (with (Logistics Service
Providers (LSPs) and carriers responsible for the largest portion of industrial revenue),
Courier/Express/Parcel (CEP) companies represent a smaller yet faster growing segment
with just about one-third of CEP revenues attributed to B2C.
B2B: Striving for efficiency and
transparency
In the current scenario, it is evident that the manufacturing industries are being bound by
far greater expectations around performance and efficiency than ever known. Their
customers expect decreased defect rates, faster time-to-market and customized
products.

The coming of the industrial Internet of Things (IoT) or Industry 4.0 is enabling
manufacturing companies (whether they build cars, planes, consumer goods, or industrial
equipment) to redefine every aspect from how they interact with customers to the way
they structure supply chains. All this bears huge implications for Transportation and
Logistics. LSPs (particularly 3PLs and 5PLs) are required to integrate data analytics and
predictability (in addition to lower costs); smart warehousing solutions will become crucial.
On the whole, the implications are transparent: ‘digital fitness’ is becoming a must-have
for all logistics companies globally.
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B2C: New shopping
patterns
Many of the logistics companies are also serving B2C customers. Consumers went digital
much before many of the retailers, while some parts of this sector are still struggling to
keep up. The topmost companies are moving to what is termed as ‘total retail’
(http://www.pwc.com/totalretail), an operating model across online mobile, bricks and
mortar and other retail channels. Total retail is complemented by ‘connected retail’, where
the retailers target to build a seamless brand experience for the customers across the
physical store, personalized marketing, the digital experience, and the payment options,
all of these being driven by a strong coherent brand. (PwC, Connected Retail:
Reshaping tomorrow’s operating model and metrics, 2015)

What are the consequences awaiting the logistics industry? Shippers aren’t generally
included as a part of a branded retail experience. Most private end-consumers are what
we refer to as ‘shipper-agnostic’: they aren’t concerned who is delivering goods as long
as they receive them quickly, cheaply and reliably. Furthermore, many demand more
flexibility in delivery-whether in terms of where or when they get their goods and most
aren’t even open to pay for shipping as they expect it to be free although they are willing
to pay a premium for additional services like faster delivery of higher-value items. Not only
this, but presently there is also a low acceptance for dynamic pricing of parcels, having
customers expecting to pay the same for shipping irrespective of seasonal capacity
constraints that their shippers may face with the exception of surcharges for overnight,
same day or expedited service.

Key Challenges Faced By the Logistics

Industry Today

One of the greatest strategic challenges that have come into play in global logistics is
Cutting the Transportation costs in addition to many more noticeable ones. Further on,
some of the top logistics challenges that the businesses need to be prepared for are
discussed.

Rising Fuel
Costs
Being one of the biggest challenges of 2019, higher fuel prices will be significantly
affecting the cost of wages and transportation for shippers. Thereby, collaborating with a
3PL partner would help dealing with the changes since they are flexible and experienced
in securing discounted transaction costs which one may fail to manage independently. In
this case, the visibility software could help streamlining these challenges.

Improvement in Business
Processes
Maintaining a top position amongst the new advancements in business processes is
another challenge to keep an eye on this year. With new opportunities arising, this will
add to one’s
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advantage for adapting and implementing these changes for providing better service
alongside increased efficiency within one’s operations. But this can be challenging and
costly without the right assistance and therefore, a 3PL provider or 4PL company will
support to extend business for facilitating repair of any broken or weak links within your
supply chain. This, in turn, will improve the process as they will provide planning, strategy
and services that will work favorably.
Managing
Manpower
The effective management of manpower is yet another challenge in the present logistics
industry. Dealing with drivers, warehouse stuff, transporters, etc. are some of the key
requirements that should be handled in an efficient and respectful manner. The team
needs to be fully equipped to be able to communicate at any time for ensuring
coordination and a smoother movement of the goods. In this case, logistics companies
are there to help manage employees better by deputing managers in major locations,
scheduling solutions and quality communication.

Improved Customer
Service
Nowadays, customers have certain feature expectations while ordering from online
stores. They wish to be receiving tracking information along with updated in real-time for
keep themselves aware of progress of their order along with the shipping and delivery
journey. Not only this, but customers even desire to be able to pay for faster shipping
service like two-day or same day shipping. Anything lesser than this is considered
unacceptable, and may cause the customers to refrain from following through the
purchase.

In such a scenario described above, a 3PL provider may help achieving full visibility
over the entire supply chain so that the customers can be provided with the details they
need.

Environmental
Problems
Considering the numerous studies showing the negative effect business supply chains
can have on the environment, minimizing greenhouse gas emissions has been set as one
of the major goals for several logistics companies this year. Choosing the right 3PL
striving to search ways for reducing waste and gas emissions will serve well. Such
solutions include recycling of materials from returned goods to place back into
manufacturing, instead of them being disposed as waste, or use of Global Positioning
System (GPS) for finding more efficient routes to ship and deliver.

Inventory Control and

Visibility
Being aware of what inventory one has on hand, and where it is located are the primary
aspects of inventory visibility. This sphere is crucial for all e-commerce and retail
businesses, but attaining this control and visibility can turn out to be challenging. In such
a case, a 3PL provider can help in providing visibility through their use of technology in
the warehouse. They can help
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in efficiently using time, increasing quality control and security, improving predictability
of inventory movement, and more.

Reverse
Logistics
Every E-commerce business requires Reverse Logistics. Customers/Consumers need to
be able to return items purchased if they are unhappy with the service, and this process
needs to go on smoothly. With the absence of reverse logistics platform, business may
be affected as the end- users may refrain from buying from that organization. Therefore,
reverse logistics may be costly and challenging affair if not undertaken with the right
support. A 3PL provider with their preexisting robust solutions can be helpful to fight these
challenges. They can help process returns timely to keep the customers satisfied, and
also suggest useful ways to mange returned items to avoid revenue loss. Such solutions
may cover refurbishing items for selling at a discounted price or repackaging unused
items for resale.

Development of
Technology
Another major requirement to surviving in today’s competitive industry is to be
comfortable with the high cost of adapting to new and modern technology. A 3PL partner
in this case, being already equipped with the required technology to improve efficiency
will help resolve this issue. Such technologies include communication technologies like
GPS and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), material handling technology, and Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) for bar-coding and scanning.

Implementing the above technologies is cheaper by partnering with a 3PL provider

rather than doing it independently.

Future
Scope

Like most other industries, Transportation and Logistics (T&L) sector is presently
undergoing immense variation. Like any other change, this too comes with a combination
of both risk and opportunity. New market entrants, new technology, new business models,
and new customer expectations. There are several ways which could aid in the
development of this industry so as to meet these challenges, of which some are
evolutionary and others more revolutionary.

In the time to come, a significant growth is anticipated within the global logistics market.
This owes to proliferating e-commerce industry in developing economies, more trade
activities across the globe, and technological advances within the transportation sector
over the forecast period. Additionally, advancements in the transportation and information
technology sector are amongst the factors facilitating the market growth over the forecast
period.
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Modern technologies are targeting several logistics services, including on-demand
trucking, the consolidation of deliveries from multiple shippers, automated scheduling,
and carrier-based data analytics. Also, the flow of investment, in itself, depicts the speed
and scale of this change.

Emerging technologies shaping the future of

Logistics:
There is an unprecedented and rapid transformation within the logistics industry,
henceforth paving the way for upheaval and innovation in the near future. The future of
logistics is being shaped by a myriad of emerging technologies discussed further.

Blockcha
in

One particular technology that inspite of being nascent holds a lot of potential for
Transportation and Logistics is blockchain. Plenty of red tape and lack of transparency
are held responsible for the occurrence of the bottlenecks in the logistics arena.
Blockchain has the potential of eliminating most of these roadblocks as it is able to serve
as an encrypted digital ledger for tracking the movements of items from warehouse to the
customer, and linking the documentation directly to the shipment as it paves its way to
the destination.

Moreover, the biggest impact of Blockchain as a technology could be in minimizing

inefficiencies in last-mile deliveries, therefore driving up profitable margins in a segment
of the T&L business that is notoriously thin on returns and expensive to manage.

Io
T

IoT has a crucial role to play in logistics. IoT being able to transfer data over any network
can monitor employees, people and equipment safely and securely. It allows mangers to
examine and understand ongoing processes in a company or factory, including energy
consumption, the status of inventory, ambient conditions, performance of machines and
equipment, and the material flow at any given time instant. IoT enhances in-transit
visibility, hereby yielding more orders to industries. For future especially, IoT has the
power of predicting imminent hurdles and problems that may inhibit the development of
any particular aspect or all aspects within the logistics industry.
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Drone
Delivery

Drone Delivery is very likely to be helpful for the logistics industry in the coming years. As
an unmanned aerial vehicle, it is able to relieve city traffic through facilitating delivery
service via the skies. Moreover, Drone technology also has the potential of challenging
the poor infrastructure and geographical conditions in rural areas. As a matter of fact,
Google is already undergoing tests of the UAVs for the purpose of rural deliveries in
Queensland, Australia. In some situations, drones will also be used for asset tracking,
monitoring and flagging areas or roads that pose higher risks, and even for searching and
locating missing employees.

Artificial
Intelligence

The world now consists of more than 1.1 million working and functional robots. These
promise to be reliable and efficient for manufacturing, production and delivery.
Furthermore, these robots are capable of working in factories alongside human workers.
Speaking about global developments in this regard, Japan and USA are known to have
already implemented robotic services and AI in a number of their logistics processes. The
near future is anticipated to witness a major shift, where the customer service will be less
frustrating by continuous assistance from chat bots and where robots will totally/mostly
replace blue collared jobs.

Driverless
Vehicles

Driverless vehicles are those capable of driving and navigating without requiring any
kind of human input. Equipped with electronic ears, eyes and sensors, their application
in logistics
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industry has a great potential to reduce costs significantly and lower the burden of human
efforts. However, the implementation of this modern technology is yet a challenge, since
only slightly more than 12.78% of the logistics companies have any knowledge or
expertise in this domain.

3D
Printing

A world with 3D printing is a fascinating possibility. Nowadays, 3D printing in not only a

possibility but a reality in many companies. Globally, slightly more than 19.2% of
manufacturers and retailers are using 3D printing, but only a little more than 1.5% of them
can provide any real expertise. However, it is predicted that in the next 17 years, logistics
companies will have sufficient knowledge in this area. 3D printing will be known to
facilitate the storage and replacement of parts within virtual warehouses in digital form
and as data models, making it feasible to print them anywhere, anytime on-demand.
Moreover, there will be a growth in last minute shipping as this technology will allow for
most goods to be printed out just near the customer’s location. Not only this, but 3D print
centers will also spring up closely to the sales markets, henceforth promoting local and
regional production.

Although there is a lot of hype about these fast emerging technologies, yet the future of
logistics lies only in the hands of those companies which are ready to experiment and
face new challenges. For accruing the above mentioned advantages, logistics companies
will be required to leverage the available technologies and incorporate them in an optimal
manner within their core systems.
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Citatio
ns

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