Learn With Loadsmart: What I Learned At Manifest, The Future of Logistics Is Here Live Event

At Loadsmart, our strongest asset is our people. Just like the supply chain, it takes a lot of people with different expertise across many areas of logistics, transportation, and technology to keep our business running and delivering value to our carrier and shipper customers in existing and new ways. 

We are committed to creating a more transparent logistics industry, and this means sharing our expertise. Not just through the products that break down the barriers between parties in the supply chain, but also by sharing the wealth of experience that our subject matter experts have gained these last seven years and continue to develop each day. This is Learn With Loadsmart.

WHAT I LEARNED AT MANIFEST, THE FUTURE OF LOGISTICS IS HERE LIVE EVENT WITH JEFF BOOTH, DIRECTOR OF COMMERCIAL STRATEGY 

On January 25-27, 2022 I made my way to Las Vegas alongside some of my Loadsmart colleagues to join a gathering of industry leaders, innovators, and investors in a showcase of the cutting edge of Logistics and Supply Chain at the Manifest: The Future of Logistics is Here Live Event. It was an event with access to the people and technologies changing the way the world moves. At Loadsmart, I live and breath this future everyday, and so I am acutely aware that the future of logistics is being built and, in many cases, has arrived for our customers. I was looking forward to seeing how others felt about this future: is it here, coming, or out of reach? I was blown away to see the collective acknowledgement and energy around a more efficient, sustainable supply chain. Here were four other themes that I picked up along the way:

Partnerships Are The Future

On panels, booths, and everything in between, everyone was talking about partnerships and working together. The sentiment at the event was palpable: competition is high, but not at the price of the industry progress.  It was great to see many of these partnerships aren’t category specific; that’s where the industry can unlock previously unrealized value through synergies (2+2=5). It is easy to see a future where most companies compete in one category while working together in others.

Companies Are Rapidly Diversifying

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to categorize companies with expansions of services and technology, as well as acquisitions. Companies can no longer and in most cases simply are no longer just a TMS or freight broker, or freight forwarder. They’re offering multiple services including their own technology platforms. Keep up or get left behind.

Balancing The Needs of Today vs. Tomorrow

Today, we are seeing traction with autonomous vehicles, end to end visibility, and software system integrations, but that’s exactly what it is: traction. We know this traction suggests the direction of the industry, but we need to be patient as it comes to life. We can’t just make significant investments in solutions that are 5-10 years away. We need to find practical solutions that provide value and ROI today while taking incremental steps to the future.

Digitization Is Branching Out

While digitization has rapidly changed many areas over the last ten years, there are still pockets in the FTL, LTL, Drayage, and Flatbed ecosystem that haven’t been touched. Those spaces are becoming so analog, especially relative to advancements in other areas, that digital solutions are now starting to being considered heavily there. There is a huge gap between freight forwarders/brokerages/ports and others who service those product lanes and the rest of the logistics from a technology standpoint. The focus is taking the analog processes into the digital world at a faster pace now than ever before.

Jeff Booth is the Director of Commercial Strategy at Loadsmart and previously General Manager of Opendock.  Jeff has had the opportunity to help lead a variety of different business units throughout his career including Circuit City stores, the world’s largest pet training service at Petsmart, analytics and strategy for a movie theater chain, and a carrier sales team at Globaltranz. 

ABOUT LOADSMART

Transforming the future of freight, Loadsmart leverages technology and logistics data to build efficiency around how freight is priced, booked and shipped. Pairing comprehensive logistics technology with deep-seated freight industry expertise, Loadsmart fuels business growth, simplifies operations and increases efficiency for carriers and shippers alike. For more information, please visit: https://loadsmart.com. Move more with less.