The perfect mode of transport

What is the right method of transport for what type of good? The mode of transport determines the success or failure of a logistics concept. The digitisation of supply chains is playing an increasingly important role: Logistics must become even more intelligent.

If you want to offer a bouquet of fragrant Peruvian highland roses in your flower shop, you have to rely on the advantages of air freight: As a product with a limited shelf life, ornamental plants come under perishable goods and must therefore be transported from the producer to the retailer as quickly as possible. Another example: At a shipyard in South Korea, a crucial spare part is missing. Without it, they run the risk of not being able to deliver the container ship on time. Here, too, the cargo lands in the hold of an aircraft. Capital-intensive, short-lived and perishable goods have to take off: Premium – Time dictates the price. If, on the other hand, a freight forwarder ships brand new cross motorcycles from Rotterdam to Tokyo, it books its freight volume onto a container ship. Although this is more time-consuming, it lowers the freight rates: Economy – Price dictates time.

Choosing the right mode of transport 

Whether sea freight, air freight, road freight, rail or a modal split, choosing the right mode of transport is the central criteria within transport logistics. The key question here is: What, when and at what price? The ship is cheaper, the plane goes further, the train is greener, the road is faster. Each individual mode of transport has its specific advantages and disadvantages. But they all have one thing in common: The volume of transported goods is growing on land, at sea and in the air. There are many reasons for this. Experts see the causes as dynamic growth in the global economy and demographic factors as the causes of this. But smart innovations also contribute to growth: For example, rail freight transport benefited in particular from new concepts in combined transport.

Individual classes of goods are bound by certain modes of transportation: Oil is practically only transported by sea. In container freight, the railways are catching up again: As early as 2015, the first freight train with ISO freight containers arrived in Europe from China in just 18 days. Shippers must wait up to six weeks by sea freight for the same route.

On the world freight market, international, national and regional logistics networks are increasingly competing for margins. Logistics experts have always been looking for potential savings that can be passed on to customers. More and more must be brought ever faster to the destination. At the end of the ‘60s, the volume of sea freight alone increased fivefold worldwide.

Our vision that reverses the logistics market

However, the industry is facing massive challenges for the future. Digitisation of supply chains is certainly at the top of the agenda. It’s not for nothing that automation and artificial intelligence (AI) were the top themes in the conference programme at the Transport Logistic trade fair in Munich in June 2019. Future trend: The global transport industry not only has to withstand the technological pressure to innovate, for example through the use of less polluting drives or autonomous drive units, Above all, logistics must become even more intelligent.

The art of transport logistics therefore lies in the perfect coordination of transport routes, which is increasingly closely linked to the consistent digitalisation of supply chains and internal processes. Today there is only one worldwide public database that can be used to search for new logistics service providers. However, it is not qualified and does not provide any insight into the performance of the service provider. With SHIPSTA we want to use artificial intelligence to launch the first platform on the market to recommend, effectively like a dating site, the optimal service provider at the best price/performance ratio.

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