September, 2023 - Longtemps International

September 7, 2023 By user

Chatbots Are Trying to Figure Out Where Your Shipments Are

Logistics companies are looking at generative AI for use in customer support, but the technology carries risks in high-value, industrial supply chains

Logistics companies are eyeing the potential of artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI tools like ChatGPT, to revolutionize their operations. However, they’re treading carefully, especially when it comes to chatbots, which are becoming commonplace in the consumer sector.

Why the caution? The logistics industry deals with the movement of goods worth millions, and the last thing they want is to frustrate their customers. Companies like RXO, XPO, Phlo Systems, and DFDS are exploring how this AI can automate tasks in their customer service departments, such as tracking shipments and booking loads.

Generative AI, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, can sift through vast amounts of data, recognize patterns, and answer questions in a human-like manner. This capability has already been harnessed in other sectors. Law firms use AI for legal research and document drafting, while retailers use it to analyze customer queries. Even travel and grocery sectors have jumped on the bandwagon, with companies like Expedia and Instacart using bots to assist customers.

For logistics, the immediate application of generative AI seems to be in customer support. The technology can comprehend questions in everyday language and provide comprehensive answers swiftly. This could enhance the customer experience, offering precise answers quickly, unlike traditional chatbots with their preset responses or human agents who might need more time.

However, there are challenges. Generative AI’s effectiveness hinges on the quality of its training data. Sometimes, it might get answers wrong. There are also valid concerns about using sensitive company or customer data to train these systems. Some companies have even prohibited their employees from using tools like ChatGPT due to these concerns.

The stakes are undeniably high in logistics. The industry deals with complex, proprietary data related to moving vast quantities of goods via various transportation modes. As such, while the allure of AI is strong, the logistics sector is approaching it with a mix of optimism and caution.

LOGISTICS

September 5, 2023 By user

Bankrupt Trucker Yellow’s Real Estate Is in High Demand

The company’s liquidation is putting dozens of freight terminals up for possible acquisition in a market tight on space

The dismantling of bankrupt trucker Yellow is shaping up as a bidding battle over real estate as trucking companies look to capitalize on a rare chance to snap up coveted freight terminals across North America.

Old Dominion Freight Line last week agreed to buy Yellow’s network of about 170 truck terminals for $1.5 billion, surpassing an earlier offer of $1.3 billion from rival trucker Estes Express Lines. Both bids exceeded the value Yellow placed on its real estate in its bankruptcy filing, signaling the high value trucking companies place on the sites.

Old Dominion Freight Line is now the stalking horse in a bankruptcy court-supervised auction that will take place on Oct. 18. That means ODFL is the front-runner but by no means the certain winner in a contest expected to draw bids from across the trucking industry and the industrial real-estate sector.

“There is a tremendous amount of interest in those assets,” said Paul Svindland, chief executive of Bensenville, Ill.-based logistics provider STG Logistics.

A person familiar with the bankruptcy proceedings said hundreds of companies have struck confidentiality agreements so they can evaluate the assets.

Regional and national freight operators will have a rare opportunity to take on a series of built-out, ready-to-operate facilities in a sector in which experts say real estate is one of the biggest obstacles to expansion.

Trucking terminals have become more difficult and expensive to build as companies are squeezed by a shortage of the space needed for the buildings and truck yards. Towns and cities have grown more reluctant to approve new industrial construction as residents have raised outcries over traffic, noise and pollution.

Mike Barker, an executive vice president of real-estate services firm CBRE, said the large initial bids for Yellow’s entire portfolio could make it harder for regional carriers to acquire a smaller number of terminals because a single transaction is the quickest and least complicated way for Yellow to pay off its debts.

Barker said even if a single company buys Yellow’s network, that company is likely to sell off many of the terminals that don’t meet its needs, however.

“There’s a handful of really desirable large sites that would be very attractive,” Barker said. Other, smaller sites could draw interest from regional truckers, he said, and companies in related fields such as those that specialize in outdoor storage of truck trailers or construction equipment.

Yellow earlier this summer sold a single terminal in Compton, Calif., for $80 million. That terminal was located in a high-demand region for industrial real estate, close to Los Angeles and two of the nation’s busiest seaports. Terminals in less densely populated areas are likely to sell for much less.

Several large trucking companies on earnings conference calls have expressed interest in Yellow’s real estate, including truckload carrier Knight-Swift Transportation, which owns AAA Cooper, a carrier competing in the same less-than-truckload market as Yellow.

“Any opportunity to pick up properties along the way, we would have great interest in that,” Knight-Swift Chief Executive David Jackson said on a July 20 investor conference call.

Before Yellow shut down in July, the 99-year-old company was the third-largest carrier in the less-than-truckload market, a sector in which carriers combine shipments from multiple customers in a single trailer. LTL operators use hub-and-spoke networks of terminals, hauling in pallets of freight and trading them off onto trailers heading to final destinations.

The terminals are often close to cities to help speed up delivery to businesses in a region. They are typically long and narrow, similar to passenger gates at airport terminals, with 20 to 100 doors on each side of the building.

The terminals, which are usually surrounded by ample parking space for trucks and trailers, were in high demand during the pandemic when existing terminals reached their daily capacity to handle large volumes of freight.