TPM Tech

Technically Adrift

There have never been more logistics technology solutions available for shippers. There have never been more people working on technology for global supply chains. It’s never been so easy to develop applications. And it’s never been so inexpensive to buy products. So why does it feel like the logistics industry is running in place when it comes to the utility of software it uses?

• For one, there’s the issue of rising user expectations. A technology that is considered adequate by shippers today would have been considered mind-blowing a decade ago. That leads to a sense of technologies not fulfilling their promise, even if they have advanced almost unrecognizably from previous generations.
  
  
• Second, the industry still buys in silos. Shippers and the various service providers that cater to them - forwarders, carriers, ports, and intermodal providers - all buy different solutions, so the problem of coordination remains for most companies. While integrations are a priority and orchestration has become a key investment area for shippers, the industry's endemic fragmentation remains a roadblock.
  
  
• Third, artificial intelligence is throwing a monkey wrench into everything. Every shipper is wrestling with making sure they are using it in a way that both pushes them forward from an efficiency perspective, and keeps them at par, at least, with their competitors. Service providers, as usual, have to be both consumers and providers of AI. And everyone needs to manage the balance between talent and technology.

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Conference dates: March 1-4, 2026