Startups Scramble to Reform the Shipping Industry

Few pillars of the modern world economy are as overdue for rehabbing as the shipping industry. After the advent of airplanes and automobiles over a century ago, the transportation side of getting cargo around the world ground to a halt. The computer revolution and Internet Age have provided enormous opportunity to shipping industry giants to improve upon archaic systems and offer superior customer service, but the rate at which these companies have evolved has been slow to say the least.

Just like most industries, the big, old, and slow moving giants of shipping are vulnerable from the swift action of small, young startups. Numerous small business tech companies are aware of the ways in which shipping can be made better and are going forward with plans to make them happen.

Info Tech

Getting an accurate price on shipping and knowing its location once underway is critical for maintaining cash-flow and customer service. These provisions are a convenience many carriers and other delivery services love to offer without backing them up with quality data and support. Without competition it didn’t hurt these companies to avoid doing better, but times are changing. The world of LTL shipping was altered for the better after companies like ShipX began optimizing cloud technology to provide accurate quotes and tracking to customers. Similar startups are appearing to meet similar demands in other sectors of the shipping industry.

Delivery Tech

As mentioned earlier there haven’t been many ways to enhance or otherwise improve upon our time-tested modes of transportation. Shipping hinges on only a handful of options often working together: air, roads, rail, and water. At the helms or wheels: a person. It’s the human element which is set to become less a factor in the years to come. The self-driving semi is here and it’s not going away. It’s safe to assume shipping will be the first industry to be affected. Big companies like Google and Tesla are fast at work developing autonomous modes of transportation, and startups are eager to carve a niche for themselves somewhere along the line. Developments in the management of autonomous multi-modal shipping systems will undoubtedly be where many small businesses strive to break ground.

Container Tech

The traditional cargo container, shipping pallet, and cardboard box have stood the test of time for a reason. They’re simple, cheap, and effective. Thus attempts to change the packaging of shipments for the 21st century haven’t led to many startup success stories. With that being said, these tried and true methods of getting cargo from one end of the world to the other aren’t without their problems. Containers fall off ships never to be seen again. Pallets crack, boxes break, and the result of all of this is millions of dollars in damaged and destroyed products every year. Whichever company finds a solution to reduce these losses – likely through a new approach to the way we package our shipments – will be secure in their path to success.

The shipping industry has been avoiding major changes for decades. Luckily for consumers there’s a current up cropping of startups eager to make transporting cargo a more streamlined and cost-effective process. Many more years of trial and error remain, but a revolution in shipping is underway and by the end the industry will never be the same again.