Covid-19, and its effects on our personal and business lives, was clearly the major story of 2020. This topic was covered in the previous blog.  The impacts of the other major news story, the Biden / Harris election, will play out over the next four years. However, there were several other surface transportation events over the past 12 months that were significant. They are summarized below.

1. Digitization advances in the world of Freight Transportation

Digitization, the replacement of manual, paper-based information processes with electronic ones is transforming the industry. The benefits are clear. Shippers obtain precise data on cargo, from pickup to delivery, on which to base decisions. Carriers have more data on how and where they serve specific shippers and on their true costs. The wave of digital technologies already transforming truckload and brokerage is reaching into LTL, driven in part by larger supply chain changes and by the explosion of e-commerce.

Technology is not the problem; some trucking companies have been electronically sharing data with customers since the 1980s, first via electronic data interchange (EDI) and more recently via application program interfaces (APIs). The roadblock is in the process, in implementing digital standards, and in getting customers to buy into going digital.