LATEST SHIPPING TECHNOLOGIES

Latest Shipping Technologies

LATEST SHIPPING TECHNOLOGIES

Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 2 Latest Technologies in Shipping ............................................................................................ 2 References .............................................................................................................................. 5

LATEST SHIPPING TECHNOLOGIES

Introduction
The world is a global village. Every second, some good or service is being transported from one place to another. There are many companies which have their business model revolving around these shipping technologies. However, if one thinks as to what makes these companies differ? It is the way in which these companies combine the use of the basic mediums to transportation to deliver the goods and services from one place to another (Bhme, 1984). Internet shopping is a classic example where when the customer orders goods online, the very next day he receives the product and that too when he doesnt ste p out of his home. The transportation of the goods is done mainly by use of the basic mediums of transportation which are Air, Water, Land and Rail. This report lists down some of these latest shipping technologies that use these mediums.

Latest Technologies in Shipping

Shipping technologies basically use the most common means of transportation. What makes them different is the way they put to use the means of transportation. The different shipping technologies that companies use these days include: 1. Hyperloop Transport System 2. Smart Cards and RFID 3. Outsourcing to companies for stocking and transportation 4. 3PL providers 5. Intelligent Shipping Systems 6. Trans-shipments

LATEST SHIPPING TECHNOLOGIES

7. Drop Ship internationally 8. Alternative Fuel transportations 9. Automatic Vehicle Locators 10. In House Transport Pods 11. UPS delivery trucks The three shipping technologies that will be discussed further are: Trans-shipments: - Trans-shipment is basically transportation of goods from one location to an intermediate location and then to another location which is possibly the end customer. It so happens that sellers transport their goods to a central warehouse where then the delivery vans and trucks aggregate these goods according to the area they cater to and then deliver the goods to that areas customer (Axster, 1990). All this can be tracked using batch numbers on the product or good to be shipped. Automatic Vehicle Locators These shipping systems and technologies track the goods on the basis of Global positioning system. Once the seller receives the order he transmits the order to the customers nearest vendor. In the meantime he also tracks the nearest delivery van to that location. The van is tracked and sent a signal to pick up that particular shipment from a particular vendor and deliver to the particular end customer (Jellinek, 1978). The vehicles can also be tracked and informed using wireless phones or walky talkies. Alternative Fuel Transportations: - These days non-renewable sources of energy are being consumed at a rapid pace. So much so that for fulfilling the transportation

LATEST SHIPPING TECHNOLOGIES

needs renewable sources of energy are to be found. Electric scooters, electric mobile vans have been developed to solve the purpose of transportation. They are battery operated and are used to carry passengers and goods from one place to another. When fully charged they can travel upto 6 hours non-stop. They take close to 4 hours to get fully charged and can transport upto 200 kgs. at a time. The most important advantage for them is that they conserve fuel which can be used for alternate work and at the same time create no pollution at all (Struben, 2008). The limitation of these is that they can be used for shorter distances and intervals.

LATEST SHIPPING TECHNOLOGIES

References
Axster, S. (1990). Modelling emergency lateral transshipments in inventory systems. Management Science, 36(11), 1329-1338. Struben, J., & Sterman, J. D. (2008). Transition challenges for alternative fuel vehicle and transportation systems. Environment and planning. B, Planning & design, 35(6), 1070. Jellinek, E. (1978). U.S. Patent No. 4,107,689. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Bhme, H. (1984). The changing framework of shipping: Trends in trade, technology, and policies. Marine Policy, 8(3), 229-238.