What is the latest news with respect to shipping and delivery technology today? Read on to find out.

BigCommerce Announces Global Partnership with DHL to Support US Growth Plans

The technology firm BigCommerce, which has developed one of the most widely used open SaaS e-commerce platforms, has said that it has entered a new commercial relationship with one of the world’s leading providers of international express shipping brands, DHL. BigCommerce had previously been viewed as a tech firm that was associated with fast-growing and up-and-coming business-to-consumer and business-to-business firms, so a partnership with a truly established firm like DHL is being viewed as a significant step up by many. The recently announced commercial relationship will be geared toward helping online businesses in the USA initially. The idea is that the owners of such internet-based businesses will be better able to capitalise on opportunities overseas and to expand their portfolio of customers and products globally.

According to the CEO of DHL Express, Greg Hewitt, the logistics provider – which is actually headquartered in Bonn, Germany – was looking forward to working with BigCommerce because it would allow more of their merchant client base in the US to strengthen their reach across the globe. Significantly, Hewitt reckoned that this would be something that was achievable across a variety of industries. “As the requirements of start-ups enterprises – as well as mid-market firms and larger enterprises – evolve and heighten,” he said, “We will be able to further their support.” Hewitt explained that BigCommerce merchants should now expect fast, reliable and expedited shipments through the partnership that would ‘optimise their cross-border potential’.

BigCommerce, as a NASDAQ-listed software services provider, currently has many merchant customers in the United States that rely on its service to run their e-commerce back-room operations. With the new announcement, merchants who join the scheme will be able to access discounted rates from DHL Express. However, the programme is not entirely one of offering lower pricing for global and domestic shipping. Crucially, any merchant that subscribes to the scheme will also gain access to DHL’s logistics and international shipping professionals to help them with both imported and exported goods.

Under the partnership programme, BigCommerce’s clients will also be able to use DHL’s On Demand Delivery tool. According to DHL, this provides their commercial clients with proactive notifications of the progress of shipments as well as giving the option of flexible delivery arrangements across the world. As Russell Klein, chief commercial officer at BigCommerce put it, the partnership with DHL illustrates ‘our commitment’ to providing online retailers in the US access to technologies and service providers of the highest calibre in the logistics sector today. “DHL shares BigCommerce’s ambition to help retailers grow faster and sell more to maximise their commercial success,” he said.

London-Based Zencargo Announces Partnership With Tech Firm Tive for Greater Shipment Visibility

A leading digital freight forwarding firm that operates from the City of London has recently said it is teaming up with shipment tracking solution provider, Tive. The idea is that customers who make use of Zencargo’s freight forwarding expertise will soon be able to track their shipments as they move around the world in real time. The idea is that it will help organisations that rely on international supply chains to make better decisions about their processes as they are able to gain up-to-the-minute information about their deliveries. For its part, Tive describes itself as a ‘visibility solution provider’ which is able to provide critical shipment locational data thanks to sensors that it claims are the best in their class.

Not only does Tive’s solution mean that companies that rely on shipping in parts and components will have a much better idea of when they will arrive but the locational data provided also helps to cut down on unwanted problems like missing shipments and theft to a certain extent. Where temperature-controlled shipments are being made – for food consignments and certain pharmaceutical goods, for example – Tive’s sensors will also be able to provide accurate information directly to Zencargo’s clients. According to Tive, this can be invaluable to certain business models that rely on goods arriving in mint condition for their own quality assurance purposes.

According to a statement made to the press announcing the partnership, the supply chain industry has faced much disruption over the past two years. Therefore, Zencargo wanted to find a way that would mean its clients could better understand the progress of shipments as they happened rather than for them simply to put up with increased costs and longer lead times in the sector. In particular, Zencargo’s executives thought this was crucial for importers of perishable goods, which is why the temperature and condition tracking offered by Tive’s technological solution was so appealing to them.

According to the freight forwarding firm, partnering with Tive will mean that Zencargo can provide its customers with deeper insights into the current location and condition of goods at the very moment such information is needed. Tive already works with some trusted global brands, tracking the real-time shipments of firms like Alpine Fresh, Biocair and OBE Organic, among others. Thanks to its industry-leading and highly accurate trackers, Tive says that it can ensure businesses are able to monitor inventories throughout the entire transportation journeys of goods in transit while meeting quality and regulatory compliance requirements. In the end, Zencargo is betting that this will mean improving the satisfaction of its services among its customers.

Indeed, Tive’s Solo 5G sensor technology matches – to a certain extent – the sort of service offering that Zencargo wants to promote. These sensors have geofencing capabilities and also provide automated notifications to coincide with the arrival and departure times of shipments. Equally, if an unexpected route deviation occurs, Tive’s solution will provide an alert. Given that Zencargo’s business model goes beyond a traditional freight forwarding model by promoting a digital platform through which all stakeholders involved in an intermodal supply chain can liaise with one another, Tive’s technology appears to be a good fit.

Alex Hersham, Zencargo’s Chief Executive Officer said that because of the partnership, his firm would be able to add greater visibility to supply chains that go even further than the current services they offer. “By making sure [our clients]… have all the information they need to to make agile decisions,” he said, “Delays and losses of goods can be prevented.”

Tive’s founder, Krenar Komoni, backed Hersham’s sentiment. He said that the new service would allow Zencargo’s customers to view hyper-accurate condition and location tracking information in real-time. “Looking from within the Zencargo platform to help prevent problems before they rise,” he said that this would help to ensure that goods arrive on time and in full more often.

Enhanced Truckload Capabilities Announced by Banyan Technology

Based in Ohio, Banyan Technology, one of the world’s foremost providers of freight and logistics management software that provides over the road (OTR) shipping solutions, has pre-announced that it will unveil a new truckload service at a logistic trade show in the US later this year. At Connect 2022, which will take place in Cleveland this year, Banyan says it will demonstrate its enhanced truckload system for the first time. Providing real-time access to load boards, this enhanced software solution will allow Banyan’s clients to rate and compare various OTR shipping modes before executing them. Crucially, this will all be possible from a single-screen interface, allowing logistics firms to significantly simplify their shipping operations.

“I am excited to showcase our commitment to our truckload solution,” said Brian Smith, Banyan’s CEO. “[The enhancement will]… make it easier to rate and book truckload shipments via our LIVE platform,” he added. Smith went on to explain that this would function for both direct carrier APIs as well as for the automated management of contracted rates. Deanna Castello, Director of Marketing for Banyan, echoed his CEO’s comments, stating that Connect 2022 constituted the ‘perfect time and place’ to release their newly enhanced service option that will round out all of the tech firm’s OTR modes within a single software platform. Connect 2022 Conference takes place at the start of October and will be attended by over a hundred commercial firms in both the United States and Canada that currently use Banyan’s software systems. According to Banyan Technology, the software firm has access to three times more carriers than any other service provider in North America today.

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Soon after the trouble caused by the pandemic started to fall away, there were international tensions that caused shipping companies additional problems. Of course, the war between Russia and Ukraine – with the attendant rising cost of fuel for container vessels and trucks alike – pushed up the price of moving containers of all sizes from one part of the world to another. Military manoeuvring in the Far East, largely around the disputed island of Taiwan, also added to these shipping headaches. Overall, the container shipping industry has had a lot to contend with for two and half years, at least.

However, new data published by the Port of Valencia has encouraged many in the containerised shipping sector. Located in eastern Spain, this port has long been considered a bellwether in the shipping industry. In other words, what trends and practices are discernible there tend to be repeated soon afterwards in other European ports, particularly those in the Mediterranean. Recently published figures for August 2022 show remarkable improvements for the shipping industry in a number of areas. These are worth looking into a little more closely as they provide analytical data that is likely to help planning and investment in the containerised shipping industry in much of Europe and other locations around the world. Read on to find out more about the traffic indicators and other statistics recorded by officials at the Port of Valencia during the month of August.

Often regarded by international freight commentators as a barometer of the state of international trade, Valenciaport’s announcement about its terminals offered two distinct directions of travel. Compared to August 2021, the port’s owners recorded a drop in transhipment traffic. However, this was more than made up for by new highs in import container traffic. In addition, solid and liquid bulk cargoes as well as cruise passenger numbers saw a significant twelve-month rise. According to the Statistical Bulletin of the Port Authority of Valencia – the body responsible for measuring traffic through the port – during the month of August this year, Valenciaport set two milestones. Firstly, a total of 86,463 containers were unloaded at Valencia, indicating a big upturn in imports. To make that clear, this is a rise of over 21 per cent compared to the same month in 2021. There was also an upturn of around 10 per cent in the unloading of empty containers at the port. Although this is not indicative of import figures, it suggests that the containerised shipping sector is returning to something like pre-pandemic normality.

In related news, the Port of Valencia also said that it had seen the full recovery of its cruise tourism sector. The August figures noted the arrival of over 103,000 passengers. Perhaps of more significance to the haulage industry is that there was a recorded drop of over 5 per cent of outgoing containers year on year. Full containers (FCL shipments) saw the sharpest decrease, the ports figures stated. Nevertheless, the overall picture of container movements at the bellwether port was up – and up significantly – compared to the last few years.

It is also important to note that August was not an outlier when it comes to the increased movements of shipping containers in eastern Spain. According to the latest statistics, the rise in import containers being unloaded in Valencia can be just as easily evidenced by the cumulative number of those being handled throughout 2022 thus far. From January to August, for example, there was an increase of almost 10 per cent compared with the same eight-month period in 2021. That is not bad considering much of this year has been subject to geopolitical complexity, not least in the eastern Mediterranean which has been most impacted by the war being waged in the Black Sea. Given the problems international traders have faced with the increased risks the war in Ukraine has inevitably led to, there have been month-on-month – sometimes week-on-week – fluctuations in international trade.

These ups and downs, however, were evened out when the first eight months of 2022 have been viewed as a whole. To put this in a clearer, more statistical light, some 55.48 million tonnes of goods have been handled by workers at the Port of Valencia since the start of the year. Nevertheless, a note of caution should be sounded. Despite the encouraging figures on container movements at the port, the report made clear that movements of full TEUs – that is to say, standard 20-foot containers that are over six metres in length – saw a fall in 2022 so far. Although modest, a recorded drop of 6.23 per cent in FCL containers dedicated to cargo will raise eyebrows in the industry. Some commentators have already described the decrease in transhipment figures at the Port of Valencia as revealing that the port no longer provides the economy of scale that it once did. Given that more than only 80 per cent of its occupancy rate was being used during peak business days, some shippers have been looking at other, larger ports in the western Mediterranean for their containers. Like many other ports of its size, this could indicate that the Port of Valencia is now being increasingly regarded as too small, something that could indicate a wider trend toward more massive seaport investment.

Furthermore, there has recently been a move by shipping container companies themselves to provide greater economies of scale. Two of the four leading suppliers of insulated container boxes and refrigerated shipping containers – China International Marine Containers and Maersk Container Industry – had announced earlier in the year that they were preparing to merge with one another. However, this would have left the world exposed to very little competition in the sector had the plan gone ahead, something that notably raised the eyebrows of officials in the United States. The Department of Justice there announced an investigation into the proposed sale of Maersk Container Industry to the Chinese-backed firm. In August, it said that following their investigation, China International Marine Containers had decided to pull out of the deal. As such, the company’s attempt to control 90 per cent of the global refrigerated container market is now on hold, perhaps permanently.

Consequently, it seems that the push towards greater economies of scale at both container ports and the manufacturers of shipping containers may be something that does not continue as many have predicted in 2022 and beyond. At some point, the flexibility of mid-sized seaports, like Valencia, may be what the market is looking for, especially if the need for more agile shipments picks up compared to the current trend towards rock bottom pricing competitiveness. Indeed, this very fact may account for why the Port of Valencia has been seen as a lightning rod for the shipping industry over the course of the last couple of decades. With increasing potential for governmental interventions – as the Maersk takeover episode shows – the container shipping sector still needs to remain competitive and, above all, versatile in a rapidly changing world.

After all, few would have predicted in 2021 that there would be such sectorial differences in the figures for imports at the Port of Valencia. Back then – before Russia had invaded Ukraine – the steep rise in the imports of natural gas the port has seen in 2022 wouldn’t have been obvious. And yet, it is worth highlighting the traffic requirements of the energy sector in Valencia, notably with natural gas, would go up by as much as 160 per cent compared with the same period last year. In this sector alone, over 2,668,000 tonnes of natural gas imports have arrived in Spain this year so far, mostly from the USA, but also with significant contributions from Nigeria and Egypt. There again, imports of vehicles and transportation sector parts have also increased, albeit with a less significant margin.

Echoing the overall trend of increased import movements compared to export movements, container traffic in Valencia also saw an upturn in the agri-food industry. Movements of shipping containers with canned food produce rose by some 14 per cent while a similar figure was recorded by the animal feed and fodder sub-sector. Imports of containerised oils and fats also went up but by a slightly lower margin. Many international shipping professionals now expect to see similar figures from other Western European ports although, with post-Brexit trading arrangements still a factor, the pattern in the UK may prove to diverge from other countries in the region. That said, August’s figures for TEUs handled to and from the UK rose by 60 per cent compared to the same period in 2021, according to the Port of Valencia’s latest data.

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According to the current government guidance, the soon-to-be introduced rules will mean changes for any firm or individual who transports goods to, through or within Europe. The changes have come about because of the UK’s deal with the EU – officially known as the Trade and Cooperation Agreement – that was struck in 2020. It is worth bearing in mind that the new rules will not just apply to lorry drivers and people who operate heavy goods vehicles because vans and other light goods vehicles also feature within the changing regulatory framework. This means anyone who operates a European courier service is likely to have to comply. This even includes drivers who transport commercial goods in their cars if they will be making use of a trailer.

In the vast majority of cases, people who are moving goods commercially within Europe will require a vehicle operator licence and a transport manager. So, you won’t only have to declare that you are transporting commercial commodities within the EU – as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – but you will have to also – declare when you intend on travelling between two points in the EU. Any firm that has drivers who operate HGVs, vans or trailers will have to log onto an EU portal to say where they are coming from and where they are heading to. Owner-operators will also be expected to make the same declarations prior to driving to a UK port and embarking on a journey into Europe from a roll on-roll off ferry service.

To be clear, the use of the EU portal to make the newly required declaration does not cost the driver or their firm anything. It is simply that one needs to be made or drivers may be turned back at the border. Declaring the details of a journey into Europe will be known as a posting declaration. Although no fees for making a posting declaration will be levied, this constitutes another layer of complexity that drivers who travel from the UK to European destinations must take into consideration. Bear in mind that a posting declaration isn’t just required when leaving the UK for Europe, however. As a British-registered driver, if you pick up goods in Italy and transport them to Denmark, for example, you will also need to make a posting declaration for that sort of job, as well.

To break that down a little, the UK government’s current advice is for drivers of UK-registered vehicles to make a posting declaration if they are undertaking any cabotage work. This would include and jobs which involve loading goods in any EU country – plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – and then unloading them at another location in the same country. Posting declarations are also advised for cross-trade jobs that involve collecting goods in one of the aforementioned countries and then delivering them to another state within the bloc. The same rules will also apply to drivers who are transporting their own goods from one business address in the EU to another. This would affect larger businesses, for example, those that wish to shift their own stock in a UK-registered vehicle from the Netherlands to Germany and vice-versa. The rules on posting declarations will not apply to drivers who are using EU-registered vehicles, however, even if the firm they are working for is British.

Although the rule changes are likely to make a big difference to owner drivers, house removals firms, freight forwarders and courier companies that operate in continental Europe from time to time, it is important to note that it will also affect those who ply their trade on the island of Ireland, too. In short, declarations of commercial journeys within the Republic of Ireland will need to be made, as well, and this includes vehicle operators who are registered in Northern Ireland. Very few exemptions will apply when the scheme is introduced in May. For example, operators won’t be obliged to declare when their drivers are transporting an empty commercial goods vehicle, only when it is being used to actually deliver consignments. The latest advice that the government has published also states that a posting declaration is not required when a driver will be transporting goods from the UK to a non-European country. However, this will mean that they won’t be permitted to either load or unload any goods while they are en route within Europe.

To them prepare for the rule changes when they come into force, haulage firms and owner-operators can already create an account for themselves on the EU portal. Given that an account must already be created for a company to be able to declare a journey, it is the one of the few practical things that firms can do to ensure they are ready. Once a company account has been created, users can invite other people from their haulage or courier firm to share the same access rights. Further information on how to do this is now available at postingdeclaration.eu where there is a help section that answers most of the common questions about the registration process. There is also a tutorial video that has been prepared in advance of the regulatory change.

Nevertheless, the creation of a posting declaration account is not intended to be a difficult task. According to the UK government, hauliers and couriers will need only basic information about their company, transport manager (if they have one) and their employees. To break that down, the company information that will be needed includes the firm’s name, its address and its country of registration. On top of this users will need to declare an email address they want correspondence to be sent to as well as their VAT number, their company registration number and their UK Licence for the Community number. In terms of transport manager information, similar information is required, such as the name, office address, telephone number and email address of the manager in question. In addition, you will need the transport manager’s CPC certificate number.

Finally, owner-operators will need to enter some personal information about themselves into the system. This includes their full name, their date of birth, their email address and their home address. Other required driver information includes their driving licence number and any internal reference number they may have, such as their employee payroll number, for example. Companies that employ multiple drivers will need to enter this sort of information for all their employees who make journeys from the UK to Europe. Employers will also be required to state how long a driver has been employed under contract with a haulage firm although this will not apply to owner-operators. However, both employed and self-employed drivers will need to produce some form of personal ID. This will usually be their passport’s document number, its issue date, its expiry date and a declaration of where the passport was issued. Without such information being registered on the system already, making a full posting declaration is likely to be delayed and, in the worst cases, not possible at all.

Although the idea of making a posting declaration every time a journey is made in Europe with a UK-registered commercial vehicle is likely to be something couriers and road haulage firms could do without, it will mean that well-run companies will be able to streamline their processes in a way that less well-organised ones might not. Importantly, although making a posting declaration for each individual journey a driver makes in each country might be all that is needed among firms that only make international deliveries from time to time, the rules allow for more frequent drivers to register another way. This is by making a posting declaration that will cover individual drivers for up to six months, covering all journeys he or she will make in each country during that period. In other words, the start and end dates of a posting declaration can be set to a maximum of six months after which point a new declaration will have to be made. Regardless of the length of time that a declaration covers, all drivers will need to have a physical – or digital – copy of their declaration on them for the duration of their journey to present, if requested by the authorities.

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