When was the last time you heard or read about something truly revolutionary in the logistics and freight transportation industry?
Occasionally big ideas surface, including super-high-speed containerships to shorten transits between continents to a few days and blimps for ferrying large and oversized cargoes to remote locations. But shippers are many years away from embracing such concepts.
There are a few notable breakthroughs in the recent past, such as ocean freight containers, refrigerated boxes, cross-docking and double-stack rail services, that have taken the industry to new heights in terms of efficiency and modernization. But most of these technologies and related services are now quite mature.
All of this raises a serious question: Has we wrung just about all efficiencies possible from the international and domestic freight management system? Have we entered a period of logistics stalemate?
