If you thought the act of purchasing transportation was as simple as paying a carrier to haul your freight - well, think again.

Ro-ro ships carry trucks and other road vehicles across the Baltic Sea and also across Cook Strait, providing onboard overnight accommodations as well as food services. There may be scope to adapt that operational precedent to bypass roadway traffic congestion on the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Flexport, the shipping logistics company that launched in San Francisco just four years ago, is set to close a $110m Series C funding round. The investment values the company at $910m post money, says Wesley Chan, managing director at Menlo Park VC firm Felicis Ventures, an early investor in Flexport. The new round will bring the total capital invested to $204m.

In a move that it says puts it on equal footing with Prime Now's domestic coverage, crowdsourced same-day delivery provider Deliv has expanded to 1,400 U.S. cities in 33 markets, up from 19 markets previously - allowing retail customers like Macy's and Best Buy to greatly increase the range of their services.

The U.K.'s Freight Transport Association (FTA) welcomed Prime Minister Teresa May's call last week for a transition period as a key priority for Brexit negotiations. But, as May's Tories grip on power continues to erode against an ascendant Labor party, the prime minister's pragmatic turn might be too little, too late, and the future of U.K.-E.U. trade remains unclear.