DC Velocity - April 2019

20 DC VELOCITY APRIL 2019 www.dcvelocity.com newsworthy

HighJump sees voice-directed work
as key to DC automation

Supply chain software developer HighJump Software Inc. is continuing to emphasize voice-directed work platforms as a key enabling technology for warehouse automation and for meeting rising consumer demands for e-commerce services, the company said in March.

Voice-based picking may not be a cutting-edge technology, but it offers a proven platform that can drive 10- to 15-percent improvements in warehouse productivity—a significant jump in a tight-margin business— HighJump CEO Chad Collins said in remarks at the firm’s Elevate user conference in San Antonio.

Encouraged by such results, users have been expanding their use of
voice technology beyond the traditional order picking into applica-
tions like safety, inspection, and maintenance, he said.

HighJump’s focus on voice-directed operations is also part of the company’s ongoing effort to integrate its technology portfolio with that of its new corporate parent, the German logistics technology provider Korber AG, which purchased HighJump in 2017 from the private equity firm Accell-KKR.

That move was intended to expand Korber’s capabilities as an enterprise software vendor and enlarge its U.S. footprint, while helping Minneapolis-based HighJump gain entry to overseas markets. The acquisition also raised new challenges, however, requiring HighJump to integrate its software with many new siblings under the Korber umbrella, using cloud-based platforms and application programming interfaces (APIs). HighJump’s focus on voice-directed operations also echoes that strategy, building on Korber’s move in recent months to buy and merge two voice-tech providers, Vitech Business Group Inc. and Centriq Group’s Voiteq, into its operations.

Logistics Plus, a North American freight brokerage and
supply chain solutions firm, has announced its 2018
less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers of the year. They are
Estes Express, which took top honors in the national
LTL category, and Midwestern hauler Dayton Freight,
which received the regional LTL award. … The Port of
Vancouver USA’s West Vancouver Freight Access rail-in-
frastructure project won a 2019 Engineering Excellence
Grand Award from the American Council of Engineering
Companies (ACEC) Oregon. … Clark Material Handling
Co. has been named one of the Best Places to Work in
Kentucky for 2019. Clark has two facilities in Kentucky,
its American headquarters and plant in Lexington, and
its state-of-the-art parts DC in Louisville. The awards
program is run by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce,
the Kentucky Society for Human Resource Management,
and Best Companies Group. … Logistyx Technologies,
a company that markets transportation management
systems for parcel shipping, was honored by FedEx with
the Diamond Tier award for 2019.

accolades

Three organizations have joined forces to launch the industry’s first trucking freight futures exchange, which at press time was set to open March 29.

Derivatives exchange and clearinghouse Nodal Exchange is partnering with logistics data and analytics provider FreightWaves and price reporting agency DAT to create the futures market for trucking, which will allow buyers and sellers to trade financial contracts for freight pricing, helping them hedge their exposure to spot-rate volatility, the firms said.

The project is three years in the making and follows a recent series of presentations in seven major markets to pitch the idea to prospective participants and explain how the exchange will work. Initial contracts will be based on seven lanes between major freight markets, three regional baskets of lanes, and a national average truckload spot rate, according to the companies.

“Freight and transportation costs are the most substantial risk to the earnings of an estimated 40 percent of S&P 500 companies,” said Craig Fuller, founder and CEO of FreightWaves, who has spearheaded the effort to launch the freight futures market, in a statement. “Labor shortages, regulatory and trade environments, and the trucking industry’s ‘OPEC’ moment in December 2017 with the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate have created the right inflection point for trucking freight futures to come to market.”