With cargo movements getting tracked end-to-end and time slot management applications for managing truck movements taking place real-time, units are achieving paperless trade and sustainability metrics seamlessly. The growth prospects are thus going to double in the coming years, says Amar More, CEO, Kale Logistics Solutions.
Two years into the pandemic, how has it impacted the logistics sector?
The logistics sector was in for a rude shock, when we first experienced lockdown. However, our logistics frontliners never gave up hope. They embraced technology to keep the supply chain live for rapid distribution. While many industry experts predicted that adoption is going to be a challenge, so far, we see adoption has been seamless in the industry.
Two years down the line, it can be said that we are already in the New Normal and are going forward. We need to upgrade technology adoption to the next level. Small businesses were severely hit because they tend not to have any backup, recovery plan, or intermittent operation plan. Lack of technology, as well as tools to follow health guidelines, further complicate their response. Top players declared force majeure on their contract to
deal with such uncertain situations where their credit matrix deteriorated, triggering downgrades.
Is digitalisation the future for the logistics industry for a swift growth?
Digitalisation is already happening in the industry. Even though, in some geographies we see sluggishness in terms of adoption due to lack of awareness overall the greatest number of processes are already automated. Cargo movement is getting tracked end-to-end and time slot management applications for managing truck movements and everything is happening real-time. And they have achieved paperless trade and sustainability metrics seamlessly. Therefore, growth prospects are going to double in the coming years.
One very pertinent issue which surfaced during the pandemic was the cross-country differentials in tech adoption which led to supply chain disruptions. The industry is now ready to move away from ‘just-in-case’ regime to ‘just-in-time’ market transactions and just-in-time ‘factory-to-end-user’ deliveries.
Plans for 2022
The New Year 2022 will possibly see the rise in core technology upgradations in the logistics industry. While stakeholders are gradually embracing standalone applications such as truck slot management, e-air waybill processing, online delivery orders, e-Certificate of origin to name a few, we now see there is going to be a steady rise in the use of predictive analytics, blockchain-related applications and, most importantly, cloud-based community platforms such as cargo community systems and digital freight corridors to witness more demand.
