FEATURING A DELIVERY LOGISTICS PLATFORM that supports shipments for 3,500 customers daily. Via ERP systems or robots. With standard integrations, of course.
For farmers, bakers, online retailers, or large manufacturers. No matter what industry you play in, or the size of your business, LogTrade will help you get your products to where they need to be, whenever they are needed most. Or we can make them a bit more autonomous, so they can move and sell themselves
CLICK ON THE CIRCLES
SWIFT SHIPPING
For online retailers, manufacturers with warehouses, 3PLs, primary producers, or restaurants. No matter who you are, LogTrade will help you ship more sustainably. Our expertise lies in real-time data exchange between shippers, carriers, and customers, resulting in swift inbound and outbound shipments, and traceability to support circular logistics flows.
A LogTrade license will grant your products the power of independence. The LogTrade| Trade Unit function is scalable and location indifferent, so you can…
… reach your end customers wherever they are
… circumvent middlemen
… have your products move and sell themselves
… have your products report their transactions to you
Logville is a smart town, where products orchestrate their own circular journeys. Where resources are shared so that existing transportation and location capacities are maximized. Where pallets of bread are dynamic; they appear where demand is highest, can change location and adapt pricing once demand decreases.
Farmer Greene makes sure her raw goods reach end consumers or producers directly.
Farmer Greene’s barn is empty about half of the time. Luckily, it is hooked up to Logville’s distribution system and can be used as an interim storage hub when available.
A Pedal Pal is on its way to Farmer Greene, bearing leftovers that are used as animal feed or compost. Hardly any waste is generated in Logville. #nowaste
Bernadette Baker’s sourdough loaves travel through Logville, following demand. She owns her bread until it is sold.
Farmer Greene cultivates tomatoes using biotech sensors. These tomatoes can feel when they are just about ripe enough to be sliced for a salad, or if they are better suited for ketchup. Naturally, they can request their own pick-ups.
Large trucks are banned from Logville’s roads. Instead, they distribute incoming goods onto smaller vehicles.
Taxi or private vehicle, manned or unmanned. Any moving object in Logville can be a carrier
The food pantry truck gets free deliveries from producers when needed.
A Pablo Pallet moves around on the university campus, adjusting its location according to demand. In the afternoons, Bernadette Baker’s treats make their way from the cafe to the pallet at the university, where they sell to students at half price.
Your book order can meet you at your favorite coffee shop.
A coffee shop is a location that can double as a delivery hub. It is usually the first stop for Bernadette’s freshly baked goods.
The heart-chain-flow leads directly to the food pantry truck. No one in Logville suffers from malnutrition.
Data abuse is strictly forbidden in Supplania. To enforce this law, government officials audit match-making operators in and around Logville on an annual basis. Every consumer has the right to exit the system at any time, to switch operators or to go back to manual ordering altogether.
Pallets can be restocked by passing carriers, such as Henry Hotwheels, CEO of Pedal Pals. There are many different carrier capacities in Logville.
A LogBox is a smart, discreet and environmentally friendly unit on wheels. It is temperature regulated and powered by self-charging batteries.
Each residential area has its own delivery hub in the form of a free-standing pallet called Pablo. There are also locked versions, called Penelope Pallet.
The Internet of Nature is highly respected in Logville. Its mycelium network supports biological diversity and resilience. The network is left to run freely and is protected from invasive construction.
Farmer Greene makes sure her raw goods reach end consumers or producers directly.
Bernadette Baker’s sourdough loaves travel through Logville, following demand. She owns her bread until it is sold.
Pallets can be restocked by passing carriers, such as Henry Hotwheels, CEO of Pedal Pals. There are many different carrier capacities in Logville.
The food pantry truck gets free deliveries from producers when needed.
Farmer Greene makes sure her raw goods reach end consumers or producers directly.
The smart village. This is how we oftentimes refer to a sustainable, zero-waste generating community built on circular processes. Yet “smart” sounds so yesterday. A smart town is not about visible technology, but rather technology functioning in the background to enable a more organic and localized system. So we decided to give this new type of town an own name: Logville.
Logville’s founding documents are based on LogTrade’s vision and mission, which makes the town a trailblazer of sorts. Logville pioneered the first autonomous delivery system and paved the way for circular micro-logistics flows. The town vowed to use resources in the most effective manner and to demonstrate to others how this is done by giving smaller players just as much power as the big, unwieldy giants of yesteryear.
First, every player got hooked up to an open system. Digital tools were given to makers, bakers, farmers, and manufacturers so they could create autonomous products, with attributes.
Next, there was a free flow of information, allowing for supply and demand to be matched in the best possible way. Primary producers were granted access to transportation, production, and distribution data from millions of similar businesses around the world, to make predictive operations possible.
So you see, Logville is in no way alienated from global trade. It has simply made itself more resilient by maximizing local resources and collaborating on a global level to support regional movements. Raw goods do not need to be sent to different continents for processing, to be returned again in large quantities, of which ultimately a percentage will be dumped.
We have become painfully aware of the vulnerabilities of our current supply chain systems during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Surely localized, digital supply chains would have fared better. Without hoarding. Without bullwhip effects.
We better catch up with Logville and make the local become the new global. How, you ask? Let’s start by assessing the present.
What if packages could deliver themselves? How would they organize their journeys? Would this be feasible, let alone sustainable?
The way products are consumed today is not sustainable, and the e-commerce avatars seem to accelerate the consumption frenzy. Could it really be more sustainable if people almost completely stopped going to the store and instead got what they need before they knew they needed it, and right there where they need to have it?
Is that not asking for more of the same thing? And is it not moving development in the wrong direction for those who want to end the throwaway mentality and think it is crazy that billions of dollars worth of nice clothes and good food are discarded every year while there are people that go cold and hungry?
No. Quite the opposite.
Food waste and a lack of resources are, as we see it, two sides of the same coin, or like some kind of mutation within the gigantic consumption and distribution organism. It all really comes down to a mismatch between production and supply and demand, which means that it is fundamentally a question of logistics and logistics management. Which means that it is something that can be solved.
Let us have a closer look at this way of thinking with the help of bread
CIRCULAR LOGISTICS
In 2018, LogTrade started exploring a new way to distribute bread. A test was set up with the aim to empower bread to move and sell itself in a circular flow.
Starting with the grain
In the heart of Silicon Valley lies The Midwife and The Baker, an artisan bakery that mills and ferments whole grains, turning them into highly digestible sourdough loaves.
At dawn, the bakery’s delivery vehicles start their journey to supply coffee shops, restaurants, offices, and Farmers Markets in the Bay Area with loaves and treats. The delivery routes are predefined, the fleet returns empty, and remains unused for the rest of the day. Once delivered to the customer, the fate of unsold products is in their hands.
This is where an autonomous delivery system could help: Allowing bakers to focus on milling and baking, without the distraction of fleet management, and reaching customers directly to improve production planning and reduction of waste at the end of the day. Further, enabling the bakery’s fleet to move other goods along the way and during down-time. Ultimately, creating a circular logistics system.
In early 2018, LogTrade and The Midwife and The Baker started with some simple tests to work towards such a system
LOCKDOWN IN SILO LAND
COVID-19 induced lockdowns have rattled global food distribution, increasing the gap between production and consumption.
Farmers are dumping fruit, vegetables, and dairy products while food pantries are running short on produce. There is no shortage of food, but a lack of flexibility to adjust packaging and supplier contracts to reroute wholesale goods from middlemen to end-consumers directly.
In addition to these operational and legal constraints, there is an inability to adjust deliveries. Operating in their own high-security silos, carriers are incapable of speaking with each other to coordinate resources. Even in crisis, it appears that philanthropic band-aids are an easier solution than embracing the opportunity to start working on systemic change.
Back to the script. What would a circular logistics flow look like for a bakery?
A circular economy strives to create a regenerative system that is less reliant on natural resources by extending a product’s lifetime. A door, for example, can be constructed in a way that its components can be used far beyond the door’s initial duty as a gateway to a building. A bread’s lifetime is much shorter – and therefore way more exciting to study.
A truly sustainable product follows a circular path. It leads to an adventurous life, fulfilling a series of different purposes. Its transportation needs to be organized in an environmentally friendly and economically reasonable way, for example by using existing transportation resources. This is circular logistics, enabling circular business models.
So what would a bread’s journey look like?
This is the envisioned model:
As soon as a loaf pops out of the oven, it starts its journey to Customer A, a coffee shop.
After a couple of hours at the coffee shop, purchases slow down. The bakery’s ERP system, which mothers all its products’ movements, feels that it’s time for unsold bread to get a move on. Nearby transportation capacities are notified and called to action. “Taxis, bikes, scooters – take us to Customer B!”
Customer B can be found at a university, for example. Bread has cooled down and their prices are lowered accordingly. After a couple of hours, they call for transportation to Customer C, a food pantry.
Any leftover bread will move onwards to a farm, as a treat for pigs or to decompose and eventually fertilize new grain crops.
Most likely, baked goods and other food products will catch rides from delivery robots, in standardized boxes. Equipped with smart locks and IoT sensors, these boxes will be able to monitor temperature, shocks, etc. to ensure quality and food safety. The boxes will fit into a car trunk, onto a bike trailer or similar, to retain carrier flexibility.
LACKING DIGITAL LOGISTICS TOOLS
Resource planning tools are commonly targeted at large businesses with financial prowess. Although enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) with integrated transport administration software (TA) would make life considerably easier for any business, small companies typically wait much longer with implementing such tools.
Equipped with a LogTrade TA license, the bakery was given access to the logistical operative system of the future. LogTrade has developed digital logistics tools since its beginnings in 1992. In 2017, the company started accelerating its R&D work to democratize logistics. Using its TA system as a platform, extensions and applications were built to eventually establish an all-inclusive operative system, open to anyone wanting to move something.
In Logville, products orchestrate their own circular journeys. Supply and demand are neatly aligned. Let us introduce you to its inhabitants:
Farmer Greene runs a certified organic farm on the outskirts of Logville. Besides livestock, Farmer Greene cultivates approx. 10 acres of rye and oat. Being an optimistic realist, she believes in animal welfare and pesticide-free farming methods. Farmer Greene doesn’t care much for middlemen and unnecessary transportation delays. She would much rather see her products reaching end-consumers directly.
CATEGORY: LOCATION AND/OR PRIMARY-PRODUCER
Bernadette Baker is an artisan baker. She started Logville’s first sourdough bakery, working with flour from nearby farms. Like Farmer Greene, Bernadette is a down-to-earth optimist. Her pet peeve is food waste and nothing upsets her more than dumped baguettes.
CATEGORY: LOCATION AND/OR PRODUCER
Henry Hotwheels is the CEO of Pedal Pals. Once a professional cyclist, Henry rechanneled his remaining energy and road cycling expertise to bike deliveries. Pedal Pals works like Uber or Lyft for bikes, with a network of approx. 1000 bike enthusiasts.
CATEGORY: CARRIER
LogBox is an autonomous unit. In Logville, there are more than 10,000 LogBoxes in circulation. They are nifty little units that fit onto Pedal Pal bike racks, fit into taxi trunks, and that can be stacked onto pallets. LogBoxes are temperature regulated, powered by batteries that charge when strapped to a vehicle, when plugged into an outlet or via little solar panels on their lids.
CATEGORY: CARRIER
Pablo Pallet is a portable pallet. His cousin, Penelope Pallet is a pallet bearing a lockable box. Essentially a larger version of the LogBox, Penelope can also be temperature regulated when connected to a power outlet. Penelopes can be unlocked by a smartphone, connected to a mobile payment app called LogCoin. Most Pablo and Penelope Pallets are hooked up to Logville’s digital infrastructure via 6G sensors that have a passive battery life of over 30 years. These pallets can react to transportation requests and be placed anywhere from private sales points to public areas (with appropriate zoning). Pablos and Penelopes adjust their location to people’s needs. You can typically find them meeting people on their daily commutes, or close to home.
CATEGORY: PLACE
FROM FARM TO TABLE AND BEYOND
#circularlogistic,
Farmer Greene supplies flour to Bernadette Baker, in bags of 10kg. She also sells oats and rye flour directly to end consumers, in smaller bags of 2kg. Her ERP system automatically directs the flour to its respective customer, guided by predictive technology rather than set contracts. Her flour can hop on any transport capacity within Logville’s digital logistics network, the Internet of Logistics, an extensive network for location and transportation management.
Aiming to limit traffic and maximize load capacities, real-time route planning algorithms make sure that carriers pick up and pool deliveries en route.
Bernadette bakes a mean rye bread and other delicious sourdough treats using Farmer Greene’s flour. She makes sure that they find their way to various locations in Logville. Some coffee shops buy a fixed amount of products, some only buy the ones that sell themselves at their location. Unsold products are owned by Bernadette and directed by her ERP system. The system will trigger the onward journey of these products according to a pre-set time marker. Bernadette’s ERP system can automatically decrease the price for products moving to the next location, where they won’t be quite as fresh and crispy. Usually the treats move along to the Logville University campus on a Pedal Pal, which drops them off at a Pablo Pallet that is closest to hungry students.
Bernadette also bakes gluten free oat buns that are placed on Pablo Pallets strategically placed at Logville’s transit center. Here, Pablo Pallets are joined by Brew Trikes during the morning rush hour. Brew Trike brews specialty coffee on the go and is a subsidiary of Pedal Pals.
Those coffee shops that opt to buy fixed amounts of baked goods from Bernadette Baker are responsible to manage their own food waste. Some reuse unsold bread to make other snacks or ready-made meals. They may redistribute to other outlets in town, or send leftovers to the local food pantry via the heart-chain route.
The bread that ends up at the food pantry is by no means bad – given the high nutrition density and natural preservative factor of sourdough goods and its swift transportation from location to location.
After any remaining bread hardens, it is moved back to Farmer Greene, who feeds it to her animals or adds it to her compost. And so the circle is complete.
THE POWER OF SMALL
Farmer Greene supplies flour to Bernadette Baker, in bags of 10kg. She also sells oats and rye flour directly to end consumers, in smaller bags of 2kg. Her ERP system automatically directs the flour to its respective customer, guided by predictive technology rather than set contracts. Her flour can hop on any transport capacity within Logville’s digital logistics network, the Internet of Logistics, an extensive network for location and transportation management.
Aiming to limit traffic and maximize load capacities, real-time route planning algorithms make sure that carriers pick up and pool deliveries en route.
Bernadette bakes a mean rye bread and other delicious sourdough treats using Farmer Greene’s flour. She makes sure that they find their way to various locations in Logville. Some coffee shops buy a fixed amount of products, some only buy the ones that sell themselves at their location. Unsold products are owned by Bernadette and directed by her ERP system. The system will trigger the onward journey of these products according to a pre-set time marker. Bernadette’s ERP system can automatically decrease the price for products moving to the next location, where they won’t be quite as fresh and crispy. Usually the treats move along to the Logville University campus on a Pedal Pal, which drops them off at a Pablo Pallet that is closest to hungry students.
Bernadette also bakes gluten free oat buns that are placed on Pablo Pallets strategically placed at Logville’s transit center. Here, Pablo Pallets are joined by Brew Trikes during the morning rush hour. Brew Trike brews specialty coffee on the go and is a subsidiary of Pedal Pals.
Those coffee shops that opt to buy fixed amounts of baked goods from Bernadette Baker are responsible to manage their own food waste. Some reuse unsold bread to make other snacks or ready-made meals. They may redistribute to other outlets in town, or send leftovers to the local food pantry via the heart-chain route.
Bread that ends up at the food pantry is by no means bad – given the high nutrition density and natural preservative factor of sourdough goods and its swift transportation from location to location.
After any remaining bread hardens, it is moved back to Farmer Greene, who feeds it to her animals or adds it to her compost. And so the circle is complete.
WHERE DID ALL THE GROCERY STORES GO?
Getting with the times, Logville’s grocery stores morphed into digital food operators, a.k.a. DFOs. DFOs have localized servers in each neighborhood and act as operators on the Internet of Logistics system.
“What’s the deal with DFOs?”
DFOs are virtual distributors that develop and sell food industry-specific applications, driven by machine learning technology. These applications make it possible to supply the people of Logville with their daily staples when needed, wherever needed. A super tailored service of utmost convenience.
In a way, DFOs have retained their wholesale character. Yet instead of distributing food from giant warehouse systems, they have become good guys, who play a critical role in matching supply with demand in a decentralized distribution system. 3-for-2 sales are so yesterday.
The novelty and critical difference with this matchmaking machine is that it actually helps all primary and secondary producers like Farmer Greene and Bernadette Baker reach their end customers directly, allowing them to retain power, margins, and dignity.
The bakery needs to be part of a much larger network application in order for the circular redistribution system to function. Something that resembles the World Wide Web.
No, no. The World Wide Web and the Internet are not the same things. The Internet was created as a grid-like structure in the 60ies, and the World Wide Web is an application that started running on the Internet in the 90ies. Joining the World Wide Web is simple: you follow standard protocol by creating a page in Html format, picking a name that conforms to the URI convention and by publishing the page on the web with an Http(s) standard protocol. No need for permits from any authority.
The Web’s decentralized and open nature invites everyone around the world to participate and to innovate. It is universal, dynamic, and limitless. The Web is whatever we shape it to be.
Fun fact: The founder of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, actually intended for the Web to be semantic.
Conversely, the Internet of Logistics shall replicate the World Wide Web by fostering the growth of a logistics network based on a semantic data model.
This is certainly confusing. Why wouldn’t it be called the Logistics Web then? Just like people commonly refer to the Web as the Internet, we realized that the Internet of Logistics would be a more graspable term. In case not everyone just read the previous two paragraphs.
Key to remember is the Internet of Logistics’ shared values with the Web: openness and decentralization.
A WEB OF KNOWLEDGE
Linked-Data
Today, the Web is a tool for users to find and hyperlink information pages. It is not (yet) possible for “data processers” to understand data on the Web. Users can piece together information from different pages, but the Web cannot answer user questions directly because data has not been linked in a way for computers to process. Once this becomes possible, we will have a web based on linked data. We will have gold. There will be an explosion of innovation, as people and computers collaborate in data interpretation. Having access to knowledge and applying it in appropriate contexts is basically how science started out!
In order for computers to comprehend linked data, the world wide web needs to be based on a semantic model.
The Internet of Logistics & the semantic web model
The Web has evolved from web 1.0 to web 3.0, where the latter is based on the semantic web model or database model. This is what the Internet of Logistics is built on.
FACT BOX
Web 1.0 used hyperlinks to help us navigate between pages and documents. There was little room for content generation, as it was pretty much read-only.
Web 2.0 introduced content contributions and user interaction via applications such as LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Instagram, Flickr, etc. These applications operate in silos, as they do not share information with each other. If you update your LinkedIn page, your Facebook page does not automatically follow suit. The same principle applies to companies – there is little in the way of information exchange between databases. Sounds familiar? The logistics industry is equally fragmented.
Web 3,0 strives to connect data in a deeper manner, linking facts instead of documents. This is incredibly useful, as computers/ machines start understanding content and can point users to exactly what they actually need, instead of an approximate match.
The whole point of the Internet of Logistics is to provide horizontal visibility by tearing down information silos between players within the logistics industry.
If we can find accurate data on the web, the same should apply to packages. They too should be able to find an accurate carrier or destination. In fact, a package is an ultra-tangible object in the semantic model, as its contents, origin, and destination can be more accurately defined than more abstract notions such as “love” or “good”.
To make a global internet of packages, a.k.a. Internet of Logistics work, it should use web principles such as URI, HTTP, HTML.
Let’s take a look at how a package can obtain an identity/ URI to gain visibility on the Internet of Logistics.
THE PACKAGE DECIDES
A package needs a unique identity in order to orchestrate its circular logistics flow. It needs to be able to delegate actions by informing relevant 3rd parties about its whereabouts, contents, and destination. Similarly, destinations/ locations need to be able to communicate their coordinates and attributes.
Attributes are a crucial part of an identity – a truck, for example, can have the attribute “cooling function”.
LogTrade has been providing packages with basic identities for almost 30 years. Now the time has come to fundamentally restructure and support more advanced attributes for both packages and locations. And carriers too, once they can be defined as locations such as food trucks. URIs to all!
A URI is a Uniform Resource Identifier that can take the form of a QR code, an RFID chip, or an IoT sensor. We have used both IoT sensors and QR code stickers for our tests in the US and Sweden.
Important note: there is no need to use a sensor that pushes real-time notifications in the beginning. You get pretty far with simple QR code scanning to update identities with critical status changes.
In the case of bread, its URI gets updated when it moves and changes status from popping out of the oven to departure from the bakery, arrival at café, transportation to a food pantry, and finally, consumption or decomposition. Movements are reported by carriers scanning the bread’s QR code. Purchases are reported by consumers scanning the same code.
To summarize, creating the Internet of Logistics is a communal effort. What makes the Internet so great is the volume of contributions. The Internet of Logistics will have to grow the same way; first people may be skeptical and unsure of how to use this new network. Then they will start to toy around with it and discover ways to engage.
This network is a fundamental structure that is independent of LogTrade. We will certainly be early contributors and advocates, but the Internet of Logistics will be administered by a neutral, not-for-profit consortium composed of several companies, organizations, and authorities. Read more about the Internet of Logistics, here. Link to the everything ecosystem
What role will LogTrade assume in the IoL paradigm?
LogTrade develops digital tools and applications that support private individuals, companies, and non-profit organizations in their efforts to create circular logistics models.
The more users of our applications, the more powerful the new standard will be.
Simultaneously, we are developing our cloud-based platform to become the world’s first operating system for logistics.
Although our applications are free-standing, the beauty will lie in the complete operative system that is integrated into an ERP system.
Thanks to LogTrade’s APIs, an ERP system can answer a myriad of shipment and trade-related questions, in addition to automating sales and distribution flows. As LogTrade’s ecosystem of add-ons grows, so does the value of its operating system. Think payment solutions, or open carrier marketplaces that enable scaling and business development.
Figuratively speaking, if an ERP system were to be a producer’s brain, then the operative system would be its heart, pumping and distributing products to customers. Add-ons that generate financially, environmentally and socially sustainable trade patterns will strengthen the heart.
THE CENTER OF THE ECOSYSTEM
Founded in 1992, LogTrade has always had a disruptive streak, spurred by the somewhat paradoxical combination of software development and logistics, where the latter lags far behind in development and transparency.
LogTrade has focused on bridging the gap between the two industries, developing software to open up communication within the fragmented logistics industry. Quickly recognizing the economic potential of sharing information to free up resources, LogTrade was way ahead of the COVID-19 supply chain revelations. Our technical platform can handle an enormous amount of shipments, much more than the 180,000 packages that are currently sent via LogTrade every day.
So we know that our operative system can handle high shipment volumes, but in order to reach a critical mass, we need to build a network.
We are proud to have the support of partners like Ericsson, IBM, Microsoft, universities and other innovators. We are constantly making more friends as we welcome add-ons to build out the ecosystem with the aim of enabling cross-sector value creation, where everyone can find new business opportunities.
One of our current efforts is to facilitate and participate in research collaborations between companies and institutes such as Malmö Högskola, Uppsala University, Stanford University, and State University of Iowa.
As a values-driven company, there is a thought behind each partnership. Let us take a closer look at our relationship with IBM and IBM Watson.
PREDICTIVE TECHNOLOGY
The next generation of distribution
The more bakeries that participate in the Internet of Logistics, the more transport and sales data is gathered. By accumulating and linking this data, machines will be able to find correlations between sales and seasons, weather, traffic, sports events, etc. Guided by this knowledge, a bakery can make more accurate production and distribution decisions.
These insights will help bakeries all over the world learn from each other’s experiences. Currently, this type of information is reserved for companies with multiple outlets, one of the benefits of economies of scale.
We have chosen to team up with IBM Watson because the quality of predictive technology is the key to distribution automation, where products are placed exactly where they are needed before the need ever arises. IBM Watson is the world’s most advanced cognitive AI. Further, IBM follows high technical and ethical standards with regards to data security. Lastly, IBM Food Trust is an important player within the food supply chain tracing as it applies blockchain technology to enforce accountability within the industry:
All-inclusiveness is important to both IBM and LogTrade. In an effort to empower small to mid-scale farmers and producers, they are developing solutions that can easily be applied by anyone with a mobile phone. LogTrade’s labels/ QR codes will be able to include food tracing data provided by IBM Food Trust.
ELIMINATING OVERCONSUMPTION
The Internet of Logistics will eventually be a sophisticated service including lots of competing operating systems. Which is exactly how it should be. No one company or organization should ever dominate. The most important mission for these operating systems is to match demand with supply in order to eliminate overproduction and overconsumption.
In addition, the Internet of Logistics will enable any unused resource to be a carrier, sales location, storage space, etc.
A loaf of bread will be able to organize its own delivery pool with products traveling the same way.
Circular logistics flows will be a natural consequence of enlightened products and resources that are whizzing around and willing to share their space.
We are still just skimming the surface of all the possibilities that the Internet of Logistics will provide. Like a Barbapapa, the system can adapt and empower any type of player. Right now, we are overjoyed that it will help the small, primary producers reach their end-consumers.
WILL WE SUCCEED?
If the Internet of Logistics follows in the footsteps of the World Wide Web, then the future looks rosy. Yet we must be mindful of data integrity and guarantee that whoever participates in the Internet of Logistics owns their own transportation data. Even if we believe in open communication and data accumulation, careless data sharing will compromise our end goal of a decentralized and democratic information sharing structure. No matter how long it takes. After all, the tortoise beat the hare.
Most importantly, we can already get going with the tools that are available to us now. Small producers, farmers, bakers & makers can already use digital logistics tools to reach their end consumers and directly observe purchasing patterns. Existing LogTrade customers can get an extension to their TA system that gives products the power to sell themselves. Rest assured, your current system is already mighty capable.
The World Wide Web’s success lies in its principle of good faith. Its purpose is to serve humanity, to democratize information. For shared knowledge is shared power.
Making this smorgasbord of knowledge available to everyone is not entirely selfless. What could be more exciting for a developer than to contribute to the most powerful tool that was ever built? A tool that can prevent a climate crisis for example, by supporting circular logistics systems that make climate-smart purchases the default.
We are hopeful that we’ll get there. Join in on the fun!
PROCESSING 180,000 shipments per day via thousands of different carriers.
PARTNERS AND CUSTOMERS
»LogTrade is an important partner. There is huge potential at the intersection of IBM’s innovative technology and LogTrade’s innovative thoughts. At the moment, we are helping LogTrade apply our intelligent chatbot technology in IBM Cloud, based on IBM Watson Assistant.«
- Frode Langmoen
»We assist LogTrade with getting in touch with partners and charitable organizations, which is only a small part of what our collaboration, since 2017, entails.«
- Joakim Uddenfeldt
»LogTrade stands out when it comes to validity checks both on average and when integrated.«
- Thomas Bondesson
»We have found LogTrade’s digital logistics system to be a much more reliable system compared to previous TM systems we have used. That is very important to us. If there is any kind of disruption, everything comes to a complete standstill, and we do not make a dime.«
- Andreas Ekberg
»The accountants cried with joy.«
- Magnus Åhlin
»It reduces the need for hands-on help from consultants by 90 %.”«
- Anders Brunmarker
ABOUT LOGTRADE
LogTrade Technology AB is a disruptive player in digital logistics. The company was founded in 1992, with the mission to provide people with what they need, when they need it and where they need it.
Our core product is a cloud-based transport administration software. In its most basic form, the system enables swift communication between shippers, carriers, and customers. In its most advanced form, it is the key to circular logistics.
