b'2American Journal of Transportation ajot.comIT logistics providers provide big lift to stressed supply chain By George Lauriat, AJOTIT logistics providers comeTherehasalwaysbeen in all sizes, come from vari- an overlap between 3PLs (3rd ous sectors and offer a daz- PartyLogisticsProviders) zlingarrayofservicestoandlogisticstechcompanies supplychainpractitioners.offeringTMS(Transportation Someofthelogisticspro- ManagementSystems)and vidersarehouseholdnamesWMS(WarehouseManage-like Amazon(AmazonWebment Systems) and related sys-Services)orOraclewhiletems. After all, 3PLs like C.H. othersarenewlylaunchedRobinson or Transplace (which like CIT (Consolidated Inter- actuallyusesthetaglinea modalTechnologies)andtechnologycompany)with WIN(WebIntegratedNet- theirplatformsbothcompete work). Whether ubiquitous orandpartnerwithtechnology unknown, the goal of these ITproviders like SAP and Oracle. providers is to use technologyEqually,logisticstechnologyparticularly web-based sys- companieslikeOntario-based temsto enable the supplyDescartes provide technology,TOP LOGISTICS TECH chain to run with greater vis- platform and network services ibilityandefficienciesfortovirtuallyeverysegmentof transportation and warehousethe supply chain right down toPROVIDERS 2021providers and shippers.(LIFTcontinued on The number of ways thatpage 4)individualcompaniesdevel-opedintologisticstechpro-viders offers an object lesson in the evolution of the trans- The Premier LTL & Truckload portationsectoritself.Take the example of Atlanta-based\x06b7\x02\x03rrb1-omSMC3. Originally, SMC3 was calledSouthernMotorCar-riersRateCommitteeand founded in 1930 with the pur-poseofpublishingratesfor Floridatruckers.Inthelate 1990s it created rates-related"\x18\x07v\x02o;u|_;uo-7\x02voom\x02ruob7;v\x02v|u;-lbm;7\x02|u-mvrou|-om\x02software for truckers and this eventually led to the develop- vou1bm]\x02=ou\x020o|_\x02|u1ho-7\x02-m7\x02\x15$\x15\x027;b;ubm]\x02-\x021olr;;\x02;7];\x02|o\x02ou\x02ment of the SMC3 platform.o;u-\x02ruo1u;l;m|\x02ruo1;vvOther tech providers were from inception designed to be logisticstechproviderswhile many more were built and ini-tially started as inhouse projects to address a specific problem. Now, no matter how they werestarted,logisticstech\x03|ol-|;\x02!\x1ev\x02-m7\x02v-;\x02 \x0b|;\x021-uub;uv\x02om\x02lou;\x02providersareanessential0;\x02u;vou1;\x02l; |_-m\x02rub1;\x02-om;componenttoeverylinkof the supply chain.R estRuctuRings hippingt ech \x1brlb;\x02o;u|_;uo-7\x02 \x06b7\x02v|u-|;]b1\x021-uub;u\x02Probablynoeventhas|u-mvrou|-om\x02vr;m7 r-u|m;uv_brvchallengedtheglobalsupply chainliketheCOVID-19 pandemic. From the dizzying drop in demand with the lock-downs,majorshiftsincon-sumer behavior and now with thesurgestressinghandling capacity,nothinghascome close to the pandemic in test-ing the resilience of the supply chain. And at many turns, the supply chain has proved want-ing.Congestionandthou-sandsofotherissues,largeNOW and small, have been exposed INCLUDESoverthelasttwoyears.But thischallengetothesupply TRUCKLOADchain has become an incuba-torfornewcompanies,new ideasandnewITproducts. From a business perspective, it has also been a period that has seen both a high number oflaunches and acquisitions, as the field is at once wid-eningwithnewplayersand simultaneously restructuring. What will eventually evolve fromtherestructuringofthe tech side of the supply chain [email protected] | 770-486-5800 | www.smc3.comdifficult to say at this juncture.'