Broadened perspective urged as Jump Start ’18 gets in gear

Transportation industry leaders are being encouraged to be open to new ideas as Jump Start ’18, presented by SMC3, gets into gear today [Jan. 22] in Atlanta.

In his keynote address, Terry Jones, who founded Travelocity.com and Kayak.com and currently serves as chairman of Wayblazer, which uses artificial intelligence to provide travel recommendations, opened the conference urging attendees to take risks and adopt a wider perspective, commenting, “It’s not enough just to look at your business. You have to look at everything.”

With between 3,000 and 4,000 startup businesses every year, innovative companies are “all about less capital and more speed” in an environment that’s “drop-dead easy,” Jones said.

But, while technology has changed much about how business is conducted, Jones added, it remains vital to listen to customers.

The Home Depot’s senior director of reverse logistics, Sarah Galica, the conference chairwoman, encouraged the 500-plus Jump Start participants to connect, learn from each other and broaden their perspectives.

SMC3 used the conference as a forum to announce expansion of its RateWare XL and BatchMark XL less-than-truckload rating and auditing solutions to add advanced rating capabilities for small package shipments, including via various FedEx and UPS services. Go to http://www.smc3.com/press-releases-20180122.htm for details.

And DDC FPO unveiled its latest freight billing solutions product – DDC Intelligence – to streamline the bill-of-lading process, providing carriers with better productivity and billing accuracy plus cost savings with an enhanced client experience. View press release here for details.

Comprehensive coverage of Jump Start 2018 is slated to appear later this week at ajot.com and in print in the American Journal of Transportation.