The past several years have seen at least for the transportation industry what amounts to light-speed progress. More than two years of pandemic-driven, supply chain meltdowns along with environmental setbacks have greatly accelerated the need for innovation and digitization, especially in legacy businesses that in many cases still conduct operations with pen and paper.
For example, the recent surge in maritime tech has certainly helped to ease the ongoing challenges of global logistics, as more and more companies use AI integrated predictive analytics to streamline scheduling, optimize container capacity, stay ahead of shifting market trends and consumer behavior, and forecast optimal delivery times. And, predictive analytics have also resulted in the consistent identification of greener, more efficient global routes.
As GP and Co-Founder of TMV, we look for entrepreneurs who are building tech-enabled sustainable solutions that will improve industry efficiency. Why?
Because this is where we see the opportunity to create the greatest and most substantive impact. Industry efficiency, in transportation especially, has tremendous power to drivede carbonisation. Every metric tone of fuel saved reduces global C02 output by atleast 2.5 metric tonnes. If we reduced fuel consumption of every ship, for example, by just three metric tonnes per day on average, we could save roughly a gigatonne of greenhouse gasses over a decade. Thus, the sooner the shipping industry at large can adopt new tech, the more efficiently and sustainably it will perform.
Two of TMV’s investments Nautilus and Portcast are already using data science, machine learning and other advanced technologies to generate fuel efficiencies and reduce carbon emissions while maximizing commercial outcomes. Nautilus helps optimize fleet operations for sustainability: the platform leverages data fusion to measure fuel consumption and machine learning to equip teams with real-time updates on the greenest routes, as well as manage plant power demand by identifying the most efficient generator settings.
Portcast is building a next-generation logistics operating system. By leveraging geotracking, cloud computing and machine learning, Portcast’s technology creates massive efficiencies, eliminating much of the manual work being done today. The platform generates predictions that increase efficiencies across the board, creating predictive analytics to collect nuanced data from multiple categories, for examle weather, geospatial and world events. Portcastisal so introducing a new tool that will track specific stock-keeping units (SKUs) within each container. By enabling companies to follow individual products in real time, Portcast can show the amount of CO2 emissions in the context of each individual shipment.
Not only are we seeing major tech advancements inpredictive an alytics and overall digitization, but also in new platforms that allow for easy online procurement of essential vessel and sea farer supplies, which in turn, leads to industry efficiency and increased decarbonisation.
"Every metric tone of fuels aved reduces global C02 output by atleast 2.5 metrictonnes."
Another of TMV’s recent investments, Ships Kart, is a B2B e-commerce solution for maritime and offshore businesses that digitizes, simplifies and answers one of the shipping industry’s most time –consuming an alogue processes :a single and streamlined online marketplace for managing the order process from start to finish—an Amazon for the shipping world. While e-commerce may have long been the norm across industries, maritime procurement still lags. Bringing existing analogue marketplaces online not only helps save time and reduce costs, but also increases there saliency of global supplychains, leading to fewer legacy and current emissions overall.
Along with advancement in maritime tech, the trucking industry is getting a much needed transformation. Today, 30 percent of the trucks on the road drive empty of cargo, leading directly to massive excess carbon emissions that can be significantly reduced through better planning and network coordination. TMV portfolio company Leaf Logistics is moving at light-speed to reinvent transportation logistics through breakthrough digital solutions. Leaf uses predictive analytics and AI to identify the best transportation contracting opportunities for their customers, lowering costs, improving operations, reducing carbon emissions, improving overall freight and budget predictability .Leaf helps its customers fill empty miles driven by their carriers through strategically coordinated routes and circuits across the Leaf network reducing both carbon emissions and transportation costs.
Channel 19, another of TMV’s investments, equips freight brokerages, trucking companies and small independent carriers with the best technology to book optimal loads and streamlined associated tasks. In turn, this serves to simplify and improve the navigation, negotiation, booking, and transaction execution process for truckload freight across the increasingly digitized marketplace. Sustainability is a critical priority for the Channel19 team. Optimizing trucking routes for efficiency in turn drives sustainability by reducing unnecessary time on the road and minimizing empty return trips. And, the plan-ahead scheduling feature enables operators to create more strategic calendars and productive use of trucks, at the very least maximizing the fuel that is being used.
The transportation industry has finally come a long way in adopting new technology and new ways of operating over the last few years. The next major bridge will intersect shipping, trucking and tech-enabled sustainability, with new products that will not only continue to streamline ocean commerce and trucking, but also lead to urgent solutions, aka, supply chain solutions and new sustainable approaches. The more we continue to innovate and sustain our forward momentum, the faster the adoption of breakthrough tech can create widespread environmental progress in the industry at large.
