Bellevue, Washington, USA: A panel discussion hosted by CloudSort Corporation has challenged the supply chain status quo on the power and importance of a ‘Modular Middle Mile’.
CloudSort Corporation, a logistics technology provider, hosted a discussion among supply chain and logistics leaders about the “under-innovated and often ignored, yet vital middle mile” at the Home Delivery World conference in Philadelphia, earlier this month.
CloudSort discussed how its Cloud-based software delivers value that enhances the end customer experience. “It’s no surprise that the middle mile has historically been deprioritized within the industry, however we continue to see increasing attention being given to its importance and ability to transport goods from points A to B more efficiently thanks to the technological advancements transforming today’s supply chain,” said Derek Szopa, chief executive, CloudSort. “We were inspired to bring partners and industry experts together in our panel discussion to share the ways a modular middle mile can do just that for their businesses, shippers, carriers and the end-consumer.”
CloudSort’s cloud-based sortation software brings together all the players – omnichannel retailers, online retailers, fulfillment centers and third-party logistics businesses (3PLs), shippers, carriers and end-consumers – with an ecosystem that reduces capital intensity and improves efficiency by moving work to the point of greatest value creation, he said.
With the middle mile becoming more prominent in the industry, companies are taking steps to directly control aspects of their delivery experience, and CloudSort enables them to make smarter choices about how shipments move along the supply chain, benefiting e-commerce by extending order windows and providing capacity that scales. As a result of this, CloudSort’s modular platform has just been named Sortation System Innovation of the Year by SupplyTech Breakthrough, which received more than 1,400 nominations and recognizes the world’s best companies, products and services in the supply chain technology and logistics industry.
Knowing that the industry’s complex, systemic problems required a paradigm shift and not just incremental adjustments, CloudSort designed its platform to address the issues for shippers and carriers to trade in delivery capacity. Unlike other package level sortation systems on the market today, CloudSort sortation operations are easier, cheaper and faster to build which puts deliveries closer to their destinations, sooner, the compny says.
“CloudSort enables adaptive nodes, rather than static pre-planned hub-and-spoke routes, through smarter sortation earlier on and that rely on artificial intelligence (AI) and big data. Partners can engage in multiple ways through modular solutions that can scale up and down, so it’s fully customizable, meaning CloudSort technology is interoperable and designed for seamless integration with both shippers and carriers’ existing tech stacks, the company says.
