CHICAGO, Oct. 31, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — FourKites, the leader in predictive supply chain visibility, today announced a new business unit designed to drive adoption of new technology that minimizes trucking “deadhead” by sharing capacity across like-minded shippers and carriers.

Nearly 40 percent of trucks on the road are empty at any given time, and yet capacity shortages are driving transportation costs up by 15 percent or more this year across the industry. FourKites believes capacity sharing can reduce 15 to 20 percent of overall shipping costs – and reduce environmental impact – by allowing shippers and carriers to access unused truck capacity via private networks, using real-time visibility and artificial intelligence via the FourKites platform.

FourKites recently launched its Predictive Capacity Management (PCM) product, which is the industry’s first to dynamically match shipments with available capacity. By comparison, traditional matching technologies and load boards operate based on stale historical data uploaded by carriers and shippers. The emergence of real-time visibility using GPS and ELD data makes predictive capacity sharing a real-world possibility.

To help deliver on this vision, FourKites today announced that Kristopher Glotzbach has joined the company as vice president, leading a new business unit responsible for predictive capacity management. Glotzbach joins from Uber Freight, where he helped bring shippers and carriers together in a transparent marketplace. Glotzbach is a 20-year veteran of the transportation industry, with deep specialization working with customers on the front lines to improve capacity and inventory management.

“This is the next big opportunity in supply chain and logistics,” said Matt Elenjickal, FourKites founder and CEO. “At a time when trucking capacity is at a record low, the search for carriers that make a good fit on certain lanes is increasingly intense. We’re enabling shippers to get products to market more quickly at lower overall operating costs. This level of collaboration and dynamic execution is only possible due to predictive tracking technology we created back in 2013.”

“This is an exciting, yet turbulent time in the transportation and logistics industry,” said Glotzbach. “The need for smart analytics and smart execution has never been higher, as today’s economics work against the goals of both shippers and carriers. I’m excited to join FourKites and help drive the foundational change and collaboration necessary to tilt the economics.”

FourKites is uniquely positioned to disrupt the load matching process due its already-strong shipper and carrier network, including more than 200 Fortune 1000 shippers creating much needed freight and capacity liquidity. Plus, FourKites software provides dynamic execution of load matches, allowing shippers to execute matches based on real-time conditions including delays at stops, traffic congestion and disruptive weather events.

FourKites PCM is currently focused on sharing truck capacity across truckload shipments. The broader FourKites platform operates across all transportation modes, including truckload and LTL, ocean, rail, intermodal, last mile and parcel, and in all regions of the world. The company’s customer list includes AB InBev, Conagra Brands, Kraft Heinz, Nestlé, Perdue Foods, Smithfield Foods, Unilever, Walmart Canada and many others.

About FourKites
FourKites is the fastest-growing predictive supply chain visibility platform, delivering real-time visibility and predictive analytics for the broadest network of Fortune 500 companies and third-party logistics firms. Using a proprietary algorithm to calculate shipment arrival times, FourKites enables customers to lower operating costs, improve on-time performance, and strengthen end-customer relationships. With a network of more than four million GPS/ELD devices, FourKites covers all modes including ocean, rail, parcel and over-the-road. The platform is optimized for mobile and equipped with market-leading end-to-end security.

To learn more, visit http://www.fourkites.com.

SOURCE FourKites