FreightWaves LIVE: An Events Podcast

As e-commerce sales are projected to hit $709.78 billion in the U.S. in 2020, logistics companies are turning to the virtual world to hire, onboard and train employees.Prologis Inc.the world’s largest developer, owner and operator of logistics warehouses, is partnering with tech startup Strivr, which has developed a virtual reality-based platform, to provide hands-on learning and realistic decision-making practice to help workers maximize efficiency and reduce safety incidents.Steven Hussain, director of community workforce programs for Prologis, and Derek Belch, founder and CEO of Strivr, discussed using virtual learning to train the industrial workforce of tomorrow during FreightWaves’ virtual Future of Logistics Real Estate Summit WatchApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robotics startups Third Wave Automation and Outrider are taking on forklifts and yard trucks in a way that is advancing automation and zero-emission technology on both sides of the warehouse wall.Participating in a fireside chat during FreightWaves’ Future of Logistics Real Estate Summit on Tuesday, Third Wave Automation CEO and co-founder Arshan Poursohi and Outrider founder and CEO Andrew Smith spoke of their common goal of automating freight and cargo movement inside and outside the warehouse without ignoring the importance of human interaction. WatchApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Had Amazon not purchased Kiva Systems for $775 million in 2012 and stopped selling its robots, Locus Robotics might not have become a spinoff of 3PL Quiet Logistics.“The management team at the time had a choice of whether to not use robots, buy a robot or build their own,” Locus Robotics CEO Rick Faulk said during a fireside chat with Tony Palchek, managing director of Zebra Technologies, during the FreightWaves Future of Logistics Real Estate Summit on Tuesday. “I think they made a really smart decision.”WatchApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dooner and The Dude talk with Matthew Cherewka Director Of Business Development at Vecna RoboticsApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 The logistics warehouse of the future will be heavily automated, purpose-built for e-commerce and ready for tenants to “plug in” and go live almost immediately, a top executive for distribution giant Ingram Micro said Tuesday.Keynoting FreightWaves’ daylong webinar on the future of logistics warehousing, Ken Beyer, executive vice president and president of commerce and life cycle services for the Irvine, California-based company, said developers must focus on building design and construction to fully support the e-commerce requirements of small to midsize businesses that will enter the segment in droves in the years ahead. Speaking with Prologis Inc. COO Gary Anderson, Beyer said developers would be well-served to follow the “data-center” model in which businesses outsource their information management needs to companies with massive data centers and have their data reside in the cloud for easy, secure access. Gone — or fast going — are the days when companies kept servers in large data rooms, and maintained them at huge financial and manpower costs, he said. Apple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves PodcastsWatch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Roughly a decade ago, in anticipation of changes in the supply chain and logistics sector, investment firm Saybrook Management started buying companies in that space – not so much because they were great opportunities, which they were, but because the firm wanted to understand how the various pieces of the supply chain worked.Then came COVID-19.“There’s nothing that compares to this from a logistics perspective,” Saybrook CEO Jonathan Rosenthal told FreightWaves technology reporter Vishnu Rajamanickam during a fireside chat Thursday at American Shipper’s Global Trade Tech summit. Apple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves PodcastsWatch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transship founder and CEO Amit Hasak’s vision for the future of transporting perishable goods across the world involves fewer phone calls and emails and a lot more automation. The result: potentially knowing that a malfunctioning reefer unit spoiled that shipment of frozen pork long before someone opens that container at a Chinese port. “We provide that information in real time,” Hasak said during a virtual fireside chat at American Shipper’s Global Trade Tech summit on Thursday. He spoke with Brian Laung Aoaeh, a co-founder of REFASHIOND Ventures, a New York-based venture capital fund.  Apple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves PodcastsWatch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Labor and employment attorney Gerald Maatman Jr. is tasked with advising clients on avoiding potential legal pitfalls that may arise in the workplace because of the coronavirus.However, he admits that nothing in his 40-plus years specializing in labor law has prepared him for the challenges employers face because of the coronavirus, which has infected more than 6 million people in the U.S. and killed more than 196,000 people since January.“I thought I had seen everything and then COVID-19 occurred,” said Maatman, senior partner of Chicago-based Seyfarth Shaw LLP, on Thursday at the virtual American Shipper Global Trade Tech summit to FreightWaves; John Kingston. “I’ve worked harder and longer hours to assist employers with all of the challenges and the changing playing field that they find themselves on today. It’s been extraordinary times.” Apple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The air cargo market has exploded in the age of COVID, but a lot of paper still clogs the system. Joshua Wolf is seeking to change that.Wolf, the founder of Cargo Sprint, was one of the two participants in a fireside chat at American Shipper’s Global Trade Tech summit. He spoke with Scott Case, the founder and chief storyteller of Position: Global. Case is also president of the Chicago branch of the International Air Cargo Association and said he came from a period early in his career where as a freight forwarder he would often “hop in the car” to get a process done that now might be completed digitally.  Apple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves PodcastsWatch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With bookings of U.S. imports from China currently up 89% year-over-year (y/y), ocean freight out of China is surging during the COVID-19 pandemic.Steve Ferreira, CEO of Ocean Audit Inc., and Daniel Gardner, president of Trade Facilitators, recently discussed what’s causing the surge of goods from China and how long it will last.  Apple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves PodcastsWatch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices