project44: Visibility and Modern Connections for the Logistics Industry
by Ken Cowan
When we, as consumers, think of shipping, we often think of Amazon Prime: place an order and get the package one or two days later. We can track the entire process from start to finish on our phones and laptops. We know, within a few hour window, when our package will arrive.
But this kind of transparency has been limited to tracking packages for consumers while the rest of the $4 trillion logistics industry has lacked the visibility, accountability, and automation the market has come to expect. project44 is aiming to change all of this by providing supply chain visibility and API connectivity for some of the world’s largest shippers, carriers, and 3PLs including ABB, Uline, Steelcase and many others. We couldn’t be more excited to lead p44’s $35M Series B as the company, led by founder and CEO Jett McCandless, brings dynamic shipment data and supply chain visibility to a massive black box industry.
The vast majority of the logistics industry today functions through an ad hoc network of expensive, point-to-point Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) connections. EDI is slow, breaks often and provides information that people still ultimately have to manipulate and manually enter into other systems. These systems have tons of gaps, and people fill them in using some combination of phone, fax and email — leading to incredible amounts of latency in the entire system.
Many shipments involve some kind of delay. These delays will ultimately compound at scale. And yet, when faced with a barrage of compounding delays on a daily basis, companies dependent on the system have no choice but to throw more people at the problem, further decreasing efficiencies.
It’s no secret that customers’ expectations have changed. Pressure from Amazon and the rise of direct-to-consumer eCommerce have forced shippers to respond faster and provide better transparency to their customers, from consumers to businesses alike. People in all industries are warming to the idea that technology should be able to solve human problems through automation. And this is all happening amid a supply crunch in logistics that has seen transportation costs skyrocket.
project44’s API network is bringing much-needed relief to this overloaded system. They’ve distilled the complexities of a shipment to six core functions: pricing, routing, scheduling, tracking, delivery documentation and payments. Each of which is fundamentally a communication problem: connect the right systems with the right workflows and technologies, and you can bring predictability, visibility, and ultimately, automation to logistics. The result is a step-function improvement for both the infrastructure and the jobs of the people responsible for making it work.
p44 is transforming the operations of carriers like FedEx Freight and GE Transportation, 3PLs like Echo Global Logistics and shippers like AbbVie and Technicolor. They’re building the foundational communications layer for the entire logistics industry, and we’re thrilled to partner with them as they work to provide a single pane of glass view into everything that matters across the entire supply chain, ultimately increasing automating and driving significant efficiency gains throughout one of the largest markets in the world.
