Need for Visibility Drives Dramatic Growth in Multimodal and International Tracking for FourKites

FourKites, the #1 real-time supply chain visibility platform, today announced dramatic growth in the use of its technology to track shipments across multiple modes and countries as supply chain leaders increasingly turn to real-time visibility and predictive ETAs for end-to-end freight tracking and management. Specifically, international load volumes tracked via FourKites grew nearly 200% in 2020 compared to the same time period in 2019; ocean load volume grew 149%; and rail and intermodal grew 49%. FourKites experienced 140% growth in ocean customers and 138% growth in rail and intermodal customers over the same time period.

COVID-19, the economic downturn, capacity shortages and trade tensions have roiled supply chains in myriad ways, accelerating the move to visibility solutions that can help logistics professionals better manage their operations and ensure the timely delivery of shipments. Existing FourKites customers are rapidly expanding beyond over-the-road (OTR) tracking, while new customers are jumping into multimodal tracking from the start in order to take advantage of FourKites’ extensive international coverage and multimodal capabilities.

Eastman, one of the world’s largest producers of specialty chemicals and additives, is deploying the FourKites’ platform globally for all loads and all modes, linking over-the-road and rail shipments in South America, Europe and North America to ocean freight for true end-to-end global visibility. “FourKites impressed us with their willingness to develop and adapt to meet Eastman product quality expectations, and they have a well-articulated global visibility strategy across regions and modes,” said Tom Morton, VP, Global Supply Chain at Eastman. “Their flexibility and willingness to collaborate made us feel confident in them as a key partner as Eastman drives to optimize every layer of the end-to-end supply chain.”

Canfor, a leading sustainable forestry products manufacturer, has partnered with FourKites to centralize visibility across its three main shipment modes: truck, rail and ocean. FourKites has enabled Canfor to integrate its transportation management into a new automated system to track shipments across all modes and to provide insight on container movements. Canfor is currently tracking over 50,000 container shipments a year with FourKites, and the company can proactively manage its customers’ supply pipelines to prevent stockouts and line-downs.

“The automated reporting and tracking provides more accurate and real-time data, which allows Canfor to respond to customer inquiries quicker and with up-to-date information on their upcoming shipments that would have otherwise had to be manually tracked,” explains Bob Hayes, Vice President, Global Supply Chain, Canfor.

“We are witnessing an important new phase in real-time supply chain visibility, as more companies leverage this indispensable technology to better manage complex global shipments end to end,” said FourKites Founder and CEO Mathew Elenjickal. “The combination of physical tracking from origin to delivery, together with predictive ETAs and analytics, is proving a huge advantage during the most challenging year on record for supply chains.”

FourKites has invested heavily in international coverage and multimodal capabilities over the last year, including:

● End-to-end tracking capabilities that link ocean to rail tracking and ocean to OTR, with the industry’s most accurate, predictive ETAs across modes.
● New machine learning ETAs for ocean and rail, comparing real-time vessel/railcar position data against historical transit times while factoring in speed, weather, port/terminal congestion and other variables to optimize the flow of goods. In addition, FourKites provides a publicly available Network Congestion Map that tracks cross-border freight movements across North America, Mexico and Europe, as well as port delays for over 230 ports globally and interstate transit metrics.
● Global expansion updates in Europe, Latin America and Australia/New Zealand that factor travel bans and resting time information into tracking logic and ETAs; real-time traffic and weather data across regions; and tracking ability for more than 75,000 seaports, airports and rail terminals globally.

FourKites is the largest predictive supply chain visibility platform, delivering real-time visibility and predictive analytics for the broadest network of Global 1000 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. FourKites’ network spans millions of GPS/ELD devices in 176+ countries and covers all modes, including truckload, LTL, ocean, rail, air, intermodal, courier and parcel, and extends real-time visibility into the yard. FourKites has 1 million loads and over $100 billion in freight under management at any given time.