GoBolt Partners with WARP to Increase the Strength and Visibility of their Middle-Mile Offerings
GoBolt’s merchants will now gain better visibility into their freight as it travels the middle mile for store replenishment, inventory transfers, and injection into carrier networks - including across borders.
WARP, a tech-powered freight network specializing in middle-mile solutions, today announced that they are now providing GoBolt, a technology company on a mission to build the world’s largest sustainable, vertically integrated supply chain network, with their DirecTrack technology. GoBolt’s merchants, which include world-class eCommerce retailers and brands across Canada and the U.S., will now gain better visibility into their freight as it travels the middle mile for store replenishment, inventory transfers, and injection into carrier networks - including across borders.
Known for its electric vehicle fleet, GoBolt currently has a network of fulfillment centers across the U.S. and Canada. With WARP’s technology, GoBolt merchants will be able to track inventory moving throughout GoBolt’s network in real-time allowing them to see exactly where their freight is along the expected route. In return, GoBolt can provide merchants with brick-and-mortar locations better visibility including exactly where their product is at any given time. With more up-to-date information on where their stock is throughout the network, brands can make more informed decisions about when to reorder products, how much stock to hold, along with when and where to replenish inventory.
“At WARP we’re not only working to link the whole supply chain together, we’re also working to do that sustainably and GoBolt was a natural partner in this mission,” said Troy Lester, CRO and Co-Founder at WARP. “We’re currently piloting an emissions calculator on our platform in partnership with GoBolt, so customers can see just how much their journey produces in terms of emissions as well as ways to offset them.”
Together, WARP and GoBolt aim to provide shippers with visibility at not only a pallet or truck level, but on individual parcels as well. This means that when products are being transported from GoBolt’s fulfillment centers to other last-mile delivery partners, merchants will gain access to status events including the first parcel scan as well as injection time.
"Typically, the middle mile is a blind spot for 3PLs and that was our experience until we partnered with WARP,” said Jarrett Stewart, SVP, Commercial at GoBolt. “Since shifting the bulk of our mid-mile volume to WARP, we've seen improvements with our internal operations, our estimated delivery times, and gained visibility into the real-time location of freight that we can pass on to our merchants. Logistics can be complicated, but our goal has always been to make it as simple as possible for the brands and retailers that choose to work with us – our partnership with WARP directly supports that."
About WARP
WARP is a modern freight network bringing peace of mind to shippers founded by entrepreneurs Daniel Sokolovsky and Troy Lester. With its heterogeneous fleet of 53-footers, box trucks, and cargo vans, WARP offers customers the right vehicle for every load based on their speed, price, and service preferences. By pairing proprietary tech with a broad network of carriers and cross-docks, WARP automatically optimizes middle-mile routes through a single integrated platform, giving shippers unparalleled visibility of their loads. Whether it's a direct store delivery, warehouse-to-warehouse transfers, or linehaul injection into last mile carriers, WARP customers receive real-time tracking and status updates along with dedicated support every step of the way.
About GoBolt
Founded in 2017, GoBolt is a technology company building the first sustainable and vertically integrated supply chain network that partners with merchants to deliver a complete end-to-end customer experience. By operating as an extension of each merchant’s team, GoBolt provides reliable warehousing, pick and pack, shipping, and last-mile delivery. With a growing network of warehouses across North America and a suite of proprietary apps designed and supported by an in-house engineering team, GoBolt unlocks enhanced transparency and control for merchants. The company’s focus on customer-centricity is further driven by a deep commitment to sustainability. GoBolt’s investment in its electric vehicle fleet and sustainability partnerships is a testament to the company’s mission to provide carbon-neutral deliveries. For more information, visit GoBolt.com.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.