FedEx and FourKites herald new supply chain visibility strategic partnership

Earlier this week, Memphis-based global freight transportation and logistics services provider FedEx and Chicago-based FourKites, a provider of real-time tracking and visibility solutions across transportation modes and digital platforms announced that they have partnered up for a strategic alliance on a new supply chain visibility offering, which connects key data insights from each of their respective networks.

The companies explained that this alliance will give shippers with what they called robust real-time visibility capabilities to help them counter supply chain challenges and also increase efficiencies, and find new growth opportunities. What’s more, FedEx has made a strategic investment in FourKites to support this strategic alliance and the launch of FourKites X.

A FedEx spokesperson told LM that the alliance will connect machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities of FourKites with data insights from the FedEx network that will provide enhanced visibility into nearly every point of the supply chain. And she noted that the first solution, FourKites X, will be developed over the coming months and provide a new platform for shippers and logistics providers to have visibility of shipments across transportation modes, carriers and regions.

“This is an exciting collaboration between two industry leaders and innovators coming together to unlock new opportunities for our customers,” said Sriram Krishnasamy, CEO, FedEx Dataworks, in a statement. “If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that companies need to work together in order to work smarter and faster. Our collaboration with FourKites creates a data ecosystem that will deliver a new level of predictability and visibility to help businesses build smarter supply chains in today’s unpredictable and complex business environment.”

Prior to the announcement of this alliance, the FedEx spokesperson said that FedEx has been a carrier on the FourKites platform for the last several years. As for what drove the need for this alliance, she said that in this age of rising consumer expectations and complex logistics environment, giving individuals and businesses insights into the status of their deliveries is crucial to building customer satisfaction and deep brand loyalty.

“This collaboration will help enable new solutions for near real-time transportation visibility data and the ability to deliver not only the physical products consumers paid for, but also the valuable, intangible benefits of improved customer experience and peace of mind,” she said.

When asked to provide some examples of how FourKites X functions, the FedEx spokesperson explained that FourKites will leverage data insights from the FedEx network to develop FourKites X.

“The solution will provide tools and insights to help large shippers and logistics providers mitigate the impacts of sustained challenges via a suite of offerings ranging from dynamic planning and pre-shipment, to enhanced visibility and proactive alerts, to supply chain optimization insights,” she said. “For example, a shipment starting on the West Coast is scheduled to go through Memphis, where a disruptive weather event is predicted to happen during the shipment’s transit. The tool will be able to proactively alert customers so they have time to divert the shipment to an alternative route if needed. The goal of the FourKites X platform is to help reduce volatility and provide more accurate information across supply chains.”

Mathew Elenjickal, FourKites Founder & CEO, said in a statement that FourKites is excited to announce this groundbreaking platform and strategic collaboration with FedEx.

“Our organizations share an unwavering commitment to customer success through strategic innovation,” he said. “Together, we are working to pave the future of global supply chains, built on a foundation of data and machine learning to deliver new value to those global supply chains.”