LaneAxis Is Cruising Through Product Development

Supply Chain Crisis

One of my friends has been trying to purchase a car for a while. When I went with him to a dealership, his whole experience was a struggle. While he had a particular car type and budget in mind, dealerships have been having car shortages. So when he found the car he wanted, it cost much more than what it was actually worth simply because of the tight supply. In the end, he had to give up the car.

Clearly, car supply can’t keep up with demand. The dealership that we visited used to sell 240 cars per month. But now, with the global supply chain crisis, it can sell only 60 cars per month. The waitlist for even one of the most common car brands, Toyota, extended as long as six months.

Not only do supply chain problems plague car dealerships, but they also contribute to price hikes in groceries, longer deliveries for online purchases, and more. The supply chain is dominated by the trucking industry, as it handles more than 70% of shipping in the US. The trucking industry has its own obstacles, including driver shortages, declining wages, inadequate infrastructure, and costly empty truck loads on return trips (also called “empty miles”). The trucking industry’s troubles are one of the major factors driving the supply chain crisis.

LaneAxis is trying to solve these problems. Its platform enables shippers and trucking companies (also referred to as carriers) to connect directly. Through the app, carriers can receive load alerts from shippers, bid on them, and negotiate directly. LaneAxis even provides a scoring system for drivers’ and carriers’ performance metrics, helping shippers assess risks. The company also uses artificial intelligence to identify available capacity, limiting empty miles.

LaneAxis’ most unique and appealing capability is that it tracks the whole shipping process from before pickup until completed delivery using its immutable blockchain ledger (in which all stored information is safe and unchangeable) called Doc Immutable. This enables visibility into the entire supply chain process. Doc Immutable also serves as an insurance document verification tool in order to eliminate the potential for document forgery or manipulation.

LaneAxis has spent seven years building its solution. I am impressed by the way the company has effectively addressed multiple inefficiencies in the trucking industry. Its complicated technology stack is also admirable, providing LaneAxis with some defensibility. And its execution so far has been notable.

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