FourKites will get access to previously internal shipment data from FedEx to train its predictive visibility system as part of a new planning and problem resolution platform called FourKites X.

FourKites has partnered with e-commerce technology specialist Narvar to link predictive freight visibility with post-purchase solutions for retailers and brands aspiring to fulfill orders online.

FourKites is helping its customers tackle the management of detention and demurrage charges through a dashboard that help them prioritize containers likely to incur free time fees.

Acquisitions and large funding rounds have catapulted standalone multimodal platforms to market-leading positions, but the growing list of global and domestic visibility providers signals ongoing demand for different approaches to freight visibility.

FourKites has landed a $100 million funding round, led by industrial investors, to use visibility data to drive strategic supply chain insights by linking hardware and software-derived data.

After spiking in March owing to increased demand for essential goods amid the COVID-19 pandemic, truck detention has receded but remains a disruptive factor for truckers that can backfire on shippers when capacity is needed.

Logistics startups are facing a new reality in which funding rounds are likely to be smaller, recurring revenue expectations will be higher and valuations will be greater for subscription-based software than for digital brokers and forwarders.

While the search for true end-to-end visibility continues, the rise of partnerships between visibility providers in distinct legs continues with surface transportation-oriented software company FourKites partnering with container visibility provider Ocean Insights.

Shippers might dream of a single end-to-end visibility system, but providers still specialize in certain areas, so a more realistic approach is figuring out how to stitch deep, but narrow, systems together.

Cell phone service providers may soon pull the plug on a key data pipeline underpinning domestic visibility software, but most companies have switched to other location systems. Shippers need to ensure that their providers aren’t overly exposed to this cell phone triangulation data.