These are the logistics trends for 2025
The logistics industry has a challenging, nerve-wracking year 2024 behind it: a shortage of skilled workers, delivery failures and planning uncertainties have characterized the past year and will continue to be relevant in this one as well. At the same time, thanks to technical advances, opportunities have arisen to meet these challenges. In this article, we therefore look at three key logistics trends that will become important this year and the opportunities they will open up for companies.
Resilience
The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on resilience as an increasingly important topic. In short, it means that companies must remain flexible and capable of acting even in times of crisis in order to emerge from it with the least possible damage. At the same time, they must learn from their mistakes in order to survive in the future. Whether it’s pandemics, geopolitical conflicts or natural disasters, we probably won’t have avoided crises by 2025.
Particularly with regard to supply chains, it is essential to be prepared for possible disruptions and to react quickly in order to maintain supply. For logistics companies, the trend is therefore towards diversifying supply chains and relying on different suppliers and transport routes. This makes them more independent and allows them to switch to alternatives when demand requires it – for example, to partners in their own region. In addition, real-time tracking technologies can be used to identify risks at an early stage and minimize delivery failures. The more resilient a company is, the more competitive it will remain.
Digitization, automatization & AI
Digitization, automated technologies and artificial intelligence have been trending topics in logistics for several years. In 2025, we will continue to encounter new innovations that will impact our working methods and create new opportunities.
In general, we can expect to see further automation of manual tasks in order to reduce error rates and relieve the burden on employees. Experts see this as an opportunity to alleviate the shortage of skilled workers. This particularly affects the logistics industry, with around half of all logistics companies affected.
Not only autonomous trucks, but also tools for optimizing driving times could reduce the pressure on employees. Cloud-based technologies and blockchain are also becoming increasingly important: real-time access to important information facilitates collaboration along the supply chain and enables automatic status updates.
In general, artificial intelligence will penetrate further into logistics and be integrated into a wide range of processes – especially when it comes to forecasting. Forecasting technologies can make supply chain management more efficient and ultimately increase customer satisfaction. Meanwhile, for example, the increasingly complex route planning can be taken over by AI tools to determine which destinations should be approached in which order and by which means of transport. To do this, AI uses various data about available personnel, vehicles, transport capacities, traffic and weather. However, artificial intelligence can do much more than optimize transport routes and predict problems. With machine learning technologies and algorithms, it can process information in real time, react to it and make independent decisions. When using data, integrated platforms are particularly advantageous because the interfaces to different systems allow relevant information to flow together and facilitate decision-making.
Our self-developed platform enables a holistic optimization of transport planning. It can be connected to existing ERP and TMS systems via API interface, so that data is transferred automatically and in real time. With the help of algorithms, the 3D loading space planning calculates how loading areas can be optimally used, based on all relevant factors such as loading meters, volume, mass, stackability and axle loads.
The platform thus creates a holistic solution that can be used to plan and optimize transportation with foresight, and has now been enhanced with a new feature for improved route planning. With the help of artificial intelligence, the tool takes into account all available rates as well as information on loading, route and type of transport. On this basis, the route planning intelligently decides between full truck load (FTL) and less than truck load (LTL) transports – thus reducing the workload while increasing efficiency.
The increasing digitalization of processes is also accompanied by the hot topic of cybersecurity. After all, anyone who works with comprehensive data also needs security protocols, advanced encryption technologies and continuous IT updates to protect it. Otherwise, companies risk heavy losses due to data protection violations or cyber attacks. As a software-as-a-service provider, we take information security seriously. With our ISO 27001 and TISAX certifications, we demonstrably meet the high requirements for processing confidential information.
Sustainability
Sustainability is no longer just a trend, but a necessity and even an obligation – in particular due to numerous regulations and laws that stipulate the fulfillment of certain goals. The new EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive will also force many companies to transparently disclose their sustainability activities.
Sustainability and digitalization go hand in hand, because one of the main ways logistics companies can reduce CO2 emissions is by increasing their own operational efficiency. Making the best possible use of vehicles, fuels and human resources is important here. For example, our AI-based transport and route optimization ensures that empty runs, unnecessary transports and the total number of trucks are reduced. Optimized transport planning can reduce CO2 emissions by around 20 percent. In addition, our platform calculates the emissions caused by transport, both for individual routes and for the products transported. However, meeting sustainability goals can also be a decisive competitive advantage. Companies not only meet legal requirements, but greener transportation is often desired by their customers. In addition, significant transportation costs can be saved – with S2data, these are around 25 percent.
Conclusion: The future of the logistics industry
We are excited to see how the logistics industry will develop in 2025. Even with technological progress, it remains to be seen to what extent artificial intelligence, algorithms and machine learning will change the way we work. There is no question that innovations such as automated transport and route optimization offer numerous advantages for logistics companies and will become increasingly important – also in terms of reducing CO2 emissions and meeting legal requirements in the area of sustainability. In addition, the topic of resilience will continue to be with us – for almost every manufacturing company, intact supply chains are essential to remain operational. With a diversified, resilient supply chain, they are prepared for crises.
