Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Descartes acquires e-commerce shipment tracking firm for $19 million

Deal to buy ShipTrack could rise to $38 million if firm hits performance goals.

shiptrack screenshot descartes

Logistics technology provider Descartes Systems Group has paid $19 million to acquire a fellow Canadian firm, saying the deal strengthens its e-commerce final-mile capabilities.

Waterloo, Ontario-based Descartes said Friday it has bought ShipTrack, a Plantagenet, Ontario-based provider of cloud-based mobile resource management and shipment tracking solutions. The cost of the deal could rise to $38 million if ShipTrack achieves revenue-based targets over the first two years post-acquisition.


ShipTrack says its technology helps customers automate dispatch, updates on shipment status, and estimated time of arrival (ETA), and eliminate paper-based delivery processes, with a focus on the e-commerce home delivery, parcel, and medical courier markets.

“The challenge for today’s final-mile carriers is how to handle increasing volumes alongside rising consumer expectations for delivery choice and real-time information,” Shawn Winter, ShipTrack’s co-founder and now Descartes’ vice president for mobility solutions, said in a release. “Our platform helps final-mile carriers meet that challenge head-on with powerful workflows across delivery processes and the ability to expose information to consumers in real-time. By joining forces with Descartes, we see an opportunity to create a truly differentiated product that combines our advanced final-mile solutions with Descartes route optimization and reservations capabilities.”

Descartes plans to add ShipTrack to its Global Logistics Network, which it describes as a collaborative web of logistics firms that pool their standards to facilitate global shipping and compliance through digital data exchange.

“We believe there is a permanent shift in buying preferences underway that will continue to see an increasing number of goods being bought online,” Descartes CEO Edward Ryan said in a release. “Descartes continues to invest in our e-commerce capabilities to make sure that our customers, large and small, can fulfil orders and meet delivery commitments efficiently. ShipTrack complements this strategy, and, when combined with our advanced Routing, Mobile and Telematics suite of solutions, fills a gap in the market.”

The acquisition is the latest deal by Descartes, which has bought up dozens of smaller firms in recent years, most recently taking on the digital freight platform provider Kontainers in June for about $12 million.

The Latest

More Stories

FedEx Freight truck hauling trailers

Analysts praise FedEx move to spin off its LTL division

Freight market analysts are applauding FedEx’s announcement yesterday that it will spin off its FedEx Freight division within the next 18 months, creating a new publicly traded company that will overnight become the country’s largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier.

According to FedEx, the proposed breakup will create flexibility for the two companies to handle the separate demands of the global parcel and the LTL markets. That approach will enable FedEx and FedEx Freight to deploy more customized operational execution, along with more tailored investment and capital allocation strategies. At the same time, the two companies will continue to cooperate on commercial, operational, and technology initiatives.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

From pingpong diplomacy to supply chain diplomacy?

There’s a photo from 1971 that John Kent, professor of supply chain management at the University of Arkansas, likes to show. It’s of a shaggy-haired 18-year-old named Glenn Cowan grinning at three-time world table tennis champion Zhuang Zedong, while holding a silk tapestry Zhuang had just given him. Cowan was a member of the U.S. table tennis team who participated in the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan. Story has it that one morning, he overslept and missed his bus to the tournament and had to hitch a ride with the Chinese national team and met and connected with Zhuang.

Cowan and Zhuang’s interaction led to an invitation for the U.S. team to visit China. At the time, the two countries were just beginning to emerge from a 20-year period of decidedly frosty relations, strict travel bans, and trade restrictions. The highly publicized trip signaled a willingness on both sides to renew relations and launched the term “pingpong diplomacy.”

Keep ReadingShow less
forklift driving through warehouse

Hyster-Yale to expand domestic manufacturing

Hyster-Yale Materials Handling today announced its plans to fulfill the domestic manufacturing requirements of the Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act for certain portions of its lineup of forklift trucks and container handling equipment.

That means the Greenville, North Carolina-based company now plans to expand its existing American manufacturing with a targeted set of high-capacity models, including electric options, that align with the needs of infrastructure projects subject to BABA requirements. The company’s plans include determining the optimal production location in the United States, strategically expanding sourcing agreements to meet local material requirements, and further developing electric power options for high-capacity equipment.

Keep ReadingShow less
map of truck routes in US

California moves a step closer to requiring EV sales only by 2035

Federal regulators today gave California a green light to tackle the remaining steps to finalize its plan to gradually shift new car sales in the state by 2035 to only zero-emissions models — meaning battery-electric, hydrogen fuel cell, and plug-in hybrid cars — known as the Advanced Clean Cars II Rule.

In a separate move, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also gave its approval for the state to advance its Heavy-Duty Omnibus Rule, which is crafted to significantly reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from new heavy-duty, diesel-powered trucks.

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of global trade forecast

Tariff threat pours cold water on global trade forecast

Global trade will see a moderate rebound in 2025, likely growing by 3.6% in volume terms, helped by companies restocking and households renewing purchases of durable goods while reducing spending on services, according to a forecast from trade credit insurer Allianz Trade.

The end of the year for 2024 will also likely be supported by companies rushing to ship goods in anticipation of the higher tariffs likely to be imposed by the coming Trump administration, and other potential disruptions in the coming quarters, the report said.

Keep ReadingShow less