Uber isn’t valued at more than $50 billion because it's a “taxi app,” explains Adrian Gonzalez, president of consulting firm Adelante SCM, but because "investors see Uber as a logistics company."
Gonzalez, as reported by Keven Jones of Fleet Owner, said that Uber has a range of logistics-related projects under way which makes it an emerging competitor in the logistics space.
Another major player is Amazon who is changing the structure of how things are delivered. While Gonzalez doesn’t view drones are a threat, he does sees Amazon’s patent application for a system that would use 3-D printers installed on trucks to process and manufacture orders en route to the buyer, as one.
Looking forward Gonzalez sees a number of major changes occurring in the industry. As reported by Fleet Owner he says that “the only thing we know for sure is that we’ll be wrong—whatever we envision today is going to be drastically different than what becomes reality 5 or 10 or 20 years from now.”
Gonzalez advises the industry to keep its eyes open, for a variety of possibilities, and to run network analyses to stay ahead of the curve.
More on supply chain disruption on Fleet Owner.
