Supply chains are under constant stress. Adverse events such as the recent pandemic, winter storms, hurricanes, or sudden change in government policy, labour strikes can mess with how supply chains function. In such circumstances, on-demand freight services can be invaluable. While such services help when everything else fails, one of the biggest challenges in running on-demand freight is forecasting demand and incidents. For this reason, having some sense of where disruption might pop up is critically important for on-demand freight services. Some on-demand freight services rely on internet sources for any news story, which might eventually disrupt the supply chain.

But this method of prediction is not reliable. The supply chain issues occasionally get a small mention in mainstream media outlets, but it’s often days or weeks after the occurrence of disruption.

Thankfully, today we have companies like FreightWaves that bring together journalists, data, analysts, market experts, and others to help monitor supply-chain disruptions.

In a market where everything is interconnected, overstretched, and undersupplied, a small issue like a major canal stoppage, a major bridge being condemned, pipeline going offline, or a freak weather system can spark a massive chain of events impacting the entire supply chain.

The sad reality is that issues like these happen all the time. On top of it, the capacity is at a record low, the market is massively stretched, and demand is at an unprecedented level, and there is a sense of urgency to get things back on track.

A welcome change is that the supply chains are getting the attention they deserve. The world is now more interested in the supply chain issues, how it works, why the disruptions happen, and how to mitigate their exposure. And since the supply chain issues of today are playing out in consumers’ personal lives, it is relevant to the consumers.

It is because of this shift several major media outlets now cover the story, driving interest, and awareness in the supply chain issues. As a result of this, the companies are more likely to set aside a large budget for supply chain projects, invest in new technologies, increase the staffing levels, and carefully choose vendors that can support their operations. This, in turn, will help to attract innovators to create new technology-based solutions that help solve the supply chain problems and investors that write significantly larger checks for supply chain startups.