Over the last few weeks, the rapid spread of COVID-19 has forced nearly every industry to look for new solutions to minimize critical business disruptions. Global supply chains have not been immune to this challenge.

In order to help customers manage the volatility of this global crisis, Odyssey Logistics & Technology has developed and released an interactive technology for its North America Managed Logistics (MLS) customers. The new technology provides visibility into shipments that overlay with geography profiles that present risk; including: COVID-19 hotspots and transportation embargoes. Launched on March 19, 2020 Odyssey customers get actionable data to assess their supply chain risks created by embargoed transportation hotspots—allowing them to act quickly and minimize the operational, economic and safety impacts of these service disruptions.

“Understanding the fluidity of this event, our leadership team strategized the development of a data-driven tool for each of our clients that will provide real-time information specific to their business, quickly identifying changes and trends as a result of the pandemic,” said Kevin M. Land, Vice President of Global Solutions. “This business application gives our clients the power to make critical service and cost decisions more effectively, in real-time and based on their actual transactional data.”

In order to manage the rapidly evolving COVID-19 embargoed hotspots, this newly developed technology integrates real-time COVID-19 data provided by Johns Hopkins University, and other third-party data sources, to track the spread of the pandemic and its impact on transportation. Overlaid with real-time customer shipping activity, the application combines data streams to enable dynamic routing optimization that avoids COVID-19 hotspots and prevents service disruptions created by costly, time-consuming shipping embargos.

Additionally, the application provides insight to real capacity, carrier acceptance levels, overflow and waffle percentages, as well as load counts by mode compared to a three-month baseline. These tools will remain available 24/7 throughout the duration of this crisis, so that Odyssey customers have visibility to each shipment across their supply chain. The visual UX design makes it simple for users to assess their supply chain risks and make decisions based on this actionable data.

Existing Odyssey customers have received immediate access to this technology—including intuitive, dynamic dashboards that highlight freight origins, movement, destination drop-offs and the level of supply chain risk associated with each area. Beyond supply chain operations, the interactive technology is being used by shipper customer facing roles such as customer service, account management and sales to proactively communicate supply chain performance and potential disruption.

During this difficult time, Odyssey remains committed to our customers (Odyssey Covid-19 Resource Center). We hope that this new technology—including real-time risk assessment and dynamic route optimization—delivers critical peace of mind at an increasingly uncertain time.

If you are an existing Odyssey customer, and you have additional technical questions or need help accessing the new application, contact your customer representative for more information: 888.352.4409.