Newsletter 38

Online freight exchanges soared to prominence during the dotcom boom, but have since adopted a lower profile. However, some of the original players are still active, and one of them, X4Freight, has just changed its name to Freightex and appointed a new chief executive, Tim Phillips, who says the new name will be more widely recognisable. The company handles quality assurance, payment and insurance as well as doing the load-matching. Its parent group, X4i, also offers freight exchange software to third-arty users.

Meanwhile, Teleroute UK, a branch of the pan-European Wolters Kluwer-owned exchange, continues to flourish, and has lately been mounting a safety campaign, supported by sponsorship of TruckPol, the national intelligence unit that forms part of the ACPO Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service.

eLogistics, one of the original freight exchanges, long ago switched its emphasis to transport management software with a purchasing component, and now focuses strongly on hosted solutions.