Dear Reader
At MotionTools and in the logistics world, a lot has happened this month. We have compiled the most interesting topics for you in this July edition of our LogTech News.
We look forward to feedback or references to articles and topics that should not be missed in our next issue. Just write us an email at news@motiontools.com
In this issue (5 min reading time)
📢 Industry news
- Temu expands into the food market and attracts local vendors
- Delivery service Wolt continues to grow in Germany
- Autonomous last mile: FedEx delivers with robot fleet in Singapore
- AliExpress launches same-day delivery in London
✅ Best practices
- Demographic change in logistics: How to solve the skilled labor shortage?
🤝 Community updates
- Celebrating Fleetlery’s Milestones
🦾 Release notes
- July 2024
📢 Industry news
Temu expands into the food market and attracts local vendors
The Chinese platform Temu is entering the German food market and has been actively recruiting local vendors since May. There are already a few German merchants selling products such as meat and pralines through Temu. The platform aims to further expand its regional offerings, improve service for European customers, and especially offer shorter delivery times. The German Retail Association HDE generally welcomes the competition in the food market but simultaneously warns that attention must be paid to product safety, transparent origin information, and compliance with European consumer and competition standards.
Delivery service Wolt continues to grow in Germany
Wolt has opened its first virtual supermarket in the state of Bavaria in Munich, making it the tenth location in Germany. According to the company, around 5,000 items, including fresh goods, drugstore products, and pet supplies, can be delivered to the end customer in an average of 35 minutes. The delivery area covers several districts, with deliveries available Monday through Saturday from 8:00 AM to 11:30 PM. Wolt places special emphasis on regional products such as those from the Man Versus Machine roastery or the organic butcher Pichler.
Autonomous last mile: FedEx delivers with robot fleet in Singapore
FedEx, in collaboration with QuikBot Technologies, is launching autonomous delivery robots for last-mile deliveries in selected commercial buildings in Singapore. Following a successful six-month pilot project, the robots are now in regular operation at South Beach Tower and Mapletree Business City. Additional locations are planned by the end of 2025. The robots handle fully autonomous, contactless deliveries within a 1.5 km radius, including elevator rides and floor changes. QuikBot uses AI-powered robots for short and medium distances. The goal is to create a more efficient, sustainable, and future-ready urban logistics system.
AliExpress launches same-day delivery in London
AliExpress launches a same-day delivery service in London for groceries and household goods, and is already planning a nationwide expansion. Last month, the platform opened up to British merchants, who can now sell their products through AliExpress. The new "Local+" fulfillment offering and the acquisition of warehouses in the UK, Spain, and Germany aim to enable faster deliveries. Local orders, such as furniture or kitchen appliances, are aimed to delivered within three days.
✅ Best practices
Demographic change in logistics: How to solve the skilled labor shortage?
In our April newsletter, we highlighted four challenges for logistics in 2025: decarbonization, digitalization, demographic change, and de-risking. If you missed that issue, you can take another look here. After recently exploring digitalization strategies in depth, this time we're focusing on demographic change and the associated skilled labor shortage.
The shortage of skilled workers remains a critical issue, especially for IT specialists and operational professionals. Demographic change is exacerbating the problem, which is why companies need to enhance their attractiveness as employers and develop innovative recruiting strategies. On top of that, the minimum wage is also increasing – something that of course is great for the workforce but further increases the pressure on logistics companies. In addition to raising prices, there is another way out of this difficult situation: increasing productivity.
How can this be achieved? We've brought you a very concrete example today:
Many shippers - especially wholesalers and manufacturers - still plan tours manually, then send them to their 3PL partners... as printed documents. That’s a productivity killer for dispatchers who need clean data to optimize routes and maximize driver efficiency.
That’s why we build an AI assistant in MotionTools that reads scanned manifests, handwritten notes, even bundled delivery lists - and turns them into structured, individual and ready-to-dispatch booking data. This means:
- No more typing
- No more manual uploads
- Just optimized, profitable routes in minutes.
This makes your ops team faster, your drivers more productive and ultimately your business more scalable. If this sounds interesting to you and you want to learn more about how you can utilize AI and MotionTools to increase productivtiy, book a demo with us.
🤝 Community updates
Celebrating Fleetlery’s Milestones
We love to see our customers thriving! That’s why we want to give Fleetlery the shoutout they deserve. Since they were founded in November 2021 they achieved some impressive numbers which they shared on their LinkedIn page a few weeks ago:
📦 2.38 million deliveries
⏱️ ∅ Delivery time: 27.8 minutes
📍 ∅ Distance: 2.41 kilometers
🚴 2,125 active couriers
🌆 Operations in 41 German cities
This speaks volumes on the dedication of the team and we are excited to be a part of this journey and empower them with software.
Fleetlery is a specialized Delivery-as-a-Service provider for delivery services of all types with a Germany-wide pool of thousands of couriers.
🦾 Release notes
We're rolling out linking between Saved Places and their service areas. This opens up new possibilities for better operations management. By connecting places to service areas, we can show the right information in the right context. This starts with two immediate improvements: the Operations page will only display saved places for the selected service area (instead of showing all places everywhere), and drivers can now see relevant saved places on their map.
Quick view of other updates:
- Improved stacking algorithm based on actual routes
- Dynamic tabs in the Driver app
- Improved CSV export for users, bookings, and tours
- Add metadata during booking and stop creation
- Hide additional information sections in the Webbooker
- Improved customer search
- Analytics page enhancements
- Option to disable automatic receipt generation
- View metadata in the driver and customer lists
- High-value flag for packages
