Still continuing our “the more things change, the more things stay the same” theme, back in 2008, the Supply Chain Digest published an article on Key Trends Impacting Supply Chain Management and Logistics for 2008 where it asked a number of leading academics and practitioners what they saw coming. (Their responses are summarized in this SI post.)

Nine (9) experts weighed in and provided 24 thoughts on what they saw coming in 2008. Those thoughts more-or-less fell into seven themes, and for the most part, those themes are the same themes today. Moreover, the specific concepts addressed are more-or-less the concepts being addressed today. Let’s continue to take them theme by theme.

Automation / Tech

Three (3) of the nine (9) experts centered on automation/tech as a core theme and stated that they believed:

• Enhanced Visibility and Automation will take hold in logistics
• The firms that recognize that a fresh approach focussed on value, cash flow, and light, non-intrusive, web-service-based, value-add software components that work with existing solutions and technologies will be the ones that make progress.
• Successful supply chain technologies will become solution/results focussed, not just technology-focussed.
• On-Demand / SaaS will continue to gain traction – particularly in TMS

Enhanced visibility is now needed across the entire supply chain. If you don’t identify a disruption at the source three levels down your supply chain (mine collapse, plant fire, etc. resulting in a material or part shortage), you won’t have time to recover by the time your tier 1 supplier misses the delivery date.

The best solutions are those that plug-and-play with the ones you already have — that connect out of the box. That’s why I2O (the “term-du-jour”) solutions are so hot — they help an organization plug and play disparate systems together.

The real leaders are those that use technology as an enabler, not a talent replacement, and definitely not as the ultimate solution. They focus on next generation tech that augments intelligence and makes their talent more efficient.

Despite all the hype that Agentic AI will take over, since the majority of it is based on hallucinatory Gen-AI and failures are becoming commonplace enough that organizations are losing faith in the hype, organizations will soon return to trustworty multi-tenant SaaS based on (A)RPA and deterministically controlled/gated agents, and efficient, affordably priced next-gen SaaS will soon come to the forefront again.

Logistics

Two (2) of the nine (9) experts centered heavily on logistics as a core theme and stated that they believed:

• The need for Integrated Logistics will increase.
• Carrier bankruptcies will increase in 2008.
• The biggest challenge carriers will face is staying afloat as lower volumes and reduced margins crunch their cash-flow.
• The biggest challenge for shippers will be maintaining service levels as carriers exit unprofitable markets and lanes.

The need for integrated logistics is still increasing as the constant interruptions across the global supply chains come fast and furious. We’re in a reality where you need to re-route shipments on the fly at not only every cross-dock and modal interchange point, but at every intermediate stop. Major road, bridge and border closures will force new routes; port, canal, and strait closures will force alternative shipping options or a switch to air cargo; sanctions will force entirely new carriers, routes, and supply chains; and so on. Once you head down the wrong route, it can take days to backtrack and select a new one, potentially causing perishable cargo to be wasted. Once your cargo is boarded on a ship that might be halted mid-route, it’s too late to have any hope of getting it on time. Once it gets into the hands of a now sanctioned carrier or hits a port in a sanctioned country, you’re never getting it back.

Carrier bankruptcies are a regular occurrence every time recessions cause a significant drop in spending and bookings drop, oil prices shoot up, insurance rates shoot up, or global pandemics prevent critical maintenance parts from being obtained and too much of the fleet goes offline. We’ve had multiple instances of mass carrier shutdowns and bankruptcies over the past 20 years (2008 recession, introduction of Map-21 in 2013 [RIP-21], COVID, and now the tariff crisis (with carrier shutdowns in 2025 almost equalling the closure rate of RIP-21: about 8,000 last year compared to about 10,000 during RIP-21).

Now that volumes are still down on many lanes and in many sectors due to the tariff crisis and rising oil costs are crushing their margins again, carriers are again desperately struggling to stay afloat.

Maintaining service levels is a considerable challenge with declining margins and the need to maintain secondary lanes that will never operate at capacity in order to secure major contracts.