What European startups can learn from the next chapter of freight (Sponsored)

“Uncertainty is the new normal.” That was the starting point for a recent conversation between economist Dr Rebecca Harding and Chris Roe, Managing Director of Amazon Freight, as they explored how freight is changing and what comes next.

For European startups building products, brands and marketplaces, that uncertainty is not abstract. Economic headwinds, evolving regulations and geopolitical tensions quickly show up as delayed inbound pallets, unpredictable lead times or sudden changes in cross-border flows. The common thread in Dr Harding and Roe’s discussion is clear: the pressures on freight are not new, but the most effective tools to manage them are.

For founders, that shift creates an opportunity. The same technology and collaboration models that are helping large shippers navigate volatility can now be used by smaller, fast-growing companies across Europe to make freight more predictable and support long-term growth.

Old pressures, new solutions

In a survey supported by Amazon Freight, all surveyed shippers agreed that technology is crucial to the freight industry’s resilience. These findings reflect what many EU startups are seeing on the ground. The core pressures on freight networks, such as demand spikes, driver shortages, rising costs and increased regulation, have been building for years.

What is different now is the maturity of the digital tools that shippers can use to help address these challenges. During their discussion, Roe detailed the experience of a customer who increased its visibility from essentially zero to almost full coverage across the journey from A to B by leveraging Amazon Freight’s connected systems. That kind of leap is not about adding more data. It is about turning disconnected information into a real-time picture that operators can act on. For an early-stage or scaling company, the impact of that shift is significant.

From fragmented data to a single view of the journey

Many EU startups still manage freight through a patchwork of emails, spreadsheets and carrier portals. Each individual step works, but no one has a complete view of what is happening in real time. That fragmentation makes it hard to plan campaigns, manage cash flow tied up in inventory or explain to a key retail customer why a shipment is delayed.

By connecting shipper and provider systems through agreed interfaces, and layering in tools such as AI, data analytics and real-time tracking, it becomes possible to build a single, reliable view of a shipment’s journey.

For startups, investing in that kind of connectivity early, whether through your own technology stack or through providers that already offer it, turns freight from a black box into a controllable part of your growth strategy.

Collaboration for growth

Though it is an essential solution, technology alone is not enough. A consistent theme throughout the Harding–Roe conversation is that the future of freight depends on closer collaboration across the industry.

Roe highlighted a vision where shippers can make better use of each other’s freight, reducing empty legs across the network. The mindset of shared capacity and coordinated planning is particularly powerful in Europe, where markets are tightly connected, but operational rules and demand patterns can vary country by country.

For European startups, collaboration can take several forms. It can mean working with providers who bring together capacity from many carriers and surface options that match your specific needs. It can also mean aligning internal teams around the same live freight data, so there is a single understanding of what is in motion and when it will arrive.

How Amazon Freight is approaching the next chapter

The discussion between Harding and Roe offers a view into how Amazon Freight is thinking about the future of logistics in this environment, and where startups fit within that picture.

Amazon Freight gives shippers access to Amazon’s network of owned trailers and trusted carrier partners across the UK and EU to move palletised freight simply and reliably. Behind the scenes, that network is supported by technology designed to improve visibility, support real-time decision-making and reduce waste such as empty miles.

For European startups, using a service like Amazon Freight means you can plug into a network that has been built to handle high variability and rapid change, while accessing tools such as online quotes, self-service booking and shipment tracking. If readers are looking for seamless and reliable freight services, they can click here to reach out to Amazon Freight’s sales team and create a free shipper account.

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