Twenty years is but a few sunsets in the history of the logistics industry. Transporting goods is as old as trade itself, while its meaning for organising supply and distribution goes back to the ancient Greek and Roman militaries, in which Logistikas were responsible for providing soldiers with necessary resources. Worldwide trade connections are also not new, from the ancient Egyptians to the East India Company. Even logistics’ more recent breakthroughs, including the growth of the ocean container, barcodes and electronic data interchange (EDI), mostly gained ground in the middle of the last century. Indeed, some developments happening today are revivals of the past, such as China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ recreation of the Silk Road across Asia to the Mediterranean Sea.

Logistics has always been essential in the history of the automobile, particularly since the onset of mass production. When Henry Ford built his original factories around a century ago – including the River Rouge plant in Detroit, Dagenham near London, Cologne in Germany – they were all situated near to water and rail transport. Some aspects of those operations, including barge and ferry freight along the Rhine and Thames rivers, are still in use today. Their principles have been applied far and wide…