Belonging to the transportation and logistics/shipping sector means this company will be affected directly and indirectly by a number of disruptive opportunities and challenges over the coming decades. While described in detail within Quantumrun’s special reports, these disruptive trends can be summarized along the following broad points:

*First off, autonomous vehicles in the form of trucks, trains, planes, and cargo ships will revolutionize the logistics industry, allowing cargo to be delivered faster, more efficiently, and more economically.

*This automation will be vital to accommodate the growth in regional and international shipping driven by the economic growth projected for the African and Asian continents—projections that are themselves spurred by their massive population and internet penetration growth forecasts.

*The plummeting price and increasing energy capacity of solid-state batteries will result in a greater adoption of electric-powered commercial aircraft. This shift will lead to significant fuel cost savings for short haul, commercial airlines.

*Significant innovations in aeronautical engine design will reintroduce hypersonic airliners for commercial use that will finally make such travel economical for airlines and consumers.

*Throughout the 2020s, as the e-commerce industry continues to grow in developed and developing countries, postal and shipping services will flourish, less to deliver mail and more to deliver purchased goods.

*RFID tags, a technology used to track physical goods remotely since the 80s, will finally lose their cost and technology limitations. As a result, manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers will begin placing RFID tags on every individual item they have in stock, regardless of price. Thus, RFID tags, when coupled with the Internet of Things (IoT), will become an enabling technology, enabling the enhanced inventory awareness that will result in significant new investment in the logistics sector.