The slowdown in shipping demand is taking a deeper toll on digital freight startups. Seattle-based Convoy has suspended its operations and is winding down its core freight brokerage business, the WSJ Logistics Report’s Liz Young and Paul Berger write, as the company considers selling pieces of the business that include its load-matching technology. The action marks a sharp reversal for a company that had reaped backing from a star-studded list of investors, most recently in a $260 million funding round last spring that valued Convoy at $3.8 billion. Now, the company is the latest tech-forward operator reeling from the decline in volumes and crumbling rates that is roiling the freight sector. With venture-capital funding running dry and cash dwindling in unforgiving freight markets, Convoy, Transfix and Flexport have laid off hundreds of workers this year. Convoy’s main hope now might be that its technology will live on in other companies.
 

Amazon is calling on the robots to help speed up its warehouse operations. The e-commerce giant is introducing an array of new artificial intelligence and automation capabilities aimed at identifying inventory more quickly to reduce delivery times. The WSJ’s Sebastian Herrera reports that the broad revamp will change the way Amazon moves products through its fulfillment centers and alter how many of the company’s vast army of workers do their jobs. Amazon calls its developing robotics system Sequoia and says it will help the company put up items for sale on its website faster and more easily predict delivery estimates. Experts say the changes in operations demonstrate that in order to integrate more robotics, the workflow of warehouses has to be transformed. The rollout will likely reverberate beyond Amazon’s own sites. The company’s automation expansion following its 2012 acquisition of Kiva Systems jumpstarted interest in robotics across the sector.

The Federal Reserve says the U.S. economy was showing “stable” to “slightly weaker” growth in the early fall. (MarketWatch)

Tesla’s profit tumbled 44% in the third quarter even though higher vehicle deliveries boosted revenue by 9%. (WSJ)

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants countries in China’s Belt and Road Initiative to join in developing the Northern Sea Route for shipping. (WSJ)

Procter & Gamble’s quarterly sales revenue rose 7% but sales by volume declined 1%. (WSJ)

Mexico is looking to compete with the Panama Canal with a $2.8 billion plan to revive a century-old rail line between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. (Financial Times)

A “tsunami” of cocaine is hitting European ports as South American traffickers work with criminal gangs to use commercial shipping operations. (The Guardian)

Alphaliner says 315 containerships representing 4.3% of the global fleet are now idle. (The Loadstar)

A Turkish-owned tanker sanctioned by the U.S. over a suspected oil price cap breach is due to unload its crude cargo this week in Houston. (TradeWinds)

Yellow officials indefinitely postponed the auction of the bankrupt trucker’s trucks and trailers. (Fleet Owner)

The top California trucking group is suing state regulators over new truck emissions restrictions. (KCRA)

United Parcel Service is matching FedEx with an average 5.9% rate increase across its services next year. (Logistics Management)

Delivery company Yamato Transport will work with Honda on a battery-swapping service for electric package vehicles. (Nikkei Asia)

Activist investor firm Ancora is seeking to oust the head of Forward Air and block a merger of the expedited trucker with Omni Logistics. (Journal of Commerce)

DSV CEO Jens Bjørn Andersen plans to step down next September and the freight forwarder named COO Jens Lund as his successor. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Delta Air Lines’ cargo revenue fell 36% in the third quarter. (Air Cargo Next)

China’s SF Airlines added its eighth freighter this year, bringing its fleet to 85 all-cargo aircraft. (Xinhua)

Paul Page is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at paul.page@wsj.com.

Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team: @PaulPage, @bylizyoung and @pdberger. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on X at @WSJLogistics.