The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 14 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Capturing 20% of global freight makes a company bigger than Saudi Aramco
“Our goal is to get to 20 or 40% market share. If you do that, you're the biggest company on planet earth. Like full stop, like bigger than Saudi Aramco.”
Flexport surpassed FedEx to become the 17th largest global freight forwarder
“We are now, we last month we passed FedEx and panel Pina, which are, we're now number 17. Oh, out of about 20,000 freight forwarders in the world in four years.”
Petersen: Amazon operates roughly 400 undisclosed private-label brands
“They have like 400 different brands now that you don't even realize are Amazon.”
Half of all global air cargo moves on passenger planes
“50% of all the air cargo in the world is actually moved on passenger planes in the belly of the passenger plane.”
Petersen: Academic research ranked freight forwarding as most susceptible to automation
“There's a great paper that I read about industries that are most susceptible to automation. And freight forwarding was the number one on the list. It was like, 99% of the work should be, that would be better done by software in this, like, academic paper.”
Petersen: U.S. customs brokers charge $100-$300 across 30M annual shipments
“Usually it's not dependent on the value of the goods, but it's like between a 103 hundred dollars per shipment, and there's thirty million shipments that enter the U.S. Every year and are filed with a customs customs entry.”
Petersen: Flexport waited three years for US Customs license approval
“March 31st of twenty-thirteen is when we were granted the license by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection, and so I started working on the idea in like twenty-ten. Flexport for the, there was three years there waiting for the gove…”
Flexport operates its own dedicated Boeing 747 cargo plane
“We have a seven 47. We have our own plane.”
Global logistics accounts for roughly 12% of the world's GDP
“It's literally logistics is 12% of global GDP. 12% of every dollar made by every person on planet earth. This goes into logistics”
Petersen: Air Freight Is on Average 5x More Expensive Than Ocean Freight
“Air freight on average, about five times more expensive than ocean freight.”
Petersen: The largest global freight forwarder has only 2% market share
“Now, the largest in the world only has two percent market share.”
Petersen: Importing goods can require filing up to 120 different forms
“Based on what the product is, there could be, like, a 120 different forms you have to file, so we have to take the, what the product is, determine which forms are needed, fill those out for the, ah, customer, file them electronically with the government.”
Petersen: US customs rules blocked centralized software clearance before 2007
“And actually until recently it wasn't possible to clear shipment except at your local port. So if you built a software startup to do this, you could only help people importing into the port of Oakland, unless you had an office in every port. In 2007.”
Petersen: Imported Electric Scooters 15 Years Before the Modern Craze
“The scooter mania that's happening now is so fascinating for me because 15 years ago, my brother and I and our other business partner, Michael Kenko, we were importing electric scooters, almost the same form factor, similar price point.”