SupplyLinks Becomes a DotCom Casualty

SupplyLinks, a San Francisco-based web startup that promised global logistics services, has ceased operations.

SupplyLinks CEO David I. Beatson did not return a call for confirmation. However, the failure was reported earlier in the Journal of Commerce, which said SupplyLinks had failed to secure a second round of funding.
Beatson was known for engineering a financial turnaround for then-troubled Emery Worldwide in the early 1990s. Emery was under the Consolidated Freightways corporate banner at the time. SupplyLinks made news when then-Consolidated president Roger Curry joined its Board of Directors in September.
As recently as February, SupplyLinks announced leading major transportation providers had joined the SupplyLinks Global Logistics Network, among them Schneider Logistics, Central Freight Lines, Watkins Motor Lines, AIT Worldwide Logistics and BAX Global. Major names drew attention to the enterprise that promised customers could shop for and book transportation around the world across all modes on the web.
A similarly ambitious web venture called FreightWise, backed by Burlington Northern Sante Fe and General Electric, failed in February. That effort had lined up the likes of Schneider National and J.B. Hunt.
Like FreightWise, SupplyLinks shut down without ever having opened its doors to the public. An official launch had been promised for this quarter.
Thursday, the SupplyLinks page was still available on the web. Ironically, the site still listed 11 job openings.