Just when you thought the pandemic was coming to an end Shanghai is in a strict lockdown attempting to contain a resurgence of Covid cases. Shanghai authorities began an immediate lockdown of the city’s 26 million residents late on Sunday after mass testing found "large-scale" COVID-19 infections throughout the financial hub. “Even a sporadic and short-live Covid resurgence could bring notable shocks to consumption and continue to weigh on consumer confidence for months after the Covid wave subsides,” Bank of America analysts wrote. With the exception of falling crude oil prices, all of the fallout will likely have negative effects worldwide.
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Supply Chain Management,
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Canadian Truckers Alliance Protest Is Gaining Traction
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To enlighten those less informed about the Transportation industry I routinely remind them that everything around their home, work and recreation areas spent some time on a truck at one time. The sheer size of the United States requires a reliable distribution infrastructure. Just consider what the railroad did for the opening up of the west and feeding the rest in the 1800’s. The need for transportation is much greater today. We built the national infrastructure. Now we must continuously support it; literally, every day.
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Supply Chain Management,
Third Party Logistics,
Freight Bill Auditing,
Intermodal Freight,
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Logistics Business,
Maximizing Routing Efficiencies,
Freight Bill Audit,
3D Printing,
Shipping News,
Logistics News,
Industry Trends,
Technology,
dimensional pricing
There is little doubt that technology has transformed the Logistics business in the last several years. Will we ever get to fast enough or efficient enough? It's not likely. Under pressure exerted by demand for instant gratification, new tech-first logistics providers are beginning to pervade the fulfillment environment. Without the autonomous hardware that promises to supersede traditional road transportation, they are instead leveraging digital tools to improve the performance of manually executed deliveries and reduce lead times from days to hours, with 24 being today’s bargain-basement service level. These companies, through the use of customer-integrated business platforms, mobile technology, and crowd-sourcing, are finding ways to pick orders within minutes of receiving them, dispatch deliveries on-demand, and bring buyer’s purchases to them in time-frames of two hours or even less. How are logistics professional going to keep this pace? Here are some technology trends that may be worth a look as we enter 2021 and beyond.
Robotics
Given the energy and investment in robotics in our space, suggesting that there will be a robotics trend in 2021 is pretty obvious. After all the pilots and promises, what seems to be happening is that robot solution providers, and the end user community, are realizing that there is no one size fits all robotic applications. Quite the opposite is true. The customization is proving so complicated due to the advanced operations of the robots that the programming and engineering has become problematically complicated. Robotic applications are a very customized solution depending upon the product line, distribution protocols and warehouse volume parameters. The challenge, in addition to the design, will be the management system that can bring the components in synchronicity with the rest of the automation. The difficulty seems to be that there is no standardization among the robotic providers. Each have their own standards, communication protocols and capabilities. Someone will have to figure all of that out as robots proliferate. The next generation robots will not just be tasked with simply, repetitive and mundane projects as were the first generation. The robots of today will be much more complicated providing a wide range of services. As you increase the tasks you increase both the software and hardware configurations necessary to support the project. These ambitious goal will certainly be a challenge to the engineers and programmers.
Edge Computing
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Much like personal relationships, the relationship between an organization and its third-party logistics provider requires effort from both parties to stay productive, healthy, and strong. A 3PL cannot expect to provide services without catering them specifically to their client’s needs, and an organization cannot expect to run their logistics operation hands-free. It takes communication and constant collaboration to run a smooth, successful supply chain and promote positive growth for the client’s business as a whole. It will take a long-term commitment from both parties to create a successful partnership.
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Supply chain professionals are looking forward to a much-deserved extended weekend during the Fourth of July holiday. However, CargoNet, an industry cargo security firm, reports that extended business closures can create an advantageous operating environment for cargo thieves. For the past five years, the firm has analyzed cargo theft data in the United States and Canada from July 1 to July 7and found 130 cargo theft events in 27 different states, with theft most common in Texas, California, and Florida.
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Third Party Logistics,
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Intermodal Freight,
Logistics Business,
Maximizing Routing Efficiencies,
Freight Bill Audit,
3D Printing,
Logistics News,
Industry Trends,
Big Data
Technology is affecting transportation modes through the roads, sky and water. Advancements in speed and efficiency may come at some cost.
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Intermodal Freight,
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Industry Trends
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit global trade and investment at an unprecedented speed and scale. Multinational companies faced an initial supply shock, then a demand shock as more and more countries ordered people to stay at home. Governments, businesses and individual consumers suddenly struggled to procure basic products and materials, and were forced to confront the fragility of the modern supply chain. The urgent need to design smarter, stronger and more diverse supply chains has been one of the main lessons of this crisis.
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Freight Bill Auditing,
Intermodal Freight,
Reducing Freight Rates,
Logistics Business,
Maximizing Routing Efficiencies,
Freight Bill Audit,
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Logistics News,
Industry Trends,
Big Data
Limited 5G network deployments had begun in some markets in 2019, with widespread rollout expected to take place through the 2020s. The 5G wireless technology promises to accelerate data speeds, improve quality, and reduce latency in the world’s mobile networks all of which means higher performance than today’s broadband wired networks. “5G will be a game changer because it’s 100 times faster and will support 100 times more devices than current 4G networks,” according to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. This week we take a look at the specific impact on the Logistics industry.
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Freight Bill Auditing,
Intermodal Freight,
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3D Printing,
Industry Trends,
Big Data
Massive unemployment and a nearly desperate need to rebuild our infrastructure could entice the presidential administration to copy a plan designed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930’s. The New Deal was a series of programs and projects instituted during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that aimed to restore prosperity to Americans. When Roosevelt took office in 1933, he acted swiftly to stabilize the economy and provide jobs and relief to those who were suffering. Over the next eight years, the government instituted a series of experimental New Deal projects and programs, such as the CCC, the WPA, the TVA, the SEC and others. Roosevelt’s New Deal fundamentally and permanently changed the U.S. federal government by expanding its size and scope—especially its role in the economy. Although it took our entry into World War II to lift the U.S. economy out of the depression, the New Deal provided many jobs to willing Americans in a time of great need. While I don’t believe we’re in as bad a shape as the 1930’s we are faced with a jobs crisis. To add to the issue, the recent civil unrest has compounded many small businesses problems in getting re-opened.
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Freight Bill Auditing,
Intermodal Freight,
Logistics Business,
Maximizing Routing Efficiencies,
Freight Bill Audit,
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Industry Trends,
Big Data