Toys R Us was very late to the e-commerce party at the turn of the millennium. To compensate for their outright short sightedness, they made a deal with what may have been the devil. In early 2000 Toys R Us signed a 10-year contract to be the exclusive vendor of toys on Amazon instead of investing in its own e-commerce platform. After the agreement ended, amazingly, Toys R Us was unsuccessful in implementing an in-house e-commerce presence. This coupled with over-dependence on a single vendor, a scary scenario, and draining debt servicing spelled eventual doom for one of the nation’s largest toy retailers.

The exponential growth of e-commerce is fueling significant changes in Logistics from order fulfillment to packaging protocol, line haul and final mile delivery. And the demand will only go one direction...directly north. To be prepared for what is to come, logistics managers need to think in terms of systems that they can leverage today to make processes more efficient, while also anticipating the longer-term developments that will reshape tomorrow’s possibilities. It's an exciting, yet challenging, time to be in the logistics business. There is much planning to be done. Keeping up with the trends will help logistics professionals keep pace with current demand while making informed decisions on everything involved in your organizations e-commerce supply chain strategy to meet future demand.

Walmart released fourth quarter earnings on Feb. 20 and the results were less than expected. By mid-afternoon, the company was on track for its worst point drop in history as a publicly traded company. Walmart’s overall e-commerce sales slowed considerably in Q4 2017, increasing 23% in the quarter versus a previous increase of 50% in Q3 and 60% in Q2 of 2017. At the same time, quarterly profits sank 28% over the same period a year ago, not the correlative results anyone ever wants to see, so it was no surprise that the market responded in the manner in which it did.

Coming off a strong 4th quarter in 2017 and riding a firm economic wave, demand for transportation services are expected to be strong in 2018. Preliminary estimates released by the government last week showed that the nation’s output increased at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the final quarter of 2017. Although that performance amounts to less than the optimistic 4 percent annual growth that President Trump has promised, it is further evidence along with a sinking jobless rate and surging consumer confidence, of the economy’s resilience. All these positive trends along with tax breaks and incentives are expected to increase investment and production levels in the U.S. and increase the demand for transportation services. 

In one of the first reports dealing with detention the U.S. DOT has concluded that time spent detained at shipper or receiver facilities cuts truck driver pay by between $1.1 billion and $1.3 billion annually. An underlying concern is also the effect on driver safety. An extra 15 minutes spent detained beyond the standard two-hour window causes industry crash risk to climb 6.2 percent, the DOT has estimated. That’s an average of about 6,500 additional crashes annually, the report notes.

Today's marketplace has generated a paradigm shift in customer demand and expectations. I would argue the millennial started all this "gotta have it now" pattern but it makes no difference from where the demand was generated. There is no going back. I just wonder if it can get any worse. As the saying goes, “adapt or die”, and that is what most companies are doing now. The findings from the “26th Annual Study of Logistics and Transportation Trends” suggest that more companies are realizing that competitors and new business models are shifting customer requirements. Firms like Amazon are departing from traditional business practices, using true supply chain management thinking to blur the boundary between days and think more in hours.

A Trump presidency and a Republican-controlled Congress will bring some changes to the transportation industry. Trump was heavily backed by the trucking industry and they are looking for a return on their investment. Here are some areas where a Trump administration could have an impact, based on the president’s campaign promises.

Wall Street is buzzing and XPO Logistics shares have risen sharply amid rumors of a buyout by Home Depot. XPO Logistics is a top ten global provider of cutting edge supply chain solutions to the most successful companies in the world. The company operates as a highly integrated network of people, technology, and physical assets. They use their network to help customers manage their goods more efficiently throughout their supply chains. As of the end of 2016, XPO served more than 50,000 customers and operated with over 87,000 employees and 1,425 locations in 34 countries.

Years ago, the term "Expedited Service" would send chills down the spine of the accountants, and almost always get someone a good thrashing for whatever went wrong to create the need to call an expedited carrier. As today's supply chain and inventory systems have evolved into a complicated dance of extreme efficiencies and razor thin inventory levels, expedited freight transportation has matured along with them as an integral cog that is the wheel of the 21st century supply chain philosophy. The additional costs of premium transportation can now be justified with the new supply chain savings.

According to FreightWatch International, the risk of cargo theft incidents is much higher during the holiday season, and the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend should demand additional supply chain security measures for retailers looking to protect their precious holiday merchandise.