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.

The ELD (Electronic Logging Device) mandate is roughly 30 days away.  The effective date, which has been pushed back several times, is now December 18.  The electronic logging device (ELD) rule – congressionally mandated as a part of MAP-21 – is intended to help create a safer work environment for drivers, and make it easier and faster to accurately track, manage, and share records of duty status (RODS) data. An ELD synchronizes with a vehicle engine to automatically record driving time, for easier, more accurate hours of service (HOS) recording. 

The use of commercial robotics technology is hardly new. What is new is the myriad of fundamental applications today's technology is offering to speed service and enhance efficiency. Recently, Lowes tested customer service robots in some stores to help shoppers locate their products. I'm all for it.  I can never find anyone in my local Lowes to help me. Now Walmart is testing robots equipped with scanning technology to improve product management. The robots come equipped with cameras to scan aisles, assessing the level of stock, number of missing products, and misplaced items abandoned by shoppers in order to facilitate more accuracy in pricing, purchasing, inventory management, and ultimately, increase sales. The robots simply scan the aisles transmitting replenishment, pricing exceptions, and misplaced product data to stocking employees. These scanning robots do the job an estimated 3 times faster than staff. Walmart explains that in addition to moving employees to more productive tasks, the company is hoping to save customers time and make “stores more convenient and easier to shop, ensuring that products are available when our customers want them.”

Walmart has acquired Brooklyn-based delivery startup Parcel, the retail giant’s sixth technology startup acquisition in the past 14 months.  This move is just a singular acquisition toward an aggressive common industry goal; catch up with Amazon.  It makes sense.  The best online ordering system means nothing without boots, or in this case, wheels, on the ground.  

A Harvey and Irma one-two-punch is bound to significantly effect freight movement in the Southeast and potentially the rest of the U.S.  Trucking analysts fear widespread industry disruption as Hurricane Irma slams the Eastern Seaboard, especially since the track is headed for freight distribution centers in Georgia in the coming week.  We may not realize the full impact of fewer available trucks and DC bottlenecks for days or weeks to come.  Most trucks that did get stuck in Florida are likely from somewhere other than Florida since it is such a consumption state.  So that equipment taken out of service could have an affect just about anywhere in the country. 

Freight Transportation in the Gulf Coast area, and as a result, the rest of the U.S., is expected to be experiencing major delays for the coming weeks.  Harvey has left in its wake, flooded roads, downed power lines and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of disabled tractors.  The storm also could generate a rise in long-term trucking contract prices according to a report by analysts at FTR Transportation Intelligence. 

The impact that tech-savvy customers are having on the ecommerce world is not just stronger than ever; it's faster than ever. Gone are the days when customers would surf the net trying to determine if an online order was worth the risk.  This is, of course, truest among the Generation Z population; those born after 1995.  Of course, responding to the technology laden desires of post-Millennial shoppers requires understanding them, which can be especially difficult for retail brands that weren’t born online.  This is likely a major reason for Amazons dominance in the online retail business.  Conversely, Walmart and Target have had to endure the challenges of transitioning from brick and mortar to an online presence.  Clearly Amazon has defined the direction of online retail.  Since, by some estimates, Gen Z represents more than a quarter of the U.S. population and has an annual U.S. purchasing power of $44 billion online retail is the new normal.  We thought it would be interesting to delve into some of the changes that are on the horizon for online retail.

The peculiarity of trends is that they seem to show up quickly but no one knows if they’re gonna stick around long enough to become practice. It's like the industry is rushing ideas and applications to market before any real testing or consideration. Here are some topics and policies that may come to life in the coming years.

In July, we wrote about claims that Walmart was pressuring its carriers, who also haul for Amazon, to cease and desist if they want to retain Walmart business. In fairness, we want to point out that Walmart has denied pressuring any of its truckers. The retailer told TheStreet.com that the report about the truckers was false, noting it’s “illegal for us to tell them who they can do business with,” a spokesperson said. The warning to truckers, true or not, comes at a time when Walmart is picking up its fight with Amazon, which has long been the dominant e-Commerce leader in the U.S. Just last week, the Wall Street Journal reported Walmart has started telling technology partners not to run applications for the retailer on Amazon Web Services (AWS). According to the paper, tech executives said that if they want to continue to keep Walmart’s business, they have to use other cloud-computing services like Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. Walmart maintains most of its data internally, but a spokesman confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that there are cases where some of the cloud apps it uses run on AWS. The spokesman wouldn’t disclose the apps, but did confirm it has urged vendors to use other cloud-computing business solutions in those cases. “It shouldn’t be a big surprise that there are cases in which we’d prefer our most sensitive data isn’t sitting on a competitor’s platform,” the spokesman told the Wall Street Journal. He noted it’s in a small number of cases.

When shipping hazardous materials of any type company representatives must have a strong understanding of the products they are attempting to ship and the federal requirements that govern the domestic and international transportation of hazardous material. The DOT defines a hazardous material as any item or chemical which, when being transported or moved in commerce, is a risk to public safety or the environment, and is regulated as such under its Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration regulations as outlined in 49 CFR 100-199.  Regulations for the transport of hazardous materials are comprehensive and somewhat complex.  Maintaining a strong understanding of these regulations and potential pitfalls of hazmat transportation is critical to the safe and successful handling and delivery of your product and protection of your brand.  There is an old saying "The only bad press is your obituary".  This may not apply in the transportation of your products.  Front page news of a hazmat breach while in transit could very well be the obituary for your brand.  Just ask Exxon about a little oil spill in Alaska.