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.

Read More

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. 

Read More

There are several developing factors refining the world of freight transportation as we currently know it. Technology in the form of ELDs is forcing fleet managers to become more scientific in the management of their assets. The apparently insatiable appetite for immediate gratification from the millennials will force carriers to improve speed to market. This will likely put pressure on trucking companies to better integrate their small parcel and LTL operations so local distribution centers can concentrate on meeting on time final mile deliveries. Data engineering will be at the forefront of everything that goes on in supply chains. Data engineering, according to Dr. Michael Watson of Northwestern University, is "the art and science of blending data from multiple sources, automatically cleaning and filtering the data, and transforming the data to be useful for analysis."  You may have heard the term "Big Data" referring to the volumes of pertinent data accumulated from various sources along the supply chain. This big data will be the source of information in the data engineering process. Another term you've likely heard is IoT or The Internet of Things. The IoT is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and other items embedded with advanced electronics capable of exchanging data with a central computer over the internet.  

Read More

Mention "airfreight" and your accountant’s ears perk up immediately. The operations manager wants to know what operational mishap occurred that would require using airfreight… and the owner wants to know who's going to pay for it.

Read More

The North American trucking industry is a roughly $700 billion-a-year market, and yet its use of technology does not reflect that capitalization. This is especially evident in the way shippers and logistics services providers manage their freight with the thousands of LTL and Truckload carriers operating today. Even in today's technology boom, the majority of shippers still don’t use Transportation Management Systems (TMS) to automate the planning and execution of their domestic freight shipments. Utilizing a transportation management system to manage domestic freight shipments can measurably increase your efficiency.  In this article we'll examine the benefits of using a TMS for things like carrier selection, visibility and freight spend reduction. Our source material will be a study, conducted by American Shipper between mid-August and mid-September, which incorporates feedback from 190 shippers and LSPs, as well as 21 domestic trucking carriers about their perspectives on domestic transportation management systems. The impact of this study is to understand why shippers and Logistics Service Providers use a TMS system and the benefits derived from such systems.

Read More

The inaccuracy of cargo containers, as well as individual skids, gaylords and crates, is a major safety issue that shippers need to be aware of. Generally, freight cost is directly related to weight.  It is not unusual for shippers to innocently estimate the weight of a particular shipment below the actual.  For example, it is very common for shippers to calculate their shipment size from their product data and neglect to include the weight of the shipping packaging.  Usually, a benign issue but multiplied by several shipments per container the bulk shipment could be significantly overweight causing unsafe trucks, ocean vessels and airplanes.  The safety issues are significant; reduced braking distance for a truck, buoyancy issues for a sea going vessel and lift problems for an airplane.  Most carriers have an entire department to re-weigh freight and confirm their NMFC classification to ensure a transportation vessel is safely loaded. 

Read More

Every carrier, large and small, has their "sweet spot" lanes; those lanes that achieve a well balanced mix of freight to and from their core customers and terminals.  Achieving this balance and minimizing empty miles are the most critical aspects of running a profitable trucking company.  Any carrier’s tariff or quoted pricing will absolutely reflect the level of desirability of any pickup or delivery point.  Understanding this information should be an integral part of your freight routing strategy.  Routing a shipment to a carrier for which the origin or destination are considered outside their sweet spot will result in a higher rate and (most likely) sub par transit times.  They really don't want that particular shipment but take it at a premium price to appease the customer.  They will often times hand it off to a carrier that services that origin or destination.  This "Partner Carrier" relationship, as it is commonly referred to today, often causes a reduction in overall customer service.  Dissecting, understanding and utilizing this information is exactly what a 3PL offers its shipper clients.  A 3PL offers maximum utility in routing decisions and the price benefit of large volume freight tendering. 

Read More