Logistics Management Magazine Archives

March 2024 Logistics Management

In this Issue:

  • E-commerce Logistics: An endless array of challenges
  • WMS: Intelligence intertwined
  • Organize reverse logistics
  • Warehouse/DC Management Outlook Survey
  • Transportation Market Update: LTL
  • Top 30 U.S. Ports
March 4, 2024 · While this year may be a close copy of 2023 in terms of supply chain execution as it relates to e-commerce moves, forecasting is more precarious. The instability and conflict have no upside, only more disruption—which inevitably leads to service and cost impacts across the board.
March 1, 2024 · If you thought our annual survey on the outlook for warehouse and DC equipment and systems spending would indicate off-the-charts spending plans, think again. However, you will find interest in goods-to-person robotics, labor management, as well as more respondents tapping third-parties for maintenance analytics as companies look for more efficiencies.
March 1, 2024 · The cessation of Yellow continues to have repercussions throughout the $58 billion LTL market. Now, a shuffling of the capacity equation is causing strategic changes, and shippers need to adapt to the new alignment of resources to find operational success.
March 1, 2024 · While managing significant volume swings driven by the pandemic and ongoing geopolitical issues, U.S. seaports continue to press forward with efforts to improve infrastructure and build in efficiencies an unwavering attitude that bodes well for the future.
March 1, 2024 · Whether manual, automated or somewhere in between, reverse logistics operations deliver maximum return only with an organized and efficient process. Don’t wait any longer to make your move.
March 1, 2024 · We explore the role that WMS plays in today’s e-commerce fulfillment centers and how it will continue to drive these busy operations in the future as it becomes more intelligent—and, in some cases, intertwined with other applications within the warehouse’s four walls.
March 1, 2024 · This is the first of two columns that visits the concept of “index-based variable-rate pricing” as a way to establish more market stability for both shippers and carriers.
March 1, 2024 · We’re running out of ways to describe how e-commerce has reshaped the logistics landscape. Nearly every feature we assign over the editorial year contains advice for logistics professionals on how to fine-tune operations through strategy or technology to meet these new, pressing demands.
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Latest in Logistics Management

Cass Freight Index points to annual shipments and expenditures declines
April’s shipment reading, at 1.098, decreased 4.0% annually, and expenditures, at 3.227, were off 16.8% annually.

ALAN opens up its nominations for 2024 Humanitarian Logistics Awards
The American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) has officially opened nominations for its eighth annual Humanitarian Logistics Awards.

U.S.-bound import growth remains intact in April, reports Descartes
From March to April, the report found that U.S.-bound container import volumes were up 3.0% compared to March and were up 9.3% annually, coming in at 2,208,849 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). Descartes explained that the 3.0% gain was downwardly impacted by the effects of the Chinese Lunar Year, adding that when compared to pre-pandemic April 2019, volumes increased 15.1%.

Looking at a reshoring history lesson
A three-decade expert in supply chain, the Reshoring Institute’s Rosemary Coates explains how the reshoring trend has progressed.

NTSB: Ship lost power twice before slamming into Baltimore bridge, closing port
Twice the huge container ship Dali lost power and slammed into one of the bridge's support columns, causing the Francis Scott Key Bridge to fall into the waters outside Baltimore, killing six and causing the closing to maritime traffic of one of the busiest ports on the East Coast.

ISM May Semiannual Report points to growth in 2024, at a reduced rate
As was the case in its previous edition in December, the manufacturing and services sectors remain on diverging paths, to a certain extent, in May. One common theme the sectors share, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) May 2024 Semiannual Economic Forecast, which was issued today, is that growth is expected over the balance of the year, albeit at reduced rates.

April retail sales are mixed, reports Commerce and NRF
Commerce reported that April retail trade sales were up 0.4% over March and were up 2.7% annually. And the National Retail Federation reported that NRF reported that February’s core retail sales, which it bases on Census data and excludes automobile dealers, gasoline stations, and restaurants, fell 0.2% on a seasonally-adjusted basis compared to March and were up 3.9% on an unadjusted basis annually.

LM Podcast Series: S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Rogers assesses 2024 import landscape
In this podcast, Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman interviews Chris Rogers, Head of Supply Chain Research for S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Following USTR review, White House announces tariff increases on certain U.S.-bound imports from China
The impetus for the increase in tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 on $18 billion worth of imports from China is due to various actions China has taken, according to the White House, including unfair trade practices concerning technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation threatening American workers and flooding global markets with artificially low-priced exports.

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Inflation continues to have a wide-ranging impact on supply chains, notes Blue Yonder survey
Blue Yonder’s annual survey finds cost of materials and transportation being impacted; disruptions remain.

National diesel average decreases for the fifth consecutive week, reports EIA
The national average, at $3.848 per gallon, dropped 4.6 cents from the $3.894 average, for the week of May 6, which was off 5.3 cents from the $3.947 average, for the week of April 29.

New Union Pacific service connects Southern California and Chicago
New route promises three-day delivery, enhancing supply chain efficiency

Automate and Accelerate: Replacing Pick-to-Light with the Next Generation of Automation
Berkshire Grey and S&H Systems present a webinar showcasing how their Robotic Put Wall systems offer a cost-effective solution to aging pick-to-light systems, delivering significant labor savings, space efficiency, minimal IT impact, and up to 30-40% batch pick efficiency gain, with seamless integration into existing infrastructure and scalable automation.

STB Chairman Martin J. Oberman retires
Late last week, the Washington, D.C.-based Surface Transportation Board (STB), an independent adjudicatory and economic-regulatory agency charged by Congress with resolving railroad rate and service disputes and reviewing proposed railroad mergers, said that Chairman Martin J. Oberman has officially retired.


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