Topic: Blogs

While there is often a lot of talk about things like the need for, or even potential, for more standardized processes, when it comes to keeping truck wheels rolling and staying on schedule to meet tight deadlines, there is much more than meets the eye required to take that from a concept to a reality.

As the clock ticks towards December 9, the end of the status quo, or “cooling off” period, for the four remaining railroad labor groups yet to ratify the terms of the tentative agreements with United States-based Class I freight railroad carriers, President Biden yesterday called on Congress to pass legislation to “adopt the Tentative Agreement between railroad workers and operators—without any modifications or delay—to avert a potentially crippling national rail shutdown.”

What happens from here remains to be seen, of course. But let’s hope, as Yogi Berra noted, that it is not already getting late too early and that freight is able to keep rolling down the tracks without a strike getting in the way.

The holiday sales forecast numbers are encouraging, with NRF forecasting holiday retail sales to increase 6%-to-8% annually, coming in between $942.6 billion-to-$960.4 billion. In 2021, retail sales were up 13.5% compared to 2020, due likely to the timing of the pandemic in 2020, at $899.3 billion, setting a new all-time record. What’s more, it said that over the last 10 years, holiday retail sales have seen an average increase of 4.9%, with the caveat that pandemic-related spending over the last couple of years represented a large portion...

There is, and has been, a fair amount of commentary and data pointing to a recession. The primary reason for that has to do with United States GDP (Gross Domestic Product) readings issued by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) over the course of 2022. First and second quarter GDP readings came in at -1.6% and -0.6%, respectively. Two straight months of GDP typically signal that a recession is underway. But it was not as linear, in this case,...

Coming out of the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, trucking industry activity looked more like it did in pre-pandemic times, to be sure. That is backed up by some key data points, in the form of the “American Trucking Associations’ Trucking Trends 2022,” which was released earlier this month.

A recent report published by Axios came across my desk, with the following headline: “TikTok chases Amazon with plans for U.S. fulfillment centers.” To be honest, that was not a headline I was expecting to see, especially given the way that TikTok is utilized here at home.

At a time when diesel gasoline prices have hit, or routinely approached, record-high prices, especially in the last year, it stands to reason that motor carriers view sustainability as top of mind. That was evident in a recent survey released by Seattle-based digital freight network Convoy. The survey, entitled “Sustainability in Trucking Snapshot Report: October 2022,” is based on feedback from 588 small- and mid-sized trucking companies, including dispatchers, drivers, and owner-operators.

As the calendar moves closer to the holiday season, so, too, do respective announcements by companies, ringing the bell for seasonal labor help.

Now that a tentative agreement between United States freight railroad carriers and railroad labor unions was reached earlier this morning, a collective sigh of relief has been expressed by myriad supply chain stakeholders and industry associations.

As the clock continues to tick down towards the 12:01 A.M. September 16 deadline, which will officially mark the end of a 30-day cooling off period between the 12 United States-based railroad labor unions and six largest freight railroad carriers, tensions continue to run high, given the ongoing uncertainty afloat, even though 10 of the 12 unions have reached tentative labor agreements.

On a webcast hosted by the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) this week, Jonathan Starks, Chief Intelligence Officer for freight transportation consultancy FTR, and Avery Vise, FTR Vice president of Trucking, addressed the current state of the economy with a freight-based focus, to help put things into perspective.

When people think about cameras in logistics parks, they think about pure-play security applications. But what if you could also use video to boost your efficiency, productivity, and even health and safety?

With another negative United States Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reading, for the second quarter, at -0.9, following the first quarter’s -1.6 reading, it begs the question of: is the U.S. economy is in a recession?

The cover of the July edition of LM, for the annual State of Logistics edition, featured the headline “Out of Sync.” And, to be honest, that headline makes plenty of sense for all kinds of reasons, make no mistake. The word count for this column is not long enough to touch upon the myriad issues and challenges that we have all seen, as it relates to supply chain, logistics, and freight transportation challenges, going back to the onset of the...

For the past nine months, I have been doing a lot of webcasts and presentations talking to C-Level executives about their supply chain issues. When I highlight the fact that, for most companies, their supply chain activities consume anywhere from 12%-to-20% of their sales dollar, many executives are surprised. They have never viewed their supply chain as representing that large a portion of their company’s sales.

Two other industry associations—the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA)—have also penned letters to the White House to make their positions clear on the importance of getting this current situation resolved.

Now, there is talk about President Biden “considering a gas tax holiday to ease high fuel prices,” through the end of September, according to a New York Times report published this week. Were this to come to fruition, it would require Congressional approval. Given the current political climate, it could well be viewed as a longshot, to be fair.

Concerns over the state of the economy are front and center these days, to be sure. From a supply chain perspective, that tale is not too difficult to tell, at the moment, given record-high gasoline (specifically diesel) prices, inflation at 40-year highs, a cooling off on the demand front, ongoing challenges related to exports, and looming concerns over inventory levels, too.

Some of the biggest brand names across several verticals again received accolades from research firm Gartner Inc., in being named to its annual Global Supply Chain 25, which, according to Gartner, identifies leading supply chains and highlights their best practices.