All Entries

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Analysts contend that box manufacturing slump is hurting both carriers and shippers

Gary Lynch is the managing director of the supply chain risk management practice at Marsh Inc. and the author of Single Point of Failure: The Ten Essential Laws of Supply Chain Risk Management. He recently sat down with us to discuss what logistics and supply chain managers need to know about risk in the current economy.

The big players continue their aggressive push into the supply chain management software space, using acquisitions and internal technology development to beef up their WMS and TMS offerings, build out planning and optimization, and even add event management to their menus.

Successful network design will always come down to the specific needs of your business, the needs of your customers, and the types of products moving through its veins. Our panel concludes that while there are a lot of options, there’s no silver bullet.

As the economy recovers, shippers should expect fuel prices and LTL rates to rise due to global oil market supply constriction. Two experts take a closer look at where oil exports stand and how shippers need to prepare for pricing instability.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Spot prices for transpacific shipping services have grown by more than 180 percent during the past 12 months to reach a five-year high.

The resurgence in truck orders and production got more good news, with net orders for heavy-duty Class 8 commercial vehicles going up 84 percent in May year-over-year, according to data from ACT Research, a provider of data and analysis for trucks and other commercial vehicles.

Greetings from Atlanta. I am at the eyefortransport 3PL Summit. This is the fifth year I have made the trip down from New England for this event.

With various reports suggesting a vote on the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization is imminent, a labor component of the bill is still at the center of a high degree of acrimony between parcel industry bellwethers FedEx and UPS.

Shippers should be concerned about the Rules because of complications related to two recent Supreme Court cases currently awaiting a decision, said a prominent analyst.