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From e-commerce shifts to navigating multimodal logistics changes, Executive Insights is your source for the latest news and analysis.

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How E-Commerce is Driving the Supply Web Evolution

We are living in a rare and significant time in human history. Anyone alive in 2020 will always remember COVID-19. When we speak of these days, we will remember the uncertainty, the “Stay at Home” orders, our cohorts in isolation, and what ...

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Parcel Volume Caps Emerge Amid Retail Slump

While a historic drop in April’s sales numbers revealed pain experienced across the retail sector, record parcel volumes indicate that “essential” businesses are still sending an overwhelming volume of shipments through the parcel networks....

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From Micro to Macro: The Effect of Social Distancing on the Supply Chain

As the nation begins the process of reopening after the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s a lot to look forward to. Friends will assemble once more, and we’ll be able to gather at our favorite places to eat, drink and socialize. One challenge in a...

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5 FAQs: Understanding Your 3PL’s Business Continuity Strategy

As Transportation Insight representatives talk with shippers across the country, we see some common threads in the questions they ask. They're interested in our plans for disaster recovery, business continuity, data security, and how we're ...

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E-Commerce Delivery Burden Emerges for UPS, Amazon

The financial impact of COVID-19 in the parcel networks is becoming increasingly clear.

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Serve Customers With a Personalized Supply Chain

Consumers have steadily been shifting to a more customized shopping experience in recent years. This shift went into overdrive as effects of the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the globe, and traditional shopping methods were cut off.

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Road to Recovery: Looking Forward in Trucking Beyond COVID-19

It’s no secret that the outbreak and spread of a novel Coronavirus has upended the way we work, conduct business, and even enjoy leisure activities. This applies to the truckload transportation industry as well, and it can be a great barome...

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Master Omnichannel Fulfillment, Enhance Experience

In the 1980s, Service Merchandise was a retail force. The “catalog showroom” shopping experience attracted scores of customers. Beyond the “touch and feel” aspect of products on display, the retailer evolved forward-thinking fulfillment str...

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Cyber Security Best Practices for Business Continuity

According to the Department of Homeland Security, the globalization of supply chains represents a significant vector for cyber attacks. Using the complex web of contracts and subcontracts for components, services, and manufacturing, bad act...

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COVID-19 FAQ: 6 Transportation Questions

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to emerge in myriad of ways, none more pronounced than in the evolving buying behavior of consumers. Prolonged periods of self-isolation, shelter-in-place and quarantine practices is driving histori...

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Building a Sustainable Supply Chain Beyond the Second Quarter

The first three months of 2020 presented a challenge that nobody in the world could have foreseen. The COVID-19 crisis forced the United States to move from a steadily growing economy to one that slowed significantly nearly overnight.

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Control Fulfillment Fate Without Amazon

COVID-19’s global impact quickly became a significant disruption to North American supply chains. For many small package shippers the emergence of a global pandemic only exacerbated a storm brewing for several years.

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Postal Service Forecast Bleak

The COVID-19 crippling of some transportation networks is driving the already struggling U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to a perilous brink. An organization facing enormous liabilities, significant net operating losses and failing business prac...

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Truckload Rate Drops Spur Strategic Procurement

The opinion in the truckload and intermodal industry is that the COVID-19 pandemic will have an ongoing impact on North American domestic transportation, from shippers to carriers to brokers alike. Not all of that impact will be negative.

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Is Your 3PL Prepared For A Cyber Attack?

It's not a matter of if your supply chain comes under attack; it's a matter of when. Cyber defenses are only as good as their weakest link. That may be a network-connected device with a default password or a customer service rep who thinks ...

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Parcel Service Environment Evolving to Meet Demand

As COVID-19 shelter-in-place and quarantine guidelines drive a spike in residential deliveries, parcel carriers’ commercial volume is plummeting. Those carriers are taking on additional cost in the support of service that is far less profit...

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International Logistics in Q2 2020: Short-Term Volatility Towards Long-Term Stability

The outbreak of COVID-19 has taken an immeasurable human toll around the world, while supply chains went dark seemingly overnight. On an international scale, the novel Coronavirus is creating a challenge we have never seen before.

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Driving Cost Optimization Throughout 2020 in the Less-Than-Truckload World

In the midst of the novel Coronavirus outbreak, logistics has taken a center stage in the American lifestyle. Less-Than-Truckload logistics is moving much of the food and essential supplies we need to stay safe during the situation.

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Truckload Procurement Management Drives Cost Benefits

One of the prevailing outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic is a renewed priority on strong supply chain networks supported by transportation service providers ready, willing and able to move freight at the most advantageous cost.

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Indirect Supply Management Matters in Today’s Environment

As companies adjust to life altered by the novel Coronavirus outbreak, manufacturing is one of the hardest-hit sectors of the economy. In addition to being asked to adapt their assembly lines to produce personal protective equipment, their ...

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Insight From Supply Chain Technology Matters

Across the country, essential businesses and processes are on the front line of combating the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Countless doctors, nurses and first responders are working around the clock to preserve lives and help us e...

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Driving Optimization in the Supply Chain to Balance Cost and Risk

As we continue to face uncertainty in the supply chain, it’s natural to worry about financial viability. On March 30, PwC published a survey that revealed 87 percent of businesses said COVID-19 created a potential for significant impact to ...

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Volumes, Rates Complicate International Transportation

Overseas shutdowns caused by COVID-19 continue to affect North American supply chains. Just as some domestic transportation rates continue to plunge, strategic capacity reductions by ocean-going vessel operators combined with record air fre...

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Blockchain Data Sharing is Caring – Can You Trust Your Partners?

Supply chain strategies after the COVID-19 disruption will likely be significantly different for many organizations. Those new strategies, like the old, will be built on data, but it, too, will be quite a bit different. Information that dro...

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Supply Chain Professionals Mobilize for Rapid COVID-19 Changes

Today’s special article comes from Client Solutions Director William McCallum, who works with Transportation Insight clients daily to navigate market changes and drive solutions. The information and solutions come from clients he has worked...

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Examine Indirect Spend to Drive COVID-19 Cost Savings

In times of crisis, immediate challenges that jeopardize your ability to operate and serve customers deserve your central focus. While apparent pain points get quick reactions, the underlying business activities that support your ability to...

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Being Productive Partners in the Global Supply Chain

Concerns about the global supply chain weigh heavy on everyone’s mind. Because China was hit hard at the beginning of the novel Coronavirus outbreak, production lines throughout the country were severely disrupted, leading to blank sailings...

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COVID-19: Multimodal Changes Complicate Planning

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to create widespread volatility across almost every aspect of the global economy. As the virus affects business civilizations in broad and over-arching ways, individual street-level scenarios in a new crisis ...

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Managing Deliveries to New York in the Coronavirus Emergency

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect cities and states, forcing governing officials to make emergency decisions. While the federal government is calling for social distancing through Apr. 30, many states are issuing “Stay At Home” orde...

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Overseas COVID-19 Disruption Spurs Domestic Shipping Challenges

As North American supply chains adapt to expanding state and federal COVID-19 shelter-in-place and social distancing guidelines, the effect of overseas disruptions continue to create new challenges.

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Open for Business: LTL Carriers Moving Freight Where Possible

COVID-19 conditions seem to spur daily changes in regulations, carrier practices and available lanes across the trucking marketplace.

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Is Your Logistics Network Built by Ants or Grasshoppers?

Most people know the Aesop’s fable about the ants and the grasshopper. The ants quietly work through the summer to sustain themselves for the winter, while the grasshopper plays music when the season is good. Before the winter, the grasshop...

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Parcel Carrier Cuts Guarantees, Essential Workforce Supports Supply Chain Demands

Although many logistics businesses are adapting their processes in the face of the global Coronavirus pandemic, activity across the transportation lanes feeding North America’s critical supply chains illustrate a determined focus on powerin...

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Omnichannel: 3 Ways Service Merchandise Got it Right

In retail, timing is everything. Deliver what consumers want where and when they want it, and you can carve a success path that lasts until consumer preferences change or another company performs your functions better. A lesson learned by r...

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COVID-19 Parcel Delivery: Challenges and Solutions

Across the logistics world, everyone is feeling the pressure of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The parcel world may be affected the most. As more individuals practice social distancing, orders are increasing online – which means...

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Logistics Mastery Despite COVID-19: Why America Keeps Running

One of North America’s greatest strengths is the logistics network. The U.S. rail system has 140,000 miles of track for transferring goods from origin to destination, along with over 2.7 million miles of paved roads that help move freight t...

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Monitor, Pivot, Perform: Strategies for Unexpected Parcel Delivery Peaks

It seems a perpetual peak season is rapidly becoming the new norm in small package shipping.

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Supply Chain Risk Management Lessons from the Military

John Richardson is Transportation Insight’s Supply Chain Master. For more than 20 years, he has turned the design of complex logistics strategies into an artform by helping companies craft supply chains that deliver optimal performance.

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Coronavirus and the Opportunity for Supply Chain Correction

With every passing day, the effect of the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve. Thousands of lives worldwide have been disrupted, and there’s no way to measure the human toll.

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Data Analysis: What is Your Data Trying to Tell You?

The drive for visibility across the supply chain is based on the assumption of accurate data at every step. However, as the flood of data collected in the supply chain grows, it's becoming more difficult to manage and analyze it for strateg...

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The Service Merchandise Experience: Omnichannel in the ‘80s

Knowing that customers flocked to its stores to “experience” a select number of products, and willing to test out new technologies and retail strategies, Service Merchandise nailed fulfillment and omnichannel in the 1980s with its showroom-...

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Where is zip code 99999? A Piece of Clean Data Makes a Big Difference

Has your company ever shipped a product to the 99999 zip code? Of course not. It doesn't exist. In fact, the highest real zip code is 99950, for Ketchikan, Alaska. Still, if you scour your database, there's a good chance you'...

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What Do We Do with All These Returns? E-commerce and Reverse Logistics

Consumer products manufacturers’ e-commerce operations need a reverse logistics process that can handle a high volume of returned merchandise efficiently and effectively. That’s because consumers return goods bought online mo...

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Brexit and Coronavirus: Two Disruptions Affecting Your Supply Chain

Supply chains are fragile in nature. When a world event disrupts the movement of goods, it creates a domino effect that stops factories from producing, keeps products off retail shelves, and keeps cars from coming off the assembly line.&nbs...

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The Logistics of Valentine’s Day: Signed, Sealed and Delivered

Signed, Sealed and Delivered: The Logistics of Valentine’s Day February 14 marks the most romantic day on the calendar: Valentine’s Day. It’s certainly not a cheap endeavor: The National Retail Federation estimates Americans will s...

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Delivery Speed Drives E-Commerce Fulfillment Success

"I feel the need . . . the need for speed!" Today’s online shoppers certainly agree with the sentiment of Tom Cruise’s character in the 1986 movie “Top Gun.” Thanks to the “Amazon effect,” consumers have a nearly insatiable ...

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Parcel Spend Management Clouded by Uncertainty

Parcel carriers continue to evolve their strategies to protect profitability and meet the demands of consumers seeking shorter delivery times. Shippers racing to meet the needs of their own customers easily get stuck in the middle, ...

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Drop Shipping: The Path to E-Commerce Growth for CPG Companies

If your well-established Consumer Packaged Goods company is like many legacy brands, e-commerce is in your future - if it’s not part of your strategy already. We can thank brick-and-mortar retailers for some of this. Many now require...

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Trade with China, UK Tariff Threats and Rising Rates

Volatility has become a norm in the International transportation marketplace. Rising rates combined with a fluid environment of tariffs and international trade agreements mean that marketplace currents will not calm any time soon. ...

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Improve E-Commerce Experience Without Sacrificing Profitability

In 2018, U.S. consumers spent $517.6 billion online, up 15% over the prior year. E-commerce represented 51.9% of all retail sales growth that year, with much of the profits going to Amazon, an e-tailing giant that many companies are hotly p...

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Jan 2020 National Motor Freight Changes: Will it Affect Your Company?

Every quarter, the National Motor Freight Transportation Association meets to discuss changes to National Motor Freight Classifications (NMFC). While many of these changes are benign, some could see your shipping bill go up at the start of ...

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5 Ways to Build an E-Commerce Engine that Wins

In an era where delivery choice and speed are becoming fundamental expectations for everyone, companies across most industries are rethinking how they receive, fulfill and ship customer orders.

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Reverse Logistics: Charting a Course to Protect Profit

In today’s marketplace, more of your customers are purchasing products online. Through the trust built by e-commerce giants, consumers are happy to purchase their products “sight unseen” with the assurance the right product will be delivere...

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Transportation Management in 2020: 5 Trends to Watch

Tariffs, hidden charges, rising fuel surcharges, and increasing accessorial rates can all add up to substantial cost increases for companies that rely on the transportation industry to get their products from Point A to Point B. Because the...

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Parcel Agreements: Reading Between the Lines

Parcel shipping volumes continue to hit new highs. That drives a continuous evolution of small package shipping networks. Both carriers and shippers are working to find advantages that support their financial performance.

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5 Red Flags for Retailers Racing Amazon

Consumer expectations are fueling retailers’ response to service demands. Organizations working to improve e-commerce performance face hurdles that impede the path to profit.

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7 Pitfalls Imperil Indirect Spend Management

Indirect Spend presents complex challenges but brings opportunities for increased efficiency and cost control. Managing this expense area becomes more difficult due to the nature of indirect sourcing: smaller average supplier spend, more su...

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2020 Parcel Shipping: 5 Trends to Watch

A major component of any shipper’s overall operating budget, transportation provides the critical connection between a company and its suppliers and customers. With a small number of national parcel carriers to select from, shippers that ar...

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International Trade Market Victim of Global Trends

Political trade dialogue between sovereign nations continues to influence international shipping organizations and specific shipping lanes. The effect of lingering tensions between United States and Chinese governments become apparent looki...

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Factors Affecting Transportation Cost Weigh on SNAC members

SNAC International’s recent Executive Leadership Forum (ELF) delivered economic insights and unique perspectives from snack industry and retail leaders. Among these, one recurring topic focused on transportation disruptions that are impacti...

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Indirect Spend: Harvest Savings, Improve Competitive Advantage

Profit hides in Indirect Spend. When it comes to finding and protecting that profit, there are two challenges. The first is recovering profit from under-managed spend. The second: creating a competitive advantage from the strategic manageme...

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Parcel Audit Services Power Network Optimization

Large volume parcel shippers have a huge transportation budget laden with line items. Often, this spend goes unmonitored due simply to the sheer amount of work required to track significant quantity of invoices, payments and claims.

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Enhance Customer Experience with Evidence-Based Decisions

Shippers striving to meet customer expectations for service, cost and choice face increasingly complicated challenges. In the ever-changing modern transportation marketplace, game-changing solutions require analysis of transportation inform...

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Why are You Paying these Hidden Parcel Rate Increases?

Here are three hidden parcel rate increases that impact all parcel shippers, as well as some tips for responding to them.

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Avoid Delivery Disaster with Actionable Intelligence

Customer experience increasingly relies on an organization’s ability to provide seamless product delivery. Disruption anywhere in the order-to-cash cycle sparks negative consequences. If calamity occurs at points closest to the end consumer...

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China Tariffs Drive Need for Mindful Trade Compliance

Right now, there are tariffs in place or pending to December on about $500 million in annual U.S. imports from China. The United States-China trade dispute escalated in August with an increase in existing and future tariffs on Chinese impor...

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Supply Chain Optimization Empowered by Analysis Tool

Retailers and e-tailers are racing to meet customer demands for improved delivery. End consumers seek shipping options that fulfill expectations for speed, convenience, and cost. Achieving these service goals – and maintaining customer expe...

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Parcel Shipping for the Holidays: Tips to Remember

As increased volume burdens national parcel carrier networks, shippers relying on small package shipping service face added complexity every holiday season. That’s especially if success depends on delivering a five-star customer experience ...

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Diesel Price Headlines Don’t Have to Become Bad News

Disruption in the global oil supply chain sends shock ripples across the energy economy. Explosive attacks on Saudi Arabian oil refineries spur fluctuations in oil prices, just as hurricane season threatens North American energy production....

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Trade Compliance Process is Critical in Volatile Marketplace

Talk of tariffs and trade wars between the U.S. and its trading partners – especially China – continues to capture headlines across the international trade landscape. While this is not a completely new development, the volatility in the tra...

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3 Alternative Ways to Reduce Parcel Shipping Costs

Shipping cost management challenges are second nature for many businesses. Optimizing vendor management, carrier relationships and total resource use for shipping is an incredibly complex process. Raw data and input from diverse stakeholder...

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Using Lean to Reduce Trucking Costs and Freight Rates

The U.S. trucker shortage has been ongoing for years. As the situation has evolved, many expect trucking costs to increase as freight service providers work to adapt to the new challenges that come with managing, retaining, and recruiting s...

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Logistics Disruption at Center of Manufacturing Trends for 2019

The manufacturing sector has been going through a period of frequent, disruptive changes in its attempts to recover from the economic recession of the late 2000s. Gradual recovery has hit a tipping point into growth, but 2019 could end up s...

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Exploring the Importance and Challenges of Secondary Packaging

The e-commerce explosion is leaving retailers scrambling to differentiate themselves through excellent customer experiences. Think about it. In a traditional store, a brand that focuses on offering deeply personal, nuanced services can do s...

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What Did Omni-Channel Retailers Learn From the Peak Holiday 2018 Season?

In the aftermath of the 2018 holiday shopping season, it is clear that the move toward omni-channel experiences is fueling change in the supply chain.

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4 Reasons to Modernize Logistics Management Practices

Shipping and logistics management have long been segregated into disparate categories, creating an illusion that these areas of operation are highly divided in nature. In practice, shipping and logistics processes are heavily dependent on o...

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Top 5 Insights for Parcel Logistics in 2019

Parcel shipping continues to claim a larger share of the transportation market as manufacturers and retailers respond to consumer demands. Globally, annual volume could exceed 100 billion parcels by 2020. More companies are coming to unders...

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Road Ahead is Bumpy, but Outlook is Strong for Transportation Equipment Makers

New cars and trucks, heavy equipment, aircraft, ships and other transportation modes rely on a complex international supply chain that's unpredictable even in the best of times. Despite uncertainty, the outlook is strong for manufactu...

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Manufacturing Moves the Nation

Even with the growth in technology and service sectors, manufacturing contributes $2.33 trillion to the U.S. economy. Many other critical business sectors, from mining to finance to supply chain partners, rely on the success of the manufact...

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Tackle Global Trade Uncertainty With Enterprise Logistics Solutions

With tariffs and the threat of trade wars looming, global commerce has never been more uncertain. Moreover, the pace of change will only accelerate with unrelenting pressure to develop agile and responsive supply chains to support domestic ...

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Make New Friends, But Keep the Old; One is Silver and the Other Gold

That old scouting song has something important to tell us about relationships with Enterprise Logistics Providers. No one knows your business better than you, especially when it comes to servicing your customers. So why should you compromis...

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Automotive Supply Chains Poised for Top Speed

In 2016, the U.S. auto industry sold a record 17.6 million vehicles – down slightly to 17.25 million in 2017 – with incentives such as rebates and low-financing packages driving much of those sales. Those packages can cost up to $3,000 per ...

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TFTEA Compliance Poses New Risks and Rewards in Apparel and Footwear Industries

February 2018 marked the second anniversary of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTEA) that has reshaped international trade for importers and exporters.

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On-Demand Shipping is Disrupting the Retail Supply Chain

For consumers, the purchasing experience continues to merge the digital and physical, and retailers are adapting to keep up. Now, the supply chain extends beyond the store shelf, connecting to consumers' mobile devices and computers. Buyers...

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How Long is Your Last Mile?

No one ever said consumer behavior was logical. Research shows consumers want fast shipping, but they also want it for free or at minimal cost. That can make your last mile ─ which is usually longer than a mile ─ very expensive.

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Free Shipping Isn’t Free for All

Everyone knows there's no such thing as a free lunch, but shoppers have come to expect free shipping for their e-commerce purchases.

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Rethinking Network Flows to Survive – and Sustain – in a Capacity Constrained Environment

A robust construction market and increased regulatory requirements are combining to squeeze domestic transportation capacity. The American Trucking Association has reported that Q2 2017 driver turnover jumped 16% (to 90%), and in Q3 2017 it...

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In the World of Global E-Commerce, Rules Rule

E-commerce continues to increase in material importance for U.S. companies as markets expand throughout North America and the globe. As global trade is increasing, vendor partners are sourced virtually from any geographic location, thereby ...

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E-Commerce Insights for Today and Tomorrow: The Beat Goes On

Shoppers increasingly want their orders delivered promptly to their homes, but many don’t want to pay for shipping, and an increasing number are seeking similar treatment on product returns. Retailers, wanting to meet customer expectations,...

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Consumers, Cash and Carbon: A Challenging Balance

Last Sunday, I pulled into my neighborhood behind a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) delivery truck. It stopped at one of eight houses on my short street to deliver one package that the resident had likely ordered from Amazon. This event brought ...

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