Transportation professionals may talk to their peers in marketing and finance, but often there is little real understanding of how decisions impact customer service and, ultimately, the bottom line. Steven Raetz and Kevin McCarthy, executives at C.H. Robinson, discuss a paper they co-authored on bridging this communications gap.
Retailers, particularly big box stores, are demanding more customized packaging of products, which increases demand for contract packaging services, says Dave Mabon, president of contract packaging at Genco. With margins that average 30 to 40 percent, this presents a huge opportunity for service providers.
Providing parts and sub-assemblies to automotive production lines is a highly complex activity, requiring rapid, automated sequencing and sophisticated error proofing. Bo Cheng, director of the automotive business at Comprehensive Logistics, explains how his company is keeping pace as automotive volumes return to pre-recession levels.
Steve Ellet, vice president of supply chain design at Chainalytics, discusses the importance of supply chain network design and how to build a process that ensures confidence in results.
Picking in a frozen environment with heavy gloves, paper and pencil impaired the productivity and accuracy of operations at Perry's Ice Cream in Akron, N.Y. A voice-picking system from Vocollect enabled Perry's to solve these problems and gain other benefits.
There are sound economic and environmental reasons for commercial truck fleets to consider natural gas as an alternative to diesel fuel, says Patti Murdock, president and founder of Clean Logistics Consulting. Higher equipment costs and a still developing infrastructure, however, mean that it is not right for all situations.
The total cost of ground transportation for Canadian shippers dropped by 0.97 percent in August when compared with July results, according to results published by the Canadian General Freight Index.
Airfreight rates from Asia to North America and Europe are expected to rise through to the end of the year following four months of stable pricing, according to the recently expanded Sea & Air Shipper Insight report published by shipping consultancy Drewry.
After two years of either flat or slightly negative traffic growth, demand for air cargo transport began to grow slowly and steadily during the second quarter of 2013. The uptick in traffic continued into the second half of 2013 to end the year 0.9 percent above the 2012 traffic total. Growth has continued to gather strength in 2014, nearly recovering the long-term trend rate. World air cargo traffic is forecast to grow an average 4.7 percent per year over the next 20 years to reach a total of more than twice the number of revenue tonne-kilometers (RTK) logged in 2013. The number of airplanes in the freighter fleet will increase by more than half by the end of the forecast period.
Global airfreight markets showed continued robust growth in air cargo volumes in August, according to the latest data from The International Air Transport Association (IATA).