Avid online shoppers have raised the bar on what it takes for a retailer to stay competitive. Consumers want advanced mobile features, flexible shipping options and hassle-free returns, according to the fourth annual UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper study.
The focus on "last-mile" delivery has sharpened significantly in recent years. Henrik Moos, founder and chief business development officer of Swipbox, explains why. And he describes the concept of parcel lockers for consumer pickups.
Although gas prices are temporarily low at the pump, long-term energy costs are on the rise. According to State of the World 2015 contributing author Nathan John Hagens, a former hedge fund manager who teaches human macro-ecology at the University of Minnesota, nations are papering over those costs with debt. Higher energy costs are leading to continued recessions, excess claims on future natural resources, and more-severe social inequality and poverty.
SeaLand, an arm of the Maersk Group providing intra-Americas ocean carriage, has added the North Atlantic Express (NAE) service to its north-south network.
Fleetmatics Group, a provider of mobile workforce applications delivered under a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, has developed Fleetmatics Routist, an intelligent routing-optimization tool.
Typically, when a protracted longshore labor dispute comes to an end, and operations on the docks return to normal, all parties vow to move forward and bury any residual acrimony. This time around, that might not be the case.
CaroTrans, a global non-vessel operating common carrier and ocean-freight consolidator, has launched a weekly less-than-containerload service from Montreal, Quebec to Le Havre, France.
Online shoppers in Canada and the United States are willing to sacrifice delivery speed for a lower shipping cost, a recent survey by Purolator International revealed.