In the shadow of Greenwich's 02 Arena - the futuristic dome originally built as London’s showpiece for the Millennium - what looks like a picnic cooler on wheels zips among groups of gawking children. This little delivery robot, designed to autonomously navigate sidewalks, not roads, later this year will begin making deliveries from local businesses direct to customers. In doing so, it may just conquer e-commerce's final frontier: the Last Mile, the least efficient and most problematic step in the delivery process.
Metro Supply Chain Group, a Canadian-owned third-party logistics provider serving North America, has acquired Evolution Time Critical, a European specialist in emergency logistics for automotive and industrial services.
Amazon has explored buying an airport in western Germany, according to a German media report, a move that could further build out the retail giant's plan of operating its own fleet of delivery airplanes.
Purolator International has launched its first Long Island Supply Chain Index, a quarterly survey of Long Island, N.Y. manufacturers' business forecasts for the six months ahead.
Hermes, operator of a business-to-consumer (B2C) parcel shop network in Europe, has expanded its retail supply-chain digital services to the U.S. electronic-commerce market.
Brick-and-mortar shopping isn't dead, but it is certainly on the decline: just 57 percent of urban consumers said they preferred to make discretionary purchases in stores, while 39 percent claim their last such purchase was made online.
ShipHawk, a provider of applications for shipping intelligence, has launched a new suite of products to support parcel, freight and home delivery by retailers of all sizes.
Analyst Insight: The highly competitive pharmaceutical industry is innovating rapidly to meet the changing needs of an aging U.S. population. More than 10,000 baby boomers are turning 65 every day, a pattern that will continue for at least 14 years and equating to over 50 million by the year 2029. As such, how and where consumers obtain and receive pharmaceuticals will change, and logistics will be a driving force behind these movements. -- Kim McQuilken, Chief Operating Officer, Spend Management Experts
