Supply Chain Optimization

Good News

The Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern rail merger is a significant and positive step toward building a more robust north-south supply chain. Key points: The combined entity is still the smallest of the class 1 railroads. The approval of the ...

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Margins On Diesel Double From 2021

The graph below tells the whole painful story.

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More On The Variability Enemy

A few weeks back, I talked about the high costs generated by deployment variability. You may recall this graphic of an actual plant to DC lane volume in trucks... Now Dan Gilmore is quoting noted Gartner Analyst Amber Salley: "But Gartner says it is ...

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Why Is Fuel In California So Expensive?

Why is diesel so expensive in California? $6.08 in CA vs. $4.84 in the rest of the US. California has additional costs: Prepaid sales tax of 0.47/gal (but this will be dropping to $0.33/gal effective next month 0.46/gal cap and trade cost A refinery ...

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First crack in the Jones Act?

The Jones (Maritime) Act of 1920 applies only to ships carrying commercial cargo from one place in the U.S. to another. It forces shipments between US ports to be on US-built and registered ships with US crews. For example, it does not affect a ...

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Strategic Petroleum Reserve

The current situation may be named the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) plundering. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created so the US could get oil supplies quickly in times of emergency to replace oil imports. To be clear, the US still imports ...

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Is Transportation Coming Back To “Normal?”

Truck rates are down, ocean carriers are charging less (See graph), and package volume is down. Does this mean we are returning to a more normal time? My answer is “no.” There are a number of new and not-so-nice headwinds or factors affecting the ...

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More Humping

While 2 unions are threatening a walkout this week, if there isn’t a stoppage, there will be more humping. Even if there is a stoppage, when they come back to work, there will be more humping. Before your mind goes in the wrong direction, humping is ...

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Container Arteries Constricted

Railroads are limiting container loads to locations like Chicago. Here is why: Inland container yards are full Warehouses are full. Prologis Inc. said the vacancy rate in the firm’s top 30 U.S. markets is 3%—good for them but historically, vacancy ...

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How Technology Is Eliminating Deployment Volatility And High-Cost Freight

LevelLoad and AutoO2 eliminate deployment (e.g., from plant to customer-facing distribution centers) volatility using a combination of: Tendering early smooth freight volumes over time by pushing lower-priority deployment demand to a later day and ...

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