Supply Chain Optimization

A Sea Change in Freight

Spot-market freight received another boost from Uber… Spot-market freight received another boost from Uber: $600 million investment Hiring 2000 people New “Freight” HQ in Chicago (where it can find qualified people from Hub, Coyote, etc.) At the ...

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Don’t Expect LTL Savings

Rob Estes, CEO, of Estes Express gave some disturbing stats: Rob Estes, CEO, of Estes Express gave some disturbing stats: Dwell time is up (this is disturbing – we are supposed to be carrier friendly) Trailers for each tractor have grown from 1.5 to ...

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Dealing with Warehouse Groundhog Day

First, some news bites: Trucker bankruptcies are up over 300% YTD vs. the same period last year Truckload freight rates overall dipped 0.1% in July – Source Cass Spot rates are down 19% YoY – Source DAT Hiring new order selectors daily is a fact of ...

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Rail Losing Steam

Tightening schedules has generated a lot of productivity improvements: Dwell time in the yards down (NS was 25.5 hours – now 18) Average miles per day per car up (up 7% on the UP) Operating ratio improved (CSX was 67% last year – now 59%) But this ...

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JB Hunt: Revenue Up – Income Down

JB Hunt is my bellwether – I can see what is happening in each segment. My summary is: Prices are up in truckload Brokerage is suffering from increased costs and declining spot prices Intermodal is a mixed bag – maybe longer hauls, definitely higher ...

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Stealing Employees Via Their Cell Phones

Stealing Employees Via Their Cell Phones

Warehouses competing for labor know where your workers are from “geofencing” their cell phones and know how to connect on social media. “If somebody is going to sit in their car before their shift …and watch YouTube, I want them to watch our ads in ...

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Logistics Drives Global Prosperity

Take an “attaboy” or “attagirl” for your role in the last 10 years of global prosperity. Historically, prosperity never lasted this long. Andy Kessler, writing in the Wall Street Journal, believes that JIT inventory and better systems have sustained ...

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Management Won’t Listen

“No capital for revising the supply chain network…make do with what you have.” I heard this the other day….I’d appreciate your thoughts on what to do. Here are mine: Survey the customers and non-customers by having the sales team go out with a ...

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When Things Blow Up

“On June 21, the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) 335,000 barrels per day (b/d) refinery in South Philadelphia experienced… “On June 21, the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) 335,000 barrels per day (b/d) refinery in South Philadelphia ...

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Broker Wars Heating Up

“Uber is currently prioritizing the build-out of supply/demand density and is therefore sharing 99% of gross revenue with its carriers (vs. the industry standard of 80-85%),” Morgan Stanley. At the same time, JB Hunt’s digital brokerage is ...

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