At the NEXTxGen conference, Maersk showed the shortest isn’t always the quickest. On trips from California to Memphis by truck, the Northern route is shorter, but the Southern route is, on average, quicker and with less variability:

• Northern: transit time is six days plus or minus 2
• Southern: transit time is five days plus or minus 1 

Yujie Su (Head of Product Innovation) gave anecdotal reasons for this — the most interesting was the lack of truck parking on the Northern route. 

At the same conference, Kevin Kuntz (The Gap’s SVP Logistics) said their willingness to pilot new warehouse tech, even if it cost millions, was key to their success.