Topic: Sustainability

News emanating from the U.S. West Coast indicates that among many of the new risks logistics managers must confront these days is that of forced labor.

With tightening emissions regulations on their way, fleets have an affordable and proven alternative for zero emissions today.

Earlier this month, Green Bay, Wisconsin-based Breakthrough Fuel, an energy management company focused on helping shippers gain transparency and “remove distortion from their transportation supply chains,” announced it has rolled out a new transportation and logistics-focused consulting service, entitled Breakthrough Supply Chain. Sustainability in the supply chain, Breakthough Fuel announce new service, Transportation and Logistic services

In his new book, MIT's Sheffi argues that companies need to find the right balance between investments in sustainability and maintaining their competitive advantage. Corporate sustainability, carbon reduction and the supply chain.

An ongoing pricing surge remains intact for both truckload and intermodal activity, according to the most recent editions of the Truckload Linehaul Index and Intermodal Index from Cass Information Systems and Broughton Capital.

The transportation industry is focused on competition from the likes of Uber Eats, DoorDash, Roadie and Zifty, but we should be paying close attention to what’s occurring in the electric vehicle sphere.

2017 U.S. carloads increased 2.9%, or 381,266 carloads, annually to 13,478,126, compared to 2016’s 13,096,860. Intermodal containers and trailers headed up 3.9%, or 521,121 units, annually to 14,011,834 for the highest annual tally ever recorded for the segment. Intermodal trucking rates

Class I railroad carrier CSX reported late yesterday that the company’s Chief Executive Officer and President E. Hunter Harrison is on medical leave, due to complications from a recent illness, and it added that COO James M. Foote has been named as acting CEO in the interim.

To say this is the hot topic of the day would be a vast understatement. But we already knew that. Another thing that is quickly known and observed is that this move has raised a tremendous amount of tension and ire in an already highly-polarizing political environment.

In its “Global Transportation and Logistics M&A Deal Insights 2017,” report PwC noted that total first quarter deal value at $18.2 billion was down 38 percent compared to the first quarter of 2016 and was up 2 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2016. There were 63 transportation and logistics deals in the first quarter, which was up 26 percent annually and down 9 percent compared to the fourth quarter.

The world’s largest regional economic cooperation group convened earlier this month in an effort to assure freer Asia-Pacific trade that secures the advantages of globalization while safeguarding the welfare of people hurt by it in the past.

More than 100,000 United States-based customers polled by express delivery and logistics services provider DHL offered up their insights for various business priorities for this year, including things like business priorities, the international trade relations outlook, the prime regions for international growth, and technology innovations, among others.

Over the last 20 years, the volume of oil consumed per unit of real GDP has contracted on a very consistent basis; consequently, the global economy could grow at more than 2% per year without oil demand rising. Meanwhile shale oil producers—the world’s swing producers—are increasing well productivity at double-digit rates.

At this time last year, we examined the worsening conditions in global supply chains brought about by dramatic shifts in climate patterns. Industry analysts maintain that it’s not too late to reverse the trend.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Joe Dunlap, Managing Director of Supply Chain Services for industrial real estate firm CBRE and Melina Cordero, Head of Retail Research in the Americas, for CBRE about the Hanjin bankruptcy.

Retailers and manufacturers that insist on using inefficient and sloppy packaging methods-oversized boxes, inefficient packaging, poorly constructed palletized contents-are paying for their mistakes in sharply higher freight rates. Pitt Ohio White Paper, Logistics White Paper, Dimensional Packaging

Of more than 200 buyers of freight transportation and logistics services, 5.5% noted that average fuel surcharges were more than 20% above base rates.

Google is kind enough to aggregate all the oil news stories of the day and send them to me in an e-mail. And as part of my morning routine, I read all the headlines and click through to dig more deeply into those that promise to bring new insight.

The Simon Property Group argues that going to the mall is greener than ordering online. SCMR’s authors argue the answer is not so black and white (or green).