Parcel volumes are on the rise as noted in recent earnings reports from the two largest U.S. based parcel carriers, FedEx and UPS. Ecommerce is driving much of this growth and both parcel carriers, along... View More
The 2013 holiday shipping nightmares stemmed from the perfect storm of record-breaking weather, combined with retailer over-promises and carriers taking on more last-minute parcels than they could handle.... View More
Shippers, here’s part one of a Top Ten list that’s not at all funny! (Look for part two in the November/December issue). Having met with thousands of parcel shippers over the past 25 years,... View More
If you’re not convinced there are dangers posed by the lack of competition in the US small parcel market, please read the transcript from FedEx’s earnings call on March 19, 2014. Near the end... View More
As this issue of PARCEL goes out to the readers, PARCEL Forum 2014 is just a few days away. I will be making a presentation at the Forum entitled, “The Five Most Important Things to Know about the... View More
Packing is a critical operation in any order fulfillment operation, but, often, it is overlooked as a function that can contribute to the overall success of the enterprise. No matter how efficient the... View More
The world is ever-changing, and many times, people are unaware of the change until they are smacked on the side of their head with it. For instance, look at the newspaper industry; many newspapers didn’t... View More
Customer satisfaction and service are likely key performance indicators for your omni-channel retail organization. As a transportation leader, that means you are helping to ensure the right product reaches... View More
Summer’s dwindling down, so it’s the perfect time for shippers to get ready for the holiday season. The holidays are undoubtedly the most pressure-packed time of year for retailers, as most... View More
For many US companies, manufacturing products in Asia is the most cost-effective method. Goods manufactured in China, Indonesia, Vietnam and elsewhere are imported in ocean containers. These goods are... View More
LONG BEACH, Calif. — DENSO ADC, the Americas sales arm of DENSO Wave Incorporated, inventor of the QR Code®, announced a new SE1-QB Bluetooth® wireless 2-D barcode scanner. The lightweight... View More
This is the time of year when the temperature starts to fall and parcel prices are ready to rise, based on the annual hikes announced by UPS and FedEx. Shippers can’t control the new rates set by... View More
The recent announcement from FedEx and then UPS about charging dimensional weight for ground shipments is becoming a game changer in the parcel industry. It is interesting that both these announcements... View More
In early May, FedEx announced it was moving to dimensional weight pricing for all ground shipments in 2015. Signaling a possible shift in how carriers price shipments, the move left many shippers wondering... View More
Google X is Google’s R&D department that is heavily veiled and concentrating on “moonshots,” which it depicts as something that is totally innovative; potentially an enormous new revenue... View More
Accurately forecasting and maintaining adequate inventory levels is an extremely challenging priority for businesses. Any hint of a disruption within the supply chain can have a negative impact, affecting... View More
During the last decade, telecommunication companies had to invest billions of dollars in their network capacity to handle the onslaught of “free” broadband data over networks that were tuned... View More
In the last installment of PARCEL Counsel we focused on three categories of “damages.” As explained there, the term “damages” is applied to losses sustained by one party as the... View More
In today’s world, every distribution center is being asked to do more. Get more throughput, more accuracy, more productivity, more volumes, and more space just to name a few. How? Many times this... View More
If you are a US shipper, you probably have at least some shipments to Canada, and you already know that those Canadian shipments can be a lot more expensive than your US domestic shipments. Here are some... View More
