When businesses like yours review their parcel shipping expenditures for this calendar year, fewer than one-third of you who ship $100,000 or more with UPS and FedEx annually can expect to beat... View More
Whew! You made it through the holiday rush. Many companies do 80% of their volumes during the three-month holiday period. Even if you are not one of those companies, you may have seen an increas... View More
In the last installment of PARCEL Counsel, we explored the legal characteristics of UPS and FedEx. While researching for that installment, I was reminded of the origin of UPS, which I would like to sh
Anyone who shops online has had this experience: A big parcel carrier truck pulls up to your house, spewing CO2. They drop a large package on your porch. You open it up only to find the tiny pro... View More
This was a successful and challenging peak season. Most volumes have exceeded projections, which has put pressure on the carriers to meet their customers’ delivery expectations. However, there is... View More
The provider that offers the fastest last-mile service wins the race, right? Think again! It’s all about customer service. Defining “customer service” often depends on your own business,... View More
The proliferation of ride-sharing platforms and on-demand delivery services poses a serious question to the parcel delivery industry: Can a similar crowdsourcing model be harnessed for final-mile dist
It seems as if Mother Nature is having its way with the supply chain industry lately. While the mighty river of the “Amazon effect” is a disruptive element in creating new levels of customer... View More
The e-commerce supply chain, for all its sophistication, is a violent place if you are a carton that must get from point A to Point B. You are handled by many people who may throw you around without m
As a result of the ongoing rise in e-commerce and the growth of Amazon Prime (which has an estimated 80 million US members), today’s online shoppers have very different expectations when it comes... View More
In Morgan Stanley's latest survey, which they kindly allow PARCEL to share with our readers, shippers' view of the economy jumped to the highest level seen in the 15-year history of the survey... View More
Incompatibles are an increasing challenge for parcel centers, as the handling of big and bulky items require additional manual labor that slows productivity rates and reduces automation efficien... View More
Well, another peak season is in the books. And while the results aren’t fully quantified yet, there are still some interesting lessons we can draw from the exciting, and often chaotic, experience
I often hear two misconceptions about big data. First, people sometimes think, “I have a large amount of data, so I have big data,” and second, “It’s too expensive to truly leverage... View More
Would you like to do your part to reduce your company’s operating expenses and increase profits? Take a closer look at your shipping spend! Costs are on the rise. For large production shippers... View More
Logistics processes and procedures are complex, and it’s common to still see physical documents shipped by express service providers to points of receipt, including your accounts payable, acco... View More
Consumers were projected to spend upwards of $682 billion during the 2017 holiday season, with 51% shopping online, according to the National Retail Federation. Thanks to e-commerce giant Amazon... View More
On September 18, FedEx announced its 2018 general rate increase (GRI). FedEx’s 2018 GRI is keeping the US Domestic Express and Ground increase to 4.9% (as compared to 2017 GRI Express at 3.9%)... View More
2017 was a big year for the small-shipment industry (although, really, is any year in our industry ever non-eventful?). As we reflect on the year that just ended, we take a look at the top 10 articles
Packaging waste is a crucial issue regarding both businesses and consumers as their packaging waste accounts for roughly 40% of all solid waste. According to the US EPA, residential, commercial, and i
