The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has decided to temporarily suspend a planned reduction in service level standards for First Class package delivery until after the peak holiday season, a week after the Postal Regulatory Commission which oversees it said the plan “lacked demonstrable evidence.”
Home Depot has signed on as the first retail customer of Walmart’s new service, GoLocal, with Walmart providing same-day and next-day delivery in select stores in Texas, New Mexico and Northwest Arkansas in the coming weeks, expanding thereafter.
Independent grocery cooperative Wakefern Food Corp. is testing robot delivery at two ShopRite stores in Pennsylvania as retailers continue to explore automated options for augmenting traditional methods to make e-grocery fulfillment faster and more efficient. Stores in Yardley and Bethlehem are participating in the trial.
For the first time, Amazon Logistics surpassed a major carrier in domestic parcel volume, edging out FedEx in 2020, according to Pitney Bowes annual shipping index, although FedEx had substantially more revenue. Pitney Bowes is also predicting domestic parcel volume will nearly double between 2020 and 2026.
project44 has acquired Convey for $255 million to create an end-to-end supply chain visibility solution, marrying up the latter’s expertise in last mile to complement its focus up the chain in first and middle mile and all modes of freight, in both B2B and direct-to-consumer realms.
DHL eCommerce, the U.S. unit of logistics giant Deutsche Post, is investing more than $300 million in facilities and automation over the next five years, increasing its square footage here by 70%, automating distribution centers and upgrading IT systems. This includes dedicated export gateways in New Jersey, Illinois and California.
While UPS buys its way into last mile and on-demand delivery with Roadie, the U.S. Postal Service is piloting a same/next-day delivery service in Texas, geared toward local business-to-consumer orders that companies bring to a local USPS office to get a discounted rate. Experts questioned its value and market relevance.
Instacart has been on its own shopping spree, hiring away Fidji Simo, who ran Facebook’s main app, as CEO, as well as Facebookers Carolyn Everson as president and Asha Sharma as COO. What’s behind Instacart’s Facebook hiring binge? In this latest MCM CommerceChat podcast, we explore the subject with Orlee Tal, CEO of Stor.ai.
UPS announced it was acquiring last mile platform Roadie for an undisclosed sum, thrusting it front and center into a space that has spiked in the pandemic era, providing a way to service demand that doesn’t fit into its existing network, including groceries and bulky items. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
The carrier capacity crunch is real, and these LTL capacity issues aren’t going anywhere soon. The only answer for shippers to manage their transportation is to turn to dynamic solutions and lean on technology that is rapidly evolving to meet evolving supply chain and transportation network needs.