More than 80 delivery drivers and dispatchers for an Amazon contractor who just joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in April have initiated the first strike against Amazon at a hub in Palmdale, CA, saying the company needs to address wages and working conditions. Amazon begs to differ, saying it terminated the contract with the DSP, and that the Teamsters are making up facts.
DHL eCommerce Solutions, addressing growing demand for its USPS consolidator business, has transferred operations from St. Louis to Kansas City, MO, as part of a national expansion plan. By the time the $330 million project is completed in mid-2024, DHL eCommerce will have a 19-node, 2.3 million-square-foot U.S. network.
Many will argue whether the pandemic was a White Swan or Black Swan event. In either case, the supply chain impacts did not create new trends or problem categories. Instead, they amplified underlying instabilities and dramatically accelerated the pace of change. Supply chain organizations and the companies that support them need to prepare for a world that is less predictable, less stable and faster moving.
Retailers and CPG companies have had a symbiotic relationship for decades, teaming up to offer customers more choice in convenient in-person and ecommerce storefronts. As both take on each other’s challenges, they must learn from the other’s processes and best practices to sustain new revenue streams in the long term based on evolving consumer behaviors, preferences and spending habits.
Despite all the advances in warehouse automation for ecommerce fulfillment, enabling greater efficiency and addressing the common difficulty of finding enough workers to perform the highly repetitive, physical tasks, most organizations are not looking to jump in with both feet. The COO of 3PL Boxzooka explains why the company is taking a more measured approach.
Drone provider Zipline is adding three new clients including health and wellness retailer GNC, pharmaceutical logistics firm Associated Couriers and Seattle-based eatery Pagliacci Pizza, expanding its footprint and building on its success delivering vaccines in Africa and working with retail giant Walmart. GNC will start out with deliveries in Salt Lake City, where it has been testing the Zipline service.
Wix, a platform for merchants to create ecommerce storefronts, has partnered with shipping services provider Shippo to add a set of natively integrated tools its customers can use to simplify order delivery and take advantage of volume discounts with carriers. Wix Shipping went live in November in Canada and has now launched in the U.S. and the UK, with plans to expand shortly to Germany.
Pitney Bowes reported a 10% drop in Q1 revenue and a net loss of $8 million vs. income of $21 million in 2022, and announced unspecified staff cuts in its global ecommerce and domestic parcel units, as it looks at a contentious shareholder meeting with major investors eager for wholesale changes. The opposition group has put forward turnaround specialist Lance Rosenzweig as an interim CEO candidate.
Shopify has pulled the plug on its ambitious in-house logistics business built up in recent years, selling Deliverr to global supply chain provider Flexport and warehouse robotics firm 6 River Systems to UK-based fulfillment automation firm Ocado. “We are changing the shape of Shopify significantly today to pay unshared attention to our mission,” said Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke in a letter to employees.
A new testing protocol to gauge the protective qualities of ecommerce packaging has been released by the International Safe Transit Association to help retailers, brands and partners ensure proper packaging design that can withstand the rigors of handling along the ecommerce/DTC chain. It addresses the fact that traditional retail packaging is often not up to the task of protection.