First it was AI-equipped onboard cameras watching Amazon’s contract drivers along their routes. Now an app called Mentor monitors driver performance, which can interpret legitimate activities as risky ones, resulting in lower scores and sometimes termination. The company has reportedly been using Mentor for years.
FedEx has added on yet another surcharge, this time a 30 cent per package peak residential delivery charge for shippers who hand off an average of 30,000 packages weekly between Jan. 4-31 between FedEx Express, Ground and SmartPost, effective Feb. 15 and again until further notice. They apply to Ground and Express shipments.
The U.S. Post Office suffered most in terms of on-time performance and complaints this peak holiday season, experts agreed, with FedEx also having issues but not to the same extent and UPS doing better. Carriers of all stripes were buried by a cataclysmic holiday package deluge from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
UPS has extended shipping surcharges into 2021, with some similarities and some differences FedEx. Most notable was a steeper price drop for the surcharge on UPS’s SurePost last-mile service, used by many smaller ecommerce shippers, as FedEx may be covering the cost of shifting volume from the USPS into its own ground network.
This holiday season retailers will not only have to contend with decreased carrier capacity due to the pandemic but also the anticipated influx of mail-in election ballots – all of which could result in a “super peak” holiday nightmare for retailers. Now is the time to implement strategies to ensure they can keep up with demand.
Amazon is working with Simon Property Group, the largest owner/operator of shopping malls in the country, to convert some shuttered J.C. Penney and Sears anchor stores into local fulfillment centers to augment its already massive network and facilitate last-mile speed, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Target found the COVID-19 outbreak to be a two-edged sword in the first quarter, driving stratospheric ecommerce sales growth of 141%, while impacting profits due to about $500 million in associated costs, the company reported. It also saw over 5 million customers shop on Target.com for the first time in Q1.
When DTC brands are able to understand and implement last mile technology providing greater visibility and transparency, they put themselves in a position where they can control the customers’ experience from start to finish, ultimately enhancing it in every way possible. Here are three ways to boost the last-mile experience.
Here Technologies, a provider of location and mapping solutions for companies worldwide including UPS and FedEx, has created a free navigation app to help SMBs flipping to ecommerce optimize delivery routes by providing turn-by-turn navigation for multiple stop routes. The app has been tested by restaurants in Australia.
