Amazon has increased its capital expenditures by 80% in the past year, including continuing expansion of Amazon Logistics such as new cargo planes, trailers and linehaul trucks and adding to its massive Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program. All told, Amazon has increased its logistics capacity by 50% in the past year alone.
The USPS announced a number of measures aimed at addressing peak season surges later this year, after it got buried in a deluge of holiday parcels in November and December, many of them handed off from UPS and FedEx. This includes 138 new pieces of sortation equipment and replacing mail sorting equipment at 18 facilities.
Walmart and Target both announced plans Thursday to improve last-mile fulfillment and delivery from their stores, taking alternate routes via an investment in self-driving car project Cruise, and a new sortation facility powered by acquired technologies from Grand Junction and Deliv, respectively.
If the past year has taught us anything, it’s this: Retailers can no longer afford to view returns as a cost of doing business, but instead need to make it a key business strategy driving customer loyalty. Successful retailers are enhancing their returns policies and solutions to make returns a differentiator.
AxleHire, a last-mile solutions company powering delivery for HelloFresh, Deliverr, Freshly and Pet Food Express, has closed a $20M funding round aimed at increasing its sortation capabilities, expanding its network and moving more into general ecommerce. It also hopes to create a national network to compete with regional carriers.
3PLs and 4PLs have both seen an explosion in popularity and are now being used to ship all kinds of goods. Each offers big potential benefits for retailers to outsource major elements of their supply chain. Here are some of the main differences between them and pluses and minuses to help you decide which is right for your business.
It’s an open question whether Louis DeJoy will survive in his highly politicized position as Postmaster General long enough to see the wide-ranging reforms he wants to enact realized, or at least started. Considering the critical importance of the USPS, with its every-ZIP-every-door-every-day mandate, a lot hangs in the balance.
This report from Multichannel Merchant focuses on last-mile challenges faced by retailers, and how they’re focusing on technology and strategic adjustments to deliver speed, visibility, and accuracy. To achieve this, many are turning to multi-carrier shipping software that can be integrated with their existing technology stack.
As container ships piled up at the blocked Suez Canal for six days, an already serious issue of port congestion has grown worse, rippling down to longer delays on consumer orders as inventories deplete with goods hung up in transit. Some chokepoints have seen easing but shippers continue to scramble and costs rise.
Last week Amazon spent $131 billion for a 19.5% share in ATSG, which operates aircraft it leases. And many believe Amazon Logistics is looking to restart delivering non-Amazon volume from its shippers. So what is up with all this activity and investment? We talk with Kiri Masters of Bobsled Marketing about the pieces that are in place.