Trucking
Supply Chain Dive Max Garland March 8, 2023
Regional delivery companies are growing their presence digitally as much as they are physically, a development that could help them compete with giants like FedEx and UPS.
For smaller firms to gain volume and revenue share in a parcel market dominated by national carriers, upping their appearances on shipping platforms will be just as critical as boosting their capacity and service coverage. A string of partnership announcements
between carriers and logistics-focused technology companies in recent months suggests the move is a priority for both.
Industry
McKinsey and Company March 6, 2023
Costs in the oil and gas industry increased by 7 to 15 percent in 2022. In 2023, a further 6 to 10 percent increase is expected, mainly due to labor uncertainties and raw-materials inflation. However, if the predicted global recession hits, some input cost
factors could swing downward.
In addition, primary operation tasks, such as regular maintenance and inspections, are becoming more expensive as labor rates grow at more than 9 percent per annum. Costs for standard-use materials, such as casings and tubing steel parts, are also rising at
5 percent per annum.
Shippers/3PLs
The Journal of Commerce Bill Mongelluzzo March 8, 2023
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US imports will begin to climb this month – after experiencing their lowest level since May 2020 last month – but the year-on-year comparisons will remain well below 2022, a major retail group said Wednesday.
The month-on-month gains will continue at least through mid-summer, the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates said in their monthly Global Port Tracker for March.
“There are many uncertainties about the economy, but we expect imports to show modest gains over the next several months,” Jonathan Gold, NRF’s vice president for supply chain and customs policy, said in a statement.
Link: National Retail Federation Imports Expected to Slowly Climb, But Should Remain Below
2022 Levels Through Mid-Summer
The Wall Street Journal Liz Young March 8, 2023
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Lowe’s Cos. is opening more warehouses that will serve as storage facilities for offseason goods, a strategy the home-improvement retailer says will help it more efficiently distribute its inventory.
“With our old model, we were locked in a fixed route from a distribution center to a store,” Don Frieson, executive vice president of supply chain at Lowe’s, said in an investor day presentation in December. “Now, we have increasing flexibility to flow product
from whatever facility makes the most sense based on product availability and route efficiency.”
Technology/Innovation
MIT Sloan Management Review Sarah Lebovitz et al. March 7, 2023
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Over the course of an 11-month investigation, we observed managers in a leading health care organization as they conducted internal pilot studies of five AI tools. Impressive performance results had been promised for each, but several of the tools did extremely
poorly in their pilots. Analyzing the evaluation process, we found that an effective way to determine an AI tool’s quality is understanding and examining its ground truth. In this article, we’ll explain what that is and how managers can dig into it to better
assess whether a particular AI tool may enhance or diminish decision-making in their organization.
Government/Safety/Sustainability
Transport Topics Eugene Mulero March 8, 2023
Freight stakeholders renewed calls for the repeal of a World War I-era tax on the purchase of new trucks.
American Trucking Associations, along with American Truck Dealers and the Zero Emission Transportation Association, are urging lawmakers to consider legislation that would undo the long-standing 12% federal excise tax.
According to industry estimates, the federal excise tax has the potential for adding about $50,000 to the price of new, low- or zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles. Since the start of the 118th Congress, transportation policymakers have yet to introduce a bill
on the matter.
Transport Topics Dan Ronan March 8, 2023
In the wake of three high-profile freight train accidents within the last month, including one that caused environmental damage in East Palestine, Ohio, and another that killed the conductor, the National Transportation Safety Board announced March 7 it is
opening a special investigation into the safety practices of Norfolk Southern Corp.
Shortly after the NTSB announcement, the Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) said it will conduct its own 60-day assessment of Norfolk Southern’s railway safety operations “following multiple safety incidents.”
The FRA said in a statement it will take a broad look at the railroad’s operations, including reviewing findings from a previous safety audit and providing regulatory oversight.
Link: National Transportation Safety Board Press Release
NTSB to Open a Special Investigation into Norfolk Southern Railway’s Safety Practices and Culture
Fleet Owner Scott Achelpohl March 8, 2023
The current “hype cycle” is all about battery-electric, Cummins’ Rumsey said in an exchange with the summit’s returning emcee, John Davis, who is creator, host, and executive producer of MotorWeek. Davis noted how trends change, like how "biodiesel, you hardly
hear about it today.” Several years ago, natural gas was all the rage.
“We don’t see a single solution, we see all solutions,” noted Wrobel, whose presentation later at the summit was titled “The Electric Vehicle Balancing Act.”
Land Line March 8, 2023
In September, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet announced the installation of driver-focused cameras at weigh stations along Interstate 75 in Kentucky.
The cameras were said to be an effort by local authorities to limit distracted driving, but only within commercial motor vehicles.
At that time, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said the number of commercial motor vehicle operators that comply with federal regulations would be the gauge for success.
Fast forward to March 2023.
These cameras are now resulting in violations being issued, and in a recent case relayed to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, days after the driver has left the scale.
In this instance, a seatbelt violation and a logbook violation were issued by using photos from the Kentucky driver-focused cameras.
The Wall Street Journal Christopher Weaver March 8, 2023
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Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability that oversees the USPS, asked the USPS’s Inspector General on Tuesday to investigate the Postal Service’s policies for selecting and overseeing trucking contractors
and subcontractors, according to a letter viewed by the Journal.
The letter also called for investigators to address specific questions, including the number of people killed in crashes with USPS’s trucking contractors between 2017 and 2022 and what policies USPS has in place to screen contractors for safety problems.
The Wall Street Journal River Davis And Raffaele Huang March 8, 2023
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Since 2014, BYD has delivered electric buses produced at a factory in Lancaster, Calif., in the U.S. and Canada. It is currently North America’s largest electric-bus manufacturer, though its production capacity remains relatively small at about 1,500 vehicles
a year.
Making a big battery-electric truck is hard because of “weight compounding”—as the battery pack gets bigger and heavier, more of the batteries’ energy is used simply to move the batteries themselves. BYD’s main commercial-vehicle platform, introduced in 2020,
wasn’t designed specifically for its blade-battery technology.
Business
National Retail Federation Shelly Poe March 7, 2023
Walmart U.S. President and CEO and NRF Board Chairman John Furner caught the “retail bug” while he was still in college and working a summer job as an hourly associate at Store 100 in Bentonville, Ark., in 1993.
“Two things happened over that next year that probably shaped my desire to stay here in the industry and at the company as long as I have,” Furner says on this week’s special 300th episode of Retail Gets Real, recorded on-site at NRF 2023: Retail’s Big Show
in New York City. “What I saw happening in that environment, in that store, was a place where you are better because of the people around you, and you have the opportunity to make those around you better.”
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