Peter Bradley is an award-winning career journalist with more than three decades of experience in both newspapers and national business magazines. His credentials include seven years as the transportation and supply chain editor at Purchasing Magazine and six years as the chief editor of Logistics Management.
Among off-road motorcycle racers, the name KTM is synonymous with high-end dirt bikes that consistently finish at the top of some of the world's toughest races. The company is also known for the tiny motorcycles that engage even young children in racing. Though the Austrian company has a small presence in the United States compared to the overall motorcycle market—less than 2 percent of the market for its 2002-2003 fiscal year—sales of its products, which range from minicycles to off-road bikes to its relatively new on-road motorcycles, have shot up during the last several years. Unit sales this year should exceed 20,000, compared to 13,744 for the 2000-2001 fiscal year, and around 1,600 at the time of a company restructuring in 1992.
Moving those 20,000 bikes out to 400-plus U.S. dealers is the responsibility of the company's U.S. division, KTM North America. And for KTM executives John Zolikoff, who is the division's director of new business development, and Lee Hammond, the division's logistics manager, the challenge is getting all of those highly specialized bikes to the right place. KTM's core products are the lightweight racing and off-road bikes, bracketed by the 50cc minibikes and the large 950cc Adventure. But its four classes of motorcycles include 30 different models designed for different terrains. "For the woods and rocky terrain of the East and for the sand in the South or the desert out West, we tend to be [highly] specialized in our product offering. That's been the secret to our success," Zolikoff says. "Distribution must be fine-tuned around getting the right bikes to the right markets when people are ready to buy." And because the company markets its bikes as "race ready," the bikes must be ready to go straight from the crate to the starting line.
For years, the division operated its own distribution centers, one in Amherst, Ohio—where its U.S. headquarters are located—and a second in El Cajon, Calif. "We owned the warehouse in Amherst and we leased warehouse and office space in California," Zolikoff says. Products were allocated to the two locations based on annual sales projections. The manufacturing plant back in Austria shipped the products through the Port of Long Beach for distribution in the West and through Montreal for the 65 percent of products bound for markets in the East. The company used (and continues to use) Kuehne + Nagel to manage import and customs activities, and it hired several truckers out of each DC location for final deliveries.
Growing pains
But growth creates its challenges, particularly for a supply chain that extends 6,000 miles from the KTM Sportmotorcycle AG factory in Mattighofen, Austria, to the desert, mountain, and forest racetracks (to say nothing of the highways) of North America. Two years ago, KTM North America decided to look into outsourcing its logistics operations. "A big part of the decision to outsource was that we got to the point where we had two warehouse facilities and with our growth, we were at the limit of what we could handle without additional offsite storage or capital investment," says Zolikoff.
That decision also made sense given the company's increasing emphasis on selling "street bikes," or motorcycles designed for the road. KTM plans to add to the number of street bikes it sells over the next two years, which means it will be using a separate dealer network and accommodating a different demand pattern, Zolikoff says. "Given that we'll be facing seasonal demand," he adds, "there was a competitive opportunity in being flexible and able to react.What it really boiled down to is that we needed space, and the solution focused on our corporate philosophy to stay as flexible as possible."
Zolikoff and KTM considered four different candidates during their search for a third-party logistics (3PL) provider. (Hammond had not yet joined the company.) "The key criteria had to do with breadth of service," Zolikoff notes, but that breadth of service couldn't come at the expense of central control. "We came across some candidates that had multiple locations," he recalls, "but [we had to reject them because they] didn't have a common system."
He also came across one candidate capable of managing a five or six-warehouse distribution network using a single computer system. And in the end, that candidate, Con-Way Logistics, got the nod. Zolikoff says he hasn't looked back. "Two or three times now, we've made major inventory shifts and there have been no systemic issues. That was a huge consideration. We were able to realize cost savings, and it allowed us to focus on our core competencies by finding experts whose whole business is moving products and information."
Hammond adds that he's particularly impressed with the detailed reporting that Con-Way provides, a task that would otherwise require him to hire a full time person. "I get a consolidated report every 30 days," he says. "I'm able to monitor costs as we go along."
Model solution
Con-Way has done more than help KTM monitor costs, however. It's also helped cut them. From the outset, Con-Way saw a way to save money, says Michael Bare, vice president and general manager of Con-Way Logistics."Based on the early results, we saw we had an opportunity, depending on volume, to take out 24 percent of the transportation cost without doing it on the backs of the carriers," he recalls. The key would be moving out of the two existing DCs and into a single facility run by Con-Way in the Dallas area.
It took a little convincing to get KTM to sign on. "Their gut feeling was [that it would be best] to have the units shipped from California and Ohio, and that's where we started," says Bare. But as KTM gained confidence in Con-Way's abilities, it agreed to consider other possibilities. Con-Way immediately put its network modeling expertise to work. "We looked at a variety of solutions," recalls Randy Mutschler, Con-Way's director of customer solutions, "everything from using five facilities to using one."
From there, events unfolded rapidly. "Because the shipping history was already contained in Con-Way's database, we were able to do the analysis in a matter of weeks rather than the months it would take to commission an independent study,"Zolikoff reports. Once the analysis was complete, KTM and Con-Way decided that it made sense to move to a single facility. Again, they didn't dawdle. Within a few months, KTM had made the switch, just in time for the start of the new model year.
The motorcycle maker immediately began to see results. Shipping all bikes to a single location in Dallas via the Port of Houston made container loading easier and quicker for the manufacturing plant back in Austria. The company was also able to cut inbound costs by negotiating sea freight rates based on 100 percent of the U.S. volume through a single port.
Revving up for racing season
Under the new arrangement, KTM sends Con-Way orders in batches and gives the third party five days to plan and optimize shipments. That allows Con-Way to seek ways to consolidate orders into multi-stop truckload shipments.
That's possible partly because under the KTM business model, 80 percent of its orders are advance orders. "Those orders flow through a standard batch process," Zolikoff says. "We're realizing significant savings in freight costs, which allows us to maintain competitive dealer pricing at a time of rising fuel costs and surcharges."
KTM shares that information with its third party. "They actually give us advance visibility of their orders,"Mutschler reports. "They also provide us with a delivery date for those orders. Based on that, we can optimize and build pool distribution loads and assure that they arrive on or prior to the delivery date."
Con-Way Logistics uses a variety of carriers, including its own sister trucking companies, the regional LTL carriers operated by Con-Way Transportation. Bare says some orders are shipped via multi-stop truckload; others move via pool distribution for the line haul with final delivery by an LTL carrier. Still others are shipped direct to the customer.
But whichever the case, little time is wasted. Zolikoff and Hammond report that the company was able to move thousands of 2005 models through the system in just a few weeks this summer (KTM's peak shipping period comes in late summer). "There were many cases where the inbound container hit the door in Dallas in the morning, and that afternoon the bikes were on the way to the dealers. The flow-through was really tremendous," Hammond says.
Later in the winter, he says, bikes will sit in the warehouse for longer periods. But he notes that because production is largely based on advance orders, the company holds only minimal levels of inventory—"just enough to meet unanticipated demand." Zolikoff says that historically, KTM's U.S. division has expected to do about four inventory turns each year. "With the new system in place, we will certainly do better than that," he says. "Though it's too early to say exactly how much, we hope to get six or so."
Shared rewards
For a company like KTM whose business is highly seasonal, using a third party's DC facility eliminates the need to maintain warehouse space that remains underutilized for much of the year. Con-Way's centers all house goods for multiple clients. "That represents a huge benefit to customers versus owning their own facility and bearing all the cost," Bare asserts.
A challenge for companies like Con-Way is to make the most of its own assets while meeting customer needs. "We do what we can to help drive inventory down and improve throughput," Bare says. "That may seem like we're cutting our own throat, but in this business, we cannot be selfish: We have to help the customers. Our clients are getting more sophisticated every year. They'll figure out quickly if you're not doing for them what you could."
In fact, the contract signed by KTM and Con-Way rewards Con-Way if it is able to improve efficiency. The pricing for the Con-Way services includes not only traditional storage charges, but incentives based on inventory turns and savings realized by optimizing outbound freight.
The reporting provided by Con-Way enables KTM managers to monitor its performance too. "The bottom line is motorcycles arriving on the dealers' floors," Hammond says. He notes that Con-Way rarely misses delivery times or orders. "We shipped 3,000 motorcycles in August, and we had fewer problems than you can count on one hand," he says.
The arrangement continues to evolve. "This is developing into a true partnership," Hammond says. "They are feeding us advice on a daily basis.We went from a case where a shipping manager might have had several balls in the air and was forced to decide which needed attention most urgently.Now Con-Way is doing that. That allows us to concentrate on other things, such as parts shipping."
That's a good thing, Zolikoff adds, because new challenges seem to materialize all the time. "The U.S. dollar's slide against the euro has been a challenge, but it's also been an opportunity. It's not easy becoming 25 percent more efficient while growing the business and holding dealer pricing in a competitive market." For KTM, he adds, business is a big race. "You have to be creative and agile, but it makes the race that much more exciting."
The independent airfreight handler Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd. (Hactl) has found a way to green up its operations and keep folks hydrated at the same time. The company recently announced that instead of sending old staff uniforms to a landfill, it had upcycled them into 5,000 plastic cups.
Old uniforms often end up in the waste stream because they’re made ofblended fibers, which are typically difficult to recycle. But through Hactl’s “Zero Waste Uniform Upcycling Project,” polyester fibers from the old uniforms were recycled through processes like melt-granulation into raw plastic granules that were then used to manufacture recyclable cups.
“In Hong Kong, the aviation industry, like many industries, provides uniforms for front-line staff. Dealing with old uniforms is an important environmental issue,” Hactl Chief Executive Wilson Kwong said in a release. “We hope that through this project, we can break through traditional limitations and recycle old uniforms to achieve ‘zero waste upcycling’ and reduce the burden on landfills, while encouraging the industry to contribute toward a circular economy and sustainable development.”
The initiative is part of the company’s overall efforts to curb waste. Hactl launched its “Green Terminal” sustainability program in 2018 and has committed to achieving a 75% waste recycling rate by 2030.
For links and show notes, mouse over the player and click the .
Transcript
About this week's guest
Dennis Moon is chief operating officer of Roadie. He has served in executive management positions in both public and privately held companies over the past 15 years, including as executive vice president for Medovex Corp., a medical device and technology company, and chief operations officer for JCS, where he assisted in the sale of the company to a private equity fund and remained COO of the JCS Division for Correctional Healthcare Companies. As COO, his responsibilities included supervising the day-to-day operations and maintenance of over 50,000 monthly clients, over 200 city, county and state contracts, 70 physical office locations, more than 400 employees and over 1.8 million financial transactions per year.
Prior to his career in executive management, Moon served in the U.S. Army as an intelligence analyst and combat engineer with TS/SCI Clearance. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 00:01
Delivering Halloween. Forecasting technology trends. And is pallet handling the next robotic frontier?
Pull up a chair and join us, as the editors of
DC Velocity discuss these stories, as well as news and supply chain trends, on this week's Logistics Matters podcast.
Hi, I'm Dave Maloney. I'm the group editorial director at
DC Velocity. Welcome.
Logistics Matters is sponsored by Zebra Robotics Automation. Are you tired of overpriced, underutilized autonomous mobile robot fulfillment solutions that drain your profits? It's time to switch to Zebra Robotics Automation. Their cutting-edge Zebra Symmetry fulfillment solution is engineered to reduce your cost per unit and give you that unbeatable competitive edge. Don't settle for less. Maximize your profits with Zebra. Discover the future of fulfillment at zebra.com/fulfillment.
As usual, our
DC Velocity senior editors Ben Ames and Victoria Kickham will be alone to provide their insights into the top stories of this week.
But to begin today, Halloween is just a few days away. The holiday has grown over the years to be the second or third most popular holiday, depending on which survey you trust. So, it's basically right up there with Christmas and Thanksgiving. Making sure that deliveries of all the decorations and treats get to their destinations on time is a big task, and to find out what's involved in all of that, here's Victoria with today's guest.
Victoria.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 01:35
Thanks, Dave. Our guest today is Dennis Moon, chiefoperating officer for crowdsourced delivery platform Roadie. Welcome Dennis.
Dennis Moon, Chief Operating Officer, Roadie 01:43
Thank you.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 01:45
Yeah, thanks for joining us today. I think most of our listeners are familiar with Roadie, but can you just give us a quick overview of the company and its role in the supply chain?
Dennis Moon, Chief Operating Officer, Roadie 01:54
Absolutely. We've been around since 2014. Roadie is a logistics-management and crowdsource delivery platform. We're also a UPS company, and our role in the supply chain is to offer businesses fast, flexible, and asset-light logistics solutions in the last mile.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 02:10
Terrific. So, as Dave said, supply chains are gearing up for this Halloween season. Retailers are busy getting orders out to people. How does demand for all those costumes, decorations, and candy affect supply chains?
Dennis Moon, Chief Operating Officer, Roadie 02:24
It really kicks off the peak season for us, and as we've been doing this for a while, it gets a little bit different every year, but what we're seeing is a lot of retailers are kicking off their peak season at the same time as Halloween. So, as we can see, and you probably have noticed, more and more sales events and promotions are kicking off earlier and earlier into the season, so I think it's really good, because we're able to take the momentum that we start for Halloween, continue it on to delivering for people right into peak, and it also really helps with that last-minute Halloween rush that a lot of people have. I would just say the other thing is that, you know, consumers, and us as consumers, we're just really getting used to following the promotions more than we are following the event, so we've been seeing that over the last couple of years.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 03:08
Great. Thank you. Along with all of that, so Roadie has a partnership with Spirit Halloween, which is a retailer that's certainly at the forefront of dealing with these particular peak-season challenges that are happening right now. Can you describe the partnership and how it works?
Dennis Moon, Chief Operating Officer, Roadie 03:23
Yeah, I'm really excited about this one. Spirit Halloween is North America's leading Halloween retailer, and we provide same-day delivery from spirit Halloween's online stores across the United States. So same-day's available in more than 800 Spirit Halloween retail locations, allowing their customers to receive their items quickly and conveniently, just like they would with any other delivery. But Halloween fans have access to hundreds, if not thousands of SKUs in that same-day marketplace, and we're just really excited, as I said earlier, to be able to start propelling ourselves as we enter into a really big peak season.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 03:59
And I think you said — how many stores are you doing this in?
Dennis Moon, Chief Operating Officer, Roadie 04:02
Eight hundred Spirit Halloween retail locations, and this is the first time they've offered it. So, it's new to them and it's new to us, so we're just really excited about the opportunity.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 04:09
Yeah, I'm very familiar with the store, and that sounds new to me, so... .Is Roadie working with otherretailers on similar solutions designed to help manage this Halloween demand?
Dennis Moon, Chief Operating Officer, Roadie 04:19
Yeah, you know, one of our most notable specialty retailers, and one of the bigger customers during Halloween, is the Home Depots of this world. And as everybody knows, they've got a really, really good selection of Halloween decorations that I see in my neighborhood every day, and being able to deliver some of those really big yard decorations has been super cool for us, and we've been doing a lot of it this Halloween season.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 04:46
So, what trends are you seeing in same-day delivery service in general? How are technology advances, for example, things like AI, affecting the industry?
Dennis Moon, Chief Operating Officer, Roadie 04:56
Yeah, you know, [I've] been doing this for a while, and just, every year, more and more retailers create or have same-day as just standard expectation for online shopping. It's pretty surprising. Going back 10 years, no one did, not many people did, and they just really didn't have it on its radar. So, the adoption rate is accelerating. Everyone feels that they must have same-day delivery to compete, and retailers have really found that just the same-day model gives them that competitive edge. It increases revenue, and it's good for them, it's good for their customers. We did a survey recently where we conducted, it found 80% of companies reported an increased revenue with same-day delivery, so it really is starting to prove itself. To answer your question about AI's impact. It's helping optimize delivery routes for us. It balances delivery capacity. We're using it all over the place, from customer support all the way to helping drivers make decisions on what's the most economical route for them, what's the best route, what's the best offer that they should make — so, just giving them all the information. And making sure that we're as transparent as possible, utilizing all the AI technology that we can behind the scenes so that drivers can make a good decision. It enables our retailers to anticipate demand. So, as we think about, we've got a bit of demand going into the Halloween season, but it's going to get really, really hectic with a compressed peak as people who follow UPS know, it came out yesterday, you know, Carol Tomé talked about it: 17 business days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So we haven't seen that compressed of a peak since 2019, which means all of the supply chain is just going to have to really, really work well together to get things to people right before the holiday. And AI is going to be a big part of it as we implement it more and more in different facets of our business.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 06:47
Looking ahead to the holiday peak — we've touched on that throughout this conversation — how large a role will this crowdsource delivery model play in helping businesses manage all those last-minute holiday deliveries? Just sort of a general perspective on that?
Dennis Moon, Chief Operating Officer, Roadie 07:02
Yeah, it's a great question, and every year, we become a bigger and bigger part of it. Consumers are looking for same-day, fast deliveries,crowdsource platforms like Roadie, we play a really big part, and part of that is probably because we're seeing more and more retailers, the big retailers, need to move product closer to customers. So, there's a sense of forward distribution coming out of the brick-and-mortar stores, where, in years past, everything would come out of a distribution center somewhere else. So they've got to have the product in the store, and we've got to get it to their customers fast, which is just really, really growing every single year, especially in some of the biggest retailers that everybody knows that have the best deals when it comes to Black Friday, Cyber Monday. A vast majority of that volume is coming from the stores now, where it used to come out of their distribution centers.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 07:51
Dennis, anything else on this topic you want to mention as we gear up for Halloween next week, and looking further ahead to holiday peak?
Dennis Moon, Chief Operating Officer, Roadie 08:00
I would reiterate that it's going to be a short, compact, and hectic peak. As I said before, it was 27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, 17 business days, which we haven't seen in quite some time, and this year, more more than ever, fast delivery is going to be critical. It's going to making sure people have it in hand, they have it wrapped, they have it ready, because we don't want to leave people wondering, will my package arrive on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? But the other thing, as I mentioned earlier, is to combat this, we're seeing a lot of retailers pull forward. We're seeing a lot of events take place prior to Black Friday, whereas it used to be Black Friday Cyber Monday, were the big Super Bowls of our year. Some things are kicking off early in November. Some things are going to have really, really good sales and events that go on all the way through the month of November and into early December, so I think the retailers are smart. They're trying to identify, they can't get everything done in that very, very condensed window, so let's go ahead and spread it out over a longer period of time. And the consumers are smart too, because they're just looking for, you know, really good deals on what they need to purchase for this peak season. So, the last thing I'll just say is that a lot of it will take place online. More and more and more of Black Friday, Cyber Monday is becoming an online event, and according to International Trade Administration, e-commerce in the U.S. is growing an annual rate of 11.22%, and the global marketplace is expected to reach 5.5 trillion by 2027, so it's just showing us the data to support that we're in the right space, and people are utilizing e-comm more and more every single year.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 09:35
That's certainly true. We see that, in, I think, in our work and in our lives here, so... . Thank you, Dennis, very much for joining us today. We appreciate your insight.
Dennis Moon, Chief Operating Officer, Roadie 09:45
Thank you guys for having me. Have a great day.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 09:47
Thank you. We've been talking with Dennis Moon of Roadie. Back to you, Dave.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 09:51
Thank you, Dennis and Victoria. Now let's take a look at some of the other supply chain news from the week, and Ben, you wrote this week about a forecast for technology trends. What can you tell us?
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 10:05
That's right. You know, as we near the end of the year, many experts throughout the logistics sector take this chance to make some forecasts and predictions for 2025 that may seem like a long way away, but we're halfway through the fourth quarter already, so now's the time to plan, and one of the first ones that I saw came this week from Forrester, the technology analyst group. Forrester pointed out that 2024, to no surprise, has been a particularly challenging year for companies, especially in asset-intensive industries like manufacturing and transportation. That's because those asset-intensive industries and businesses quickly feel the pain when energy prices rise, when raw materials become harder to access, or when borrowing money for capital projects becomes more expensive. And all of those conditions arose in 2024, so that forced some of those leaders — again in manufacturing and transportation — to focus even more than usual, on managing the costs and improving efficiency, to find that balance point. All this was According to researcher Paul Miller, who's vice president and principal analyst at Forrester.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 11:16
Well Ben, there certainly were a lot of supply chain disruptions this past year. Did the report say whether they felt 2025 would be any easier on supply chains?
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 11:27
Well, it did say, and unfortunately they are forecasting that it will not be all that much smoother. Forrester's latest forecast doesn't anticipate any dramatic improvement in the global macroeconomic situation for 2025, but it does anticipate several ways that companies will probably adapt. So, for 2025, Forrester predicts that over 25% of the big last-mile service and delivery fleets over in Europe will have become electric across the continent. So, between the different nations, they are analyzing parcel delivery firms, utility companies, even local governments that operate large fleets of small vans over relatively short distances, and so, for all those sorts of applications, electrification is an opportunity both to manage costs and to lower carbon emissions. In a second analysis of what we were likely to see, they said that probably less than 5% of the robots that we see in factories and warehouses will be walking. We might have seen a lot of recent headlines — I've written some of them myself — about some rise in two-legged robots that are now able to be designed. Forrester says that the compelling use cases for two-legged robots are less obvious than supporters suggest. Specifically, they said that those kind of robots, they might have a wow factor, but they probably don't have the best form factor for addressing the industry's dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks, which, that's a frequent way of describing the type of assignments that go to robots. And finally, that the third look forward at 2025, Forrester said that car makers, automakers are going to make significant cuts to their digital divisions, sort of admitting defeat after having invested billions of dollars industrywide to try to build the capability to design all those connected platforms and digital features that we see in modern vehicles. Instead, the future of mobility will be underpinned by sort of ecosystems of various technology providers. So, it won't — a vehicle won't necessarily be reliant on the same large automaker that made the car itself to also make the digital platforms on the inside of it.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 13:53
But those really do look like some interesting trends. I guess we'll see how it all plays out in the coming year.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 13:59
Yeah, absolutely I hadn't thought of the car one. I think we all touch base with that, probably daily, and it's interesting to try to figure out who's making the stuff.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 14:09
Certainly is. Thank you. Ben.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 14:11
Glad to.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 14:12
And Victoria, as robots continue to make inroads into our distribution centers, there's one area that's just now getting a little bit of love from those robots. Can you give us the details?
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 14:23
Absolutely, yes. So, I recently wrote about the continuing trend toward implementing warehouse robotics and discovered that there's a bit of a shift happening in where many warehouses are applying the latest technologies. A lot of companies have been focused on applying robotics to picking tasks as a way to handle accelerating e-commerce orders.We saw this trend really gain steam leading up to 2020, and then, of course, during the pandemic years. Many of those early automation gains are bearing fruit, so some companies are shifting their automation focus behind those picking lines, so to speak, and applying robotics to bulk handling, particularly pallets. I spoke to a handful of robotics vendors recently about the reasons behind this trendand what they are seeing in terms of how warehouses are using pallet-handling robots.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 15:09
Victoria, what's driving that shift to moving towards more bulk handling?
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 15:14
Well, one reason is that this is a labor-intensive process. Bulk items like pallets are moved by people with human-operated equipment, for the most part, and there are a lot of different movements of pallets throughout the warehouse. Workers are often moving them up and down, side to side, from receiving to storage, from storage to shipping, and so forth. So it's an area that's ripe for automation in many ways. But it's difficult to automate all of those pallet moves within a warehouse, so the trick is finding the processes within your facility that make the most sense to automate. Some facilities may benefit from using AGVs or AMRs to transport pallets between destinations; others could apply forklift AGVs to move pallets in and out of storage; and there are also robotic pallet shuttles, which can move pallets into and out of dense storage racking as part of a larger system. Now, all of these productshave been around for a while, but there's much research and development going on, making them better, smarter, more effective, and also in developing pallet-handling robotics that work in concert as a system. Really, what I learned is that this is very much about relieving pressure on labor and keeping goods flowing through the warehouse.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 16:24
Yeah, because of those labor needs — and I think that's going to be still a growing problem — we will see more robots plying their trade and handling those heavy loads. It just makes a lot of sense.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 16:33
It certainly does.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 16:35
Thank you, Victoria,
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 16:36
You're welcome.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 16:38
We encourage listeners to go to dcvelocity.com for more on these and other supply chain stories. Also check out the podcast Notes section for some direct links to read more about the topics that we discussed today.
And we'd like to thank our guest, Dennis Moon of Roadie, for being with us today. We welcome your comments on this topic and our other stories. You can email us at
podcast@agilebme.com.
We also encourage you to subscribe to
Logistics Matters at your favorite podcast platform. Our new episodes are uploaded on Fridays.
Speaking of subscribing, check out our sister podcast series,
Supply Chain in the Fast Lane. We have a 10-episode series currently playing on the state of logistics. Check out Supply Chain in the Fast Lane wherever you get your podcasts.
And a reminder that
Logistics Matters is sponsored by Zebra Robotics Automation. Are you tired of overpriced, underutilized autonomous mobile robot fulfillment solutions that drain your profits? It's time to switch to Zebra Robotics Automation. Their cutting-edge Zebra Symmetry fulfillment solution is engineered to reduce your cost per unit and give you that unbeatable competitive edge. Don't settle for less. Maximize your profits with Zebra. Discover the future of fulfillment at zebra.com/fulfillment.
We'll be back again next week with another edition of
Logistics Matters. Be sure to join us. Until then, have a great week.
Business leaders in the manufacturing and transportation sectors will increasingly turn to technology in 2025 to adapt to developments in a tricky economic environment, according to a report from Forrester.
That approach is needed because companies in asset-intensive industries like manufacturing and transportation quickly feel the pain when energy prices rise, raw materials are harder to access, or borrowing money for capital projects becomes more expensive, according to researcher Paul Miller, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester.
And all of those conditions arose in 2024, forcing leaders to focus even more than usual on managing costs and improving efficiency. Forrester’s latest forecast doesn’t anticipate any dramatic improvement in the global macroeconomic situation in 2025, but it does anticipate several ways that companies will adapt.
For 2025, Forrester predicts that:
over 25% of big last-mile service and delivery fleets in Europe will be electric. Across the continent, parcel delivery firms, utility companies, and local governments operating large fleets of small vans over relatively short distances see electrification as an opportunity to manage costs while lowering carbon emissions.
less than 5% of the robots entering factories and warehouses will walk. While industry coverage often focuses on two-legged robots, Forrester says the compelling use cases for those legs are less common — or obvious — than supporters suggest. The report says that those robots have a wow factor, but they may not have the best form factor for addressing industry’s dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks.
carmakers will make significant cuts to their digital divisions, admitting defeat after the industry invested billions of dollars in recent years to build the capability to design the connected and digital features installed in modern vehicles. Instead, the future of mobility will be underpinned by ecosystems of various technology providers, not necessarily reliant on the same large automaker that made the car itself.
Regular online readers of DC Velocity and Supply Chain Xchange have probably noticed something new during the past few weeks. Our team has been working for months to produce shiny new websites that allow you to find the supply chain news and stories you need more easily.
It is always good for a media brand to undergo a refresh every once in a while. We certainly are not alone in retooling our websites; most of you likely go through that rather complex process every few years. But this was more than just your average refresh. We did it to take advantage of the most recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI).
Most of the AI work will take place behind the scenes. We will not, for instance, use AI to generate our stories. Those will still be written by our award-winning editorial team (I realize I’m biased, but I believe them to be the best in the business). Instead, we will be applying AI to things like graphics, search functions, and prioritizing relevant stories to make it easier for you to find the information you need along with related content.
We have also redesigned the websites’ layouts to make it quick and easy to find articles on specific topics. For example, content on DC Velocity’s new site is divided into five categories: material handling, robotics, transportation, technology, and supply chain services. We also offer a robust video section, including case histories, webcasts, and executive interviews, plus our weekly podcasts.
Over on the Supply Chain Xchange site, we have organized articles into categories that align with the traditional five phases of supply chain management: plan, procure, produce, move, and store. Plus, we added a “tech” category just to round it off. You can also find links to our videos, newsletters, podcasts, webcasts, blogs, and much more on the site.
Our mobile-app users will also notice some enhancements. An increasing number of you are receiving your daily supply chain news on your phones and tablets, so we have revamped our sites for optimal performance on those devices. For instance, you’ll find that related stories will appear right after the article you’re reading in case you want to delve further into the topic.
However you view us, you will find snappier headlines, more graphics and illustrations, and sites that are easier to navigate.
I would personally like to thank our management, IT department, and editors for their work in making this transition a reality. In our more than 20 years as a media company, this is our largest expansion into digital yet.
We hope you enjoy the experience.
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In this chart, the red and green bars represent Trucking Conditions Index for 2024. The blue line represents the Trucking Conditions Index for 2023. The index shows that while business conditions for trucking companies improved in August of 2024 versus July of 2024, they are still overall negative.
FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index improved in August to -1.39 from the reading of -5.59 in July. The Bloomington, Indiana-based firm forecasts that its TCI readings will remain mostly negative-to-neutral through the beginning of 2025.
“Trucking is en route to more favorable conditions next year, but the road remains bumpy as both freight volume and capacity utilization are still soft, keeping rates weak. Our forecasts continue to show the truck freight market starting to favor carriers modestly before the second quarter of next year,” Avery Vise, FTR’s vice president of trucking, said in a release.
The TCI tracks the changes representing five major conditions in the U.S. truck market: freight volumes, freight rates, fleet capacity, fuel prices, and financing costs. Combined into a single index, a positive score represents good, optimistic conditions, and a negative score shows the opposite.