The choice was much easier a quarter century ago. If you had a small package to ship, you went with either the U.S.Postal Service (USPS) or United Parcel Service (UPS).
Then along came Federal Express, with an overnight delivery service, and Roadway Package System (now called FedEx Ground), which was the first to offer ground parcel service with package-tracking capability. Lured by the prospect of money to mine, others—most notably Airborne Express and DHL Worldwide Express—quickly jumped into the domestic express service game.
But that doesn't mean small package carriers own the market. Today, they're getting some competition from an unexpected quarter—the less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers. LTL haulers, which have adjusted their networks and upgraded their systems so they can offer time-definite delivery and tracking, are gearing up to beat small package specialists at their own game, especially in business-to-business shipping.
As a result of all the competition, shippers looking to move small packages today can reach any address in the nation, choose how fast the goods get there and obtain notification of their exact time of arrival. Also as a result of all the competition, shippers now have a lot more options to investigate—not only among the traditional small parcel carriers, but among LTL competitors and consolidators as well.
So many choices, so little time
The pantheon of small-parcel carriers is pretty familiar to most shippers by now. The grand daddy, of course, is the USPS, often the choice of customers who are interested in saving money. What's noteworthy about the Postal Service's offerings is the absence of extra charges: There is no extra charge for delivering to residences or for making Saturday deliveries, and there's no fuel surcharge. And even though the USPS does impose a fee for its pickup service, that fee is charged for the visit, not the number of pieces as is the case with many of its competitors.
Then there's FedEx, which offers a wide variety of services. Domestic offerings range from same-day, overnight, and two-or three-day delivery (FedEx Express U.S.) to one-to five-day ground delivery (FedEx Ground U.S.). International offerings include FedEx Express International (one- to three-day or four-to five-day service to more than 210 countries) and FedEx Ground International (day-definite service to business addresses in Canada and Puerto Rico).
Meanwhile, megacarrier UPS, already a huge player in both the domestic ground and air-express business, is looking to strengthen its foothold in the international small package market. The carrier, through its UPS Supply Chain Solutions division, launched its "Trade Direct Ocean" service in Brazil and China late last year. Under that program, which is popular among shoe and apparel manufacturers, the company works with vendors and manufacturers to prelabel small packages, which are then moved via ocean container to the United States. Upon arrival, UPS unloads the packages and immediately places them directly into its small package network.
Another major player is Airborne, which offers overnight, next-afternoon, second-day, and ground service as well as a deferred one-to five-day service. The company's recent focus has been on expanding its Web site, Airborne.com, to include a number of transactional capabilities. Shippers now can print their own labels, track shipments, schedule pickups and pay bills-all online.
Along with the national players, there are a number of regional parcel carriers. Eastern Connection, for example, provides parcel delivery services in cities from Maine to Virginia. Small by comparison to UPS or FedEx (it handles about 8,000 packages a day), Eastern Connection provides next-day service to most of its destinations.
Grounded
But the regionals are not the only carriers nipping at the traditional parcel and express carriers' heels. The LTL haulers are making headway among shippers that move large volumes of small packages to business consignees. The major carriers in the marketplace have reduced transit times on thousands of lanes and have tracking capabilities comparable to the parcel carriers'. For example, Roadway Express, one of the nation's largest LTL carriers, now offers services that historically have been associated with parcel and express specialists, such as delivery within specific time windows and tracking by its own PRO number, by bill of lading and by purchase order or booking number.
Yellow Transportation, another national LTL carrier, offers what it calls Exact Express, which provides time-specific delivery the same day or the next day. Its Definite Delivery services offer guaranteed on-time delivery for non-expedited shipments. As an added bonus, shipment status information is available 24/7.
Con-Way Transportation Services, a group of regional LTL carriers, also offers time-definite and day-definite delivery services. It provides a number of tracking options, including tracking via its Web site and tracking by bill of lading, purchase order, PRO number or shipper-specific identification number. Last month, the company introduced a service offering tracking information via e-mail.
Another player is national LTL carrier ABF Freight System, which provides a premium delivery service it calls Assured Service. That service guarantees delivery on the advertised service date by the shipper's choice of noon or 5 p.m. ABF also offers a non-guaranteed express service providing next-day, second-day or third-day delivery.
Even the multi-regionals have gotten into the act. For example, Old Dominion Freight Lines, a multi-regional carrier with direct service in 38 states, offers three levels of guaranteed delivery service. Its Speed Service Guaranteed provides a guarantee of delivery within regular transit times; Speed Service On Demand provides expedited service; and Speed Service Next Day Air provides next-day service in the United States.
Getting PO'd
But the traditional parcel carriers and their LTL competitors do not have the field to themselves. Companies that ship the bulk of their small packages to residences also have the option of using consolidation and mailer services. These services arrange for packages to move most of the way by truck before being deposited into the U.S. Postal Service's system for final delivery.
This can mean big savings for shippers. R.R. Donnelley Logistics Services, which is probably the largest of the consolidators, handling more than 150 million packages a year, says the service can save shippers up to 25 percent over other ground delivery services. This service is a variation of an older concept called zone-skipping, in which consolidators placed packages into either the UPS or the Postal Service delivery network at the end of the linehaul and near the point of delivery.
One event that has spurred the growth of the consolidation and mailer segment has been the development of tracking capabilities up to the point of delivery. Historically that was the weak point in the zone-skipping model. But in October 2001, Donnelley Logistics and the Postal Service integrated their tracking systems, allowing shippers to follow packages for which they had requested delivery confirmation.
Though Donnelley may be the biggest player in the market, it doesn't lack for competitors. Parcel/Direct, another package consolidator serving companies that ship to residences, began operations in 1998 and now runs seven distribution centers around the United States. Other players include Parcel Corp. of America, which began as a zone-skipping consolidator and now offers fulfillment services on the West Coast to direct marketers. PFI, also on the West Coast, specializes in daily delivery of parcels directly to 1,500 post offices (called "destination delivery units" in Postal Service jargon). Established in 1999 as PaQast Inc., it has aimed from the out set to establish a joint venture with the Postal Service to provide expedited parcel delivery.
What shippers want
Given the wealth of options out there for moving small packages, the question on everybody's mind is what shippers really want. You might think that all small package shippers want pretty much the same thing. But you'd be wrong. According to a recent survey by J.D. Power and Associates, what shippers are looking for varies markedly with the type of shipment. For example, the survey found that where ground service was concerned, shippers ranked "shipping & delivery" (that is, consistency of delivery and damage-free delivery) highest (51 percent), with "invoicing" a distant second (11 percent). Where international service was concerned, "shipping & delivery" again ranked highest (42 percent), followed by "value" (24 percent). But those survey respondents using air service saw things differently. With this group, "value" ranked highest (23 percent), with "shipping & delivery" a close second (19 percent) and "driver relationships" a close third (16 percent).
Other factors included in the survey were reputation, account executives, tracking information, communication, special services and customer service reps.
Though both air and international shippers gave "value" a lot of weight, that wasn't the case among ground shippers, who relegated it to seventh place (3 percent). Surprising? Not necessarily, says Curt Carlson, director of custom research for J. D. Power and Associates, which is based in Westlake Village, Calif. "Costs for ground service," he points out, "tend to be lower than they are for air and international services, which typically lowers expectations as well."
Not only did the J.D. Power survey look at attribute rankings, but it also asked its shipper respondents which carriers they preferred-though the research included only the traditional small package carriers. The survey found that participants (almost 1,000 shipping managers in companies with more than 10 employees that spent $10,000 or more a year on small package shipments) preferred the following carriers in this order:
Ground service: FedEx, UPS and the USPS. (Airborne did not have a sufficient sample to be included.) "Ranking between FedEx and UPS was reasonably close in this area," reports Carlson.
International service: FedEx, then UPS. Airborne and the USPS did not have a sufficient sample to be included.)
Air service: FedEx, UPS, Airborne and the USPS.
Suit yourself
Though the shippers surveyed by J. D. Power had definite ideas about which carriers deserved a place on their "preferred" lists, patterns of usage in the industry are much less clear cut. Some companies use different carriers for different DC locations, and some even use different carriers within the same site.
One such company is Acme Distribution Centers in Denver. "Our decisions in selecting small package carriers vary depending on the physical location of our distribution center and the physical attributes of the product, "says Doug Sampson, senior vice president. "In making the decisions, we look at service, price, technology and support. In other words, everything is customized. Certain carriers perform better in certain areas than others, and certain carriers handle certain pack a ges better than others."
The J. D. Power survey confirms that Sampson is not alone: "While there were a few surprises in the survey overall, the biggest one was that one size doesn't fit all," notes Carlson. "The industry works hard at creating a combination of services designed to meet everyone's needs. However, as seamless as carriers try to make those services, our survey has shown that shippers have many different expectations."
Raising returns
Parcel carriers, like most other businesses, suffered some setbacks under the double shocks of a stalled economy and the 20 01 terrorist attacks. FedEx Express's average daily volumes, for example, grew by a scant 0.3 percent in its 20 01 fiscal year (which closes at the end of May) and dropped by 5.8 percent in its 2002 fiscal year.
Though there are signs that some of the business is rebounding—FedEx Corp. reports that average daily package volume for FedEx Express and FedEx Ground was up 13 percent in the quarter ended Nov. 30—it's definitely not a universal. If you look at stats through the first nine months of last year, UPS's average daily volume of 12.9 million domestic packages lagged 1.8 percent behind the previous year's.
One way to offset falling volumes, of course, is to raise prices. And indeed, most of the small package carriers have announced rate increases recently. In November 2002, UPS raised its rates an average of 2.9 percent. FedEx raised its express rates by 3.5 percent and ground rates by 3.9 percent. Airborne followed suit, announcing rate hikes of between 3 and 4 percent for its various services. Those followed a 10-percent increase by the Postal Service for Priority Mail earlier in the year.
But that doesn't immediately or necessarily translate into a rate increase for all customers, says Donald Broughton, a transportation equity analyst with A.G. Edwards of St. Louis. " For example, customers who have contracts with small package carriers won't see increases for up to a year," he says, "and those who already have discounts will continue to get those discounts off the base rates."
Does a rate increase among parcel carriers give a pricing edge to the LTL carriers? No, says Broughton. "Small package carriers' decisions to raise rates won't hurt them in terms of going up against regional LTLs because the LTLs have been raising their rates, too."
Overall, LTLs have tended to use far less discipline in terms of not negotiating back all of their rate increases through discounts, he adds. "In other words, if you have a discount with a small package carrier that raises its rates, you will still continue to receive that discount. However, this isn't always the same with LTL carriers. For example, if an LTL carrier announces a 5-percent rate increase, a customer with a 50-percent discount may end up with a 52-percent discount."
Nearly one-third of American consumers have increased their secondhand purchases in the past year, revealing a jump in “recommerce” according to a buyer survey from ShipStation, a provider of web-based shipping and order fulfillment solutions.
The number comes from a survey of 500 U.S. consumers showing that nearly one in four (23%) Americans lack confidence in making purchases over $200 in the next six months. Due to economic uncertainty, savvy shoppers are looking for ways to save money without sacrificing quality or style, the research found.
Younger shoppers are leading the charge in that trend, with 59% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennials buying pre-owned items weekly or monthly. That rate makes Gen Z nearly twice as likely to buy second hand compared to older generations.
The primary reason that shoppers say they have increased their recommerce habits is lower prices (74%), followed by the thrill of finding unique or rare items (38%) and getting higher quality for a lower price (28%). Only 14% of Americans cite environmental concerns as a primary reason they shop second-hand.
Despite the challenge of adjusting to the new pattern, recommerce represents a strategic opportunity for businesses to capture today’s budget-minded shoppers and foster long-term loyalty, Austin, Texas-based ShipStation said.
For example, retailers don’t have to sell used goods to capitalize on the secondhand boom. Instead, they can offer trade-in programs swapping discounts or store credit for shoppers’ old items. And they can improve product discoverability to help customers—particularly older generations—find what they’re looking for.
Other ways for retailers to connect with recommerce shoppers are to improve shipping practices. According to ShipStation:
70% of shoppers won’t return to a brand if shipping is too expensive.
51% of consumers are turned off by late deliveries
40% of shoppers won’t return to a retailer again if the packaging is bad.
The “CMA CGM Startup Awards”—created in collaboration with BFM Business and La Tribune—will identify the best innovations to accelerate its transformation, the French company said.
Specifically, the company will select the best startup among the applicants, with clear industry transformation objectives focused on environmental performance, competitiveness, and quality of life at work in each of the three areas:
Shipping: Enabling safer, more efficient, and sustainable navigation through innovative technological solutions.
Logistics: Reinventing the global supply chain with smart and sustainable logistics solutions.
Media: Transform content creation, and customer engagement with innovative media technologies and strategies.
Three winners will be selected during a final event organized on November 15 at the Orange Vélodrome Stadium in Marseille, during the 2nd Artificial Intelligence Marseille (AIM) forum organized by La Tribune and BFM Business. The selection will be made by a jury chaired by Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of the Group, and including members of the executive committee representing the various sectors of CMA CGM.
The global air cargo market’s hot summer of double-digit demand growth continued in August with average spot rates showing their largest year-on-year jump with a 24% increase, according to the latest weekly analysis by Xeneta.
Xeneta cited two reasons to explain the increase. First, Global average air cargo spot rates reached $2.68 per kg in August due to continuing supply and demand imbalance. That came as August's global cargo supply grew at its slowest ratio in 2024 to-date at 2% year-on-year, while global cargo demand continued its double-digit growth, rising +11%.
The second reason for higher rates was an ocean-to-air shift in freight volumes due to Red Sea disruptions and e-commerce demand.
Those factors could soon be amplified as e-commerce shows continued strong growth approaching the hotly anticipated winter peak season. E-commerce and low-value goods exports from China in the first seven months of 2024 increased 30% year-on-year, including shipments to Europe and the US rising 38% and 30% growth respectively, Xeneta said.
“Typically, air cargo market performance in August tends to follow the July trend. But another month of double-digit demand growth and the strongest rate growths of the year means there was definitely no summer slack season in 2024,” Niall van de Wouw, Xeneta’s chief airfreight officer, said in a release.
“Rates we saw bottoming out in late July started picking up again in mid-August. This is too short a period to call a season. This has been a busy summer, and now we’re at the threshold of Q4, it will be interesting to see what will happen and if all the anticipation of a red-hot peak season materializes,” van de Wouw said.
The report cites data showing that there are approximately 1.7 million workers missing from the post-pandemic workforce and that 38% of small firms are unable to fill open positions. At the same time, the “skills gap” in the workforce is accelerating as automation and AI create significant shifts in how work is performed.
That information comes from the “2024 Labor Day Report” released by Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), the firm’s government relations and public policy arm.
“We continue to see a labor shortage and an urgent need to upskill the current workforce to adapt to the new world of work,” said Michael Lotito, Littler shareholder and co-chair of WPI. “As corporate executives and business leaders look to the future, they are focused on realizing the many benefits of AI to streamline operations and guide strategic decision-making, while cultivating a talent pipeline that can support this growth.”
But while the need is clear, solutions may be complicated by public policy changes such as the upcoming U.S. general election and the proliferation of employment-related legislation at the state and local levels amid Congressional gridlock.
“We are heading into a contentious election that has already proven to be unpredictable and is poised to create even more uncertainty for employers, no matter the outcome,” Shannon Meade, WPI’s executive director, said in a release. “At the same time, the growing patchwork of state and local requirements across the U.S. is exacerbating compliance challenges for companies. That, coupled with looming changes following several Supreme Court decisions that have the potential to upend rulemaking, gives C-suite executives much to contend with in planning their workforce-related strategies.”
Stax Engineering, the venture-backed startup that provides smokestack emissions reduction services for maritime ships, will service all vessels from Toyota Motor North America Inc. visiting the Toyota Berth at the Port of Long Beach, according to a new five-year deal announced today.
Beginning in 2025 to coincide with new California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards, STAX will become the first and only emissions control provider to service roll-on/roll-off (ro-ros) vessels in the state of California, the company said.
Stax has rapidly grown since its launch in the first quarter of this year, supported in part by a $40 million funding round from investors, announced in July. It now holds exclusive service agreements at California ports including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Hueneme, Benicia, Richmond, and Oakland. The firm has also partnered with individual companies like NYK Line, Hyundai GLOVIS, Equilon Enterprises LLC d/b/a Shell Oil Products US (Shell), and now Toyota.
Stax says it offers an alternative to shore power with land- and barge-based, mobile emissions capture and control technology for shipping terminal and fleet operators without the need for retrofits.
In the case of this latest deal, the Toyota Long Beach Vehicle Distribution Center imports about 200,000 vehicles each year on ro-ro vessels. Stax will keep those ships green with its flexible exhaust capture system, which attaches to all vessel classes without modification to remove 99% of emitted particulate matter (PM) and 95% of emitted oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Over the lifetime of this new agreement with Toyota, Stax estimated the service will account for approximately 3,700 hours and more than 47 tons of emissions controlled.
“We set out to provide an emissions capture and control solution that was reliable, easily accessible, and cost-effective. As we begin to service Toyota, we’re confident that we can meet the needs of the full breadth of the maritime industry, furthering our impact on the local air quality, public health, and environment,” Mike Walker, CEO of Stax, said in a release. “Continuing to establish strong partnerships will help build momentum for and trust in our technology as we expand beyond the state of California.”