James Cooke is a principal analyst with Nucleus Research in Boston, covering supply chain planning software. He was previously the editor of CSCMP?s Supply Chain Quarterly and a staff writer for DC Velocity.
In the spring of 2012, a new plant manager assessing the operations at the Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) plant in Saltillo, Mexico, made a request to corporate headquarters: Find a way to handle the 1,000 or so trailers that were creating chaos in the yard. Daimler's information technology (IT) department got involved, deciding the plant should use a cloud-based yard management system (YMS).
What led the truck maker to take the cloud route rather than buy the necessary software? It was largely a question of infrastructure, according to the company. "Working in Mexico is hard," says Roderick Flores, a technology manager at DTNA's headquarters in Portland, Ore. "We did not want to have to set up servers in Mexico. That's why we chose a service solution in the cloud."
CLOUD CONTROL
Daimler Trucks North America, the largest manufacturer of heavy- and medium-duty trucks in North America, operates four factories in the United States and two in Mexico. Its Saltillo plant is one of DTNA's main facilities for making its Freightliner Cascadia line of Class 8 trucks.
Every truck made in Saltillo requires at least a trailer and a half worth of parts from suppliers, according to Flores. In the past, the Saltillo plant would keep paper records on all of the inbound trailers in its yard and coordinate the yard jockeys that were repositioning the trailers with handheld radios.
The new yard management solution—a system from Alameda, Calif.-based software developer Pinc Solutions—has changed all that. The application, which became fully operational in March, uses passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags in conjunction with the cloud software. (Unlike so-called active tags, which have their own power source, passive tags must be "energized" by an outside device to transmit a signal identifying their location.)
Today, when a shipment from a supplier shows up at the plant, the guard checks in the truck at the gate and affixes a tag to the trailer's bottom corner. The tag links the trailer to a particular driver and bill of lading. The tag stays on until the guard removes the device at checkout.
Occasionally, a shipment with urgently needed parts goes directly to the dock door of the plant. However, a trailer normally gets parked in a staging area in the yard. The trailer's location is pinpointed by antennas mounted on "yard mules," special trucks that reposition the trailers within the yard.
As the yard mules go about their business, their antennas generate a signal to ping the passive tags and identify the spot where the trailer is parked. The trailer locations are then relayed to the cloud-based software, which maintains an up-to-the-minute record of the equipment in the yard.
The yard mule drivers use computers in their vehicles to communicate with the cloud-based YMS. The computers allow them to record trailer movements, information that's also relayed to the cloud software via a 4G cellular connection. A plant supervisor can view the trailer locations on a map on a special website. The supervisor also uses the website to coordinate the movements of trailers from the yard to the dock door, thus maintaining the flow of parts required for truck production. Instructions entered on the website by the supervisor are relayed back to the yard mule drivers.
In setting up the system, the biggest hurdle for DTNA was the lack of adequate telecommunications in the northeastern Mexico desert, according to Flores. In 2012, in the Saltillo plant area, there was only one Telcel tower for cellular communication. A 4G system from Nextel Communications, a unit of Sprint Nextel Corp., was used to provide sufficient mobile broadband Internet access to laptops and other mobile devices. "Had we had the telecom in place, this project would have been done in three months," Flores says.
BETTER VISIBILITY, HIGHER THROUGHPUT
As for the results of the project, the solution appears to be paying off in increased throughput and efficiency at the Saltillo plant. Flores says DTNA now has 99 percent visibility into the whereabouts of trailers at the facility. That has allowed DTNA to unload four to six trailers an hour. Before, it was two to three.
Because the system has a fix on trailer locations, DTNA no longer needs workers to walk around the yard conducting equipment audits. Status updates allow DTNA to promptly notify the motor carrier when a trailer has been unloaded and can be retrieved. This reduces demurrage and detention charges imposed by truckers for delays in returning their equipment.
DTNA is now planning to roll out the yard management application at its other North American plants. In addition, Flores says he plans to use YMS data to develop metrics to drive further operational improvements.
With DTNA well past the YMS learning curve, what advice would Flores give to a logistics manager considering such a system? Know your requirements before choosing a solution, and visit existing customers of vendors under consideration.
Says Flores: "You need to go see the system in action."
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.”