Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

newsworthy

TFI integrates offerings from its TForce and CFI Logistics units

Move targets fast-growing demand for same-day final-mile delivery, TFI says.

Transportation and logistics provider TFI International Inc. has integrated the offerings of its TForce and CFI Logistics divisions, creating a service that combines an extensive, dedicated final-mile delivery network with truckload transportation assets and logistics management expertise, the firm said Tuesday.

The service is designed to support high-velocity, time-definite supply chain operations, Quebec-based TFI said in a release.


By partnering with Joplin, Mo.-based CFI Logistics, Dallas-based TForce will extend its customized, final-mile logistics service to include a portfolio of middle-mile trucking, transportation planning and optimization expertise, and same-day final-mile delivery, the company said.

"We are uniquely positioning our company to drive value and superior service across a larger footprint of the customer's supply and fulfillment chain," Scott Leveridge, the U.S. President of TForce, said in a release. "As a result of this partnership, it's now a much deeper solution that adds middle-mile expertise to a premier network providing final-mile, same-day delivery advantage."

The combination targets fast-growing demand for same-day final-mile delivery, giving customers a single point of control and communications, he said. In addition, reliable middle-mile trucking is critical to timely replenishment of inventories staged in TForce's last-mile distribution centers, which support rapid-response fulfillment of e-commerce orders.

"CFI Logistics is seeing rapidly increasing demand for broader services that can accelerate supply chain velocity, moving and staging goods sourced nationwide into strategic networks for last-mile delivery," Bill Carter, vice president of CFI Logistics, said in a release. "Joining the resources of TForce, which has one of the nation's most extensive and reliable final-mile delivery networks, with CFI Logistics' planning and optimization capabilities, and the extensive assets of CFI, brings a unique solution to the market."

TForce operates a network of 60 distribution and product staging centers in the U.S., with nearly 4,400 dedicated last-mile delivery trucks, covering 92 percent of communities in the U.S. TForce's capabilities include expedited last mile service for parcel, package, freight and large-format goods delivered into homes or businesses. CFI Logistics provides complimentary supply chain planning, optimization and transportation management services to ensure optimal network operations, asset deployment and utilization, and supply chain productivity.

The Latest

More Stories

Stampin’ Up!’s Riverton, Utah, distribution center

Stampin’ Up!’s Riverton, Utah, distribution center

Picking reimagined

What happens when your warehouse technology upgrade turns into a complete process overhaul? That may sound like a headache to some, but for leaders at paper crafting company Stampin’ Up! it’s been a golden opportunity—especially when it comes to boosting productivity. The Utah-based direct marketing company has increased its average pick rate by more than 70% in the past year and a half. And it’s all due to a warehouse management system (WMS) implementation that opened the door to process changes and new technologies that are speeding its high-velocity, high-SKU (stock-keeping unit) order fulfillment operations.

The bottom line: Stampin’ Up! is filling orders faster than ever before, with less manpower, since it shifted to an easy-to-use voice picking system that makes adapting to seasonal product changes and promotions a piece of cake. Here’s how.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

autostore AS/RS at toyota materal handling site

New AutoStore AS/RS at Toyota Material Handling’s DC will increase parts volume and fulfillment speed

With its new AutoStore automated storage and retrieval (AS/RS) system, Toyota Material Handling Inc.’s parts distribution center, located at its U.S. headquarters campus in Columbus, Indiana, will be able to store more forklift and other parts and move them more quickly. The new system represents a major step toward achieving TMH’s goal of next-day parts delivery to 98% of its customers in the U.S. and Canada by 2030, said TMH North America President and CEO Brett Wood at the launch event on October 28. The upgrade to the DC was designed, built, and installed through a close collaboration between TMH, AutoStore, and Bastian Solutions, the Toyota-owned material handling automation designer and systems integrator that is a cornerstone of the forklift maker’s Toyota Automated Logistics business unit. The AS/RS is Bastian’s 100th AutoStore installation in North America.

TMH’s AutoStore system deploys 28 energy-efficient robotic shuttles to retrieve and deliver totes from within a vertical storage grid. To expedite processing, artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced software determines optimal storage locations based on whether parts are high- or low-demand items. The shuttles, each independently controlled and selected based on shortest distance to the stored tote, swiftly deliver the ordered parts to four picking ports. Each port can process up to 175 totes per hour; the company’s initial goal is 150 totes per hour, with room to grow. The AS/RS also eliminates the need for order pickers to walk up to 10 miles per day, saving time, boosting picking accuracy, and improving ergonomics for associates.

Keep ReadingShow less
US Bank truck shipments Q3

U.S. Bank: truck freight shipments and spending slow their decline

Truck freight shipments and spending continued to contract in the third quarter, albeit at a slower pace than earlier this year, according to the latest U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index.

“The latest data continues to show some positive developments for the freight market. However, there remain sequential declines nationwide, and in most regions,” Bobby Holland, U.S. Bank director of freight business analytics, said in a release. “Over the last two quarters, volume and spend contractions have lessened, but we’re waiting for clear evidence that the market has reached the bottom.”

Keep ReadingShow less
nimble smart robots for fedex

FedEx picks Nimble for fulfillment automation

Parcel giant FedEx Corp. is automating its fulfillment flows by investing in the AI robotics and autonomous e-commerce fulfillment technology firm Nimble, and announcing plans to use the San Francisco-based startup’s tech in its own returns network.

The size of FedEx’s investment wasn’t disclosed, but the company was the lead investor of Nimble’s $106 million “series C” funding round, announced last week. The round was co-led by existing shareholder Cedar Pine LLC.

Keep ReadingShow less

Logistics gives back: October 2024

For the past seven years, third-party service provider ODW Logistics has provided logistics support for the Pelotonia Ride Weekend, a campaign to raise funds for cancer research at The Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. As in the past, ODW provided inventory management services and transportation for the riders’ bicycles at this year’s event. In all, some 7,000 riders and 3,000 volunteers participated in the ride weekend.


Keep ReadingShow less