Ben Ames has spent 20 years as a journalist since starting out as a daily newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania in 1995. From 1999 forward, he has focused on business and technology reporting for a number of trade journals, beginning when he joined Design News and Modern Materials Handling magazines. Ames is author of the trail guide "Hiking Massachusetts" and is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.
As the California Air Resources Board (CARB) nears a June 27 vote on whether to mandate that internal-combustion forklifts across the state be replaced with battery-electric versions, a fossil fuel industry group is opposing the policy on the grounds that it would be more expensive than planned.
More broadly, the state has already set a target to sell only zero-emission new cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks by 2035. And its Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) regulation requires a phased-in transition toward the sale of 100% zero-emissions medium- and heavy-duty vehicles by 2045.
Calling the policy “costly, infeasible, and flawed,” the WPGA has produced an economic impact report finding that a CARB regulation to eliminate internal combustion engine (ICE) forklifts would cost California forklift owners and operators up to $27 billion. That figure includes increased costs and direct impacts to local communities, small businesses, food banks and nonprofits, state agencies, and local governments, the group said.
Today the group sent a petition to CARB signed by nearly 800 people with “significant concerns” about the proposal. “Considering the regulatory authority of the Board and the scope of this rule, we have asked that [CARB] seriously consider how their decision will have real-word negative impacts across the state. Sadly, they seem unwilling to consider the ramifications,” Colin Sueyres, President & CEO of the Western Propane Gas Association, said in a release. “The petition signed by hundreds of Californians demonstrates that businesses from a range of industries throughout the state are very concerned about the impacts of CARB’s proposed rule. Unfortunately, to date CARB has not modified the rule so that it will be workable and we are nearing the point where the consequences will be irreversible.”
Among its complaints, the petition states that the CARB estimate of 95,000 forklifts that would be affected is too low, and that the rule would actually impact some 220,000 forklifts, which represents more than half of all forklifts in California. In addition, WPGA says that electric charging infrastructure does not currently exist; that the forklift replacement technology is cost prohibitive; and that the proposed rule does not reach its goal to establish a “fair and level playing field” among fleet operators, forklift manufacturers, forklift dealers, and forklift rental agencies.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) says the bipartisan legislation—called the Household Goods Shipping Consumer Protection Act—is needed because motor carriers are victimized through unpaid claims, unpaid loads, double brokered loads, or load phishing schemes on a daily basis.
The proposed act, which was introduced by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Congressman Mike Ezell (R-MS), offers a solution, OOIDA says. If passed, the bill would restore and codify FMCSA’s authority to issue civil penalties against bad actors. The legislation also requires that brokers, freight forwarders, and carriers provide a valid business address to FMCSA in order to register for authority.
According to Rep. Norton, the bill “would clarify that FMCSA has the authority to assess civil penalties for violations of commercial regulations, and crucially, to withhold registration from applicants failing to provide verification details demonstrating they intend to operate legitimate businesses. Americans moving across state lines need to be able to have confidence in FMCSA-licensed companies transporting their physical belongings. I'm thankful for Rep. Ezell’s partnership in co-leading this bill with me and look forward to the bill’s progress in the Senate.”
The bill has been endorsed by the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), American Trucking Associations’ Moving & Storage Conference (ATA-MSC), Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association (OOIDA), the National Association of Small Trucking Companies (NASTC), Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), Institute for Safer Trucking (IST) and Road Safe America.
OOIDA is now calling for the bill to get a swift vote before the full U.S. House of Representatives.
"Freight fraud committed by criminals and scam artists has been devastating to many small business truckers simply trying to make a living in a tough freight market,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said in a release. “OOIDA and the 150,000 small-business truckers we represent applaud the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee for its bipartisan approach in providing FMCSA better tools to root out fraudulent actors, which are also harmful to consumers and highway safety. Because of the broad industry support for these commonsense reforms, we hope this legislation will move to the full House of Representatives for a vote without delay.”
A coalition of freight transport and cargo handling organizations is calling on countries to honor their existing resolutions to report the results of national container inspection programs, and for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to publish those results.
Those two steps would help improve safety in the carriage of goods by sea, according to the Cargo Integrity Group (CIG), which is a is a partnership of industry associations seeking to raise awareness and greater uptake of the IMO/ILO/UNECE Code of Practice for Packing of Cargo Transport Units (2014) – often referred to as CTU Code.
According to the Cargo Integrity Group, member governments of the IMO adopted resolutions more than 20 years ago agreeing to conduct routine inspections of freight containers and the cargoes packed in them. But less than 5% of 167 national administrations covered by the agreement are regularly submitting the results of their inspections to IMO in publicly available form.
The low numbers of reports means that insufficient data is available for IMO or industry to draw reliable conclusions, fundamentally undermining their efforts to improve the safety and sustainability of shipments by sea, CIG said.
Meanwhile, the dangers posed by poorly packed, mis-handled, or mis-declared containerized shipments has been demonstrated again recently in a series of fires and explosions aboard container ships. Whilst the precise circumstances of those incidents remain under investigation, the Cargo Integrity Group says it is concerned that measures already in place to help identify possible weaknesses are not being fully implemented and that opportunities for improving compliance standards are being missed.
Dexory’s robotic platform cruises warehouse aisles while scanning and counting the items stored inside, using a combination of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), a tall mast equipped with sensors, and artificial intelligence (AI).
Along with the opening of the office, Dexory also announced that tech executive Kristen Shannon has joined the Company’s executive team to become Chief Operating Officer (COO), and will work out of Dexory’s main HQ in the United Kingdom.
“Businesses across the globe are looking at extracting more insights from their warehousing operations and this is where Dexory can rapidly help businesses unlock actionable data insights from the warehouse that help boost efficiencies across the board,” Andrei Danescu, CEO and Co-Founder of Dexory, said in a release. “After entering the US market, we’re excited to open new offices in Nashville and appoint Kristen to accelerate our scale, drive new levels of efficiency and reimagine supply chain operations.”
The deal will create a combination of two labor management system providers, delivering visibility into network performance, labor productivity, and profitability management at every level of a company’s operations, from the warehouse floor to the executive suite, Bellevue, Washington-based Easy Metrics said.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Easy Metrics is backed by Nexa Equity, a San Francisco-based private equity firm. The combined company will serve over 550 facilities and provide its users with advanced strategic insights, such as facility benchmarking, forecasting, and cost-to-serve analysis by customer and process.
And more features are on the way. According to the firms, customers of both Easy Metrics and TZA will soon benefit from accelerated investments in product innovation. New functionalities set to roll out in 2025 and beyond will include advanced tools for managing customer profitability and AI-driven features to enhance operational decision-making, they said.
As retailers seek to cut the climbing costs of handling product returns, many are discovering that U.S. consumers shrink their spending when confronted with tighter returns policies, according to a report from Blue Yonder.
That finding comes from Scottsdale, Arizona-based Blue Yonder’s “2024 Consumer Retail Returns Survey,” a third-party study which collected responses from 1,000+ U.S. consumers in July.
The results show that 91% of those surveyed acknowledge that a lenient returns policy influences their buying decisions. Among them, Gen Z and Millennial purchasing decisions were most impacted, with 3 in 4 consumers stating that tighter returns policies deterred them from making purchases.
Of consumers who are aware of stricter returns policies, 69% state that tighter returns policies are deterring them from making purchases, which is up significantly from 59% in 2023. When asked about the tighter returns policies, 51% of survey respondents felt restrictions on returns are either inconvenient or unfair, versus just 37% saying they were fair and understandable.
“We're seeing that tighter returns policies are starting to deter consumers from making purchases, particularly among the Gen Z and Millennial generations," Tim Robinson, corporate vice president, Returns, Blue Yonder, said in a release. "Retailers have long acknowledged that they needed to tackle returns to reduce costs – the challenge now is to strike a balance between protecting their margins and maintaining a customer-friendly returns experience."
Retails have been rolling out the tighter policies because the returns process is so costly. In fact, many stores are now telling consumers to keep unwanted items to avoid the expensive and labor-intensive processes associated with shipping, sorting, and handling the goods. Almost three out of four consumers surveyed (72%) have been given this direction by a retailer.
Still, consumers say they need the opportunity to return their purchases. Consistent with last year’s survey, 75% of respondents cite the most common reason for returns is incorrect sizing. Other reasons cited by respondents include item damage at 68%, followed by changing one's mind or disliking the item (49%), and receiving the wrong product (47%).
One way retailers can meet that persistent demand is by deploying third-party returns services—such as a drop-off location or mailing service—the Blue Yonder survey showed. When asked what factors would make them use a third-party returns service, 62% of consumers said lower or no shipping fees, 60% cited the convenience of drop-off locations, 47% said faster refund processing, 39% cited assurance of hassle-free returns, and 38% said reliable tracking and confirmation of returned items.
“Where the goal is to mitigate the cost of returns, retailers should be looking for ways to do more than tightening their policies to reduce returns rates,” said Robinson. “Gathering data and automating intelligent decision-making for every return will bring costs down through more efficient transportation and reduced waste without impacting the customer experience. That data is also incredibly valuable to reduce returns rates, helping retailers to see the patterns of which items are returned, by which customer segments, and why; and to act accordingly.”