A glut of used big rigs is weighing down trucking companies already mired in a prolonged slump in the freight market.

Businesses tied to e-commerce fulfillment resumed hiring at a rapid clip in April, bolstering payrolls to meet changes in the consumer economy.

Last month, FedEx issued a report with much fanfare about the results of two initiatives that made them proud: They had set baseline targets back in 2005 and were already close to hitting their goals. All told, the two initiatives saved FedEx a combined $281m dollars in cost savings in fiscal 2016 alone.

Meeting the increasingly high demands of e-commerce customers and helping shippers drive efficiency in their fulfillment operations were two of the main themes as UPS and Sealed Air jointly unveiled their packaging innovation center.

Perhaps the most overworked word in the supply chain management lexicon is "visibility." Yet it's difficult to overstate the importance of a view into what's going on in the supply chain. After all, you can't source, make, move, store, deliver, measure or improve what you can't see. At the same time, the value of supply chain visibility is lessened if it isn't comprehensive — encompassing the supply chain from one end to the other, from upstream to downstream.

The trade in livestock is growing rapidly and has more than doubled in value over the past decade.

United Parcel Service Inc., the world's largest delivery company, is pushing back against major retailers who order up capacity for vast numbers of packages during the holidays but don't meet their forecasts.