It seems that all major U.S. retailers - whether they are traditional, brick-and-mortar operations or Web-based - are stepping up their same-day delivery services and fulfillment systems before this holiday season. The move not only helps them extend the holiday shopping season by a few days, but also caters to busy holiday shoppers who don't have time to grab groceries for holiday parties or family meals.

September is typically the second-weakest order month of the year for Class 8, so modest activity was expected. Class 8 net orders were 19,018 units. Meanwhile, the medium duty market was able to mostly offset a sharp pullback in bus orders to net 16,745 units in orders. This updated status of the North America commercial vehicle market was included in the State of the Industry report, recently released by ACT Research Co. (ACT). The report covers Classes 5 through 8 vehicles for the North American market.

FedEx Express has introduced FedEx Quick Form in the Asia-Pacific region.

Choice Logistics has enhanced its presence in Japan, through a new partnership with a Japanese logistics provider that focuses on time-critical delivery.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. has joined CargoNet, the cargo-theft prevention and recovery network.

Automation appears on its face to be a sound strategic move for a distribution center. But turn the clock back a few years, and vast expensive warehouse automation projects were notorious for proving in practice to be inflexible gridlocks, a bottleneck in the flow of goods heading from factories to customers.