Even the seemingly most aligned and value-enhancing 3PL relationships can falter badly if the parties fail to “keep up” with each other over the course of their agreement. I call this problem “strategic drift.” It’s a question of good governance, which includes regular communication and meeting cadences throughout the involved organizations. -Kate Vitasek, faculty member, University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business Administration; author of six books on the Vested business model

A number of U.S. companies told investors that rising shipping costs in recent months have cut into earnings.

The rise of express deliveries and the recent U.S. tax reform have led UPS to order another 14 Boeing 747-8 cargo jets, the logistics firm has announced.

The future of driverless driving looks like a giant toaster with a funny hat.

Challenge: The operations vice president of an oil and pipeline construction company recently admitted there was a time when he wondered if his company’s cargo insurance policy was worth it. The company sources goods from around the world, moves cargo by multiple modes and runs a supply chain through some of the world’s most high-risk countries. Thanks to meticulous packing and some good luck, they'd had very few supply chain incidents over 11 years. Until that summer, a few years back. That June, a truckload of welding equipment heading to Moscow caught fire. The $809,000 shipment was a total loss. One month later, a cargo ship carrying two of the company's containers, worth $150,000, caught fire. Those containers were also total losses.