With 92 percent of retailers selling online, 68 percent maintaining brick-and-mortar stores, and 64 percent utilizing catalogs, retailers are embracing a multichannel approach to meet buyer expectations and battle for market share, according to Jones Lang LaSalle's latest report, Retail 3.0: the evolution of multi-channel retail distribution.
At a time when the pipeline industry is facing opposition to new projects, rail is surging. In the span of months, executives who had never considered moving oil by train are not just tinkering with rail shipments, but embracing them. While these shipments are small for now, by one estimate rail could be carrying 100,000 barrels a day out of Canada by next year; others have suggested more than 75,000 barrels a day is already moving by train.
Swissport International Ltd., a global provider of ground services to the aviation sector, has expanded its network at several locations. It has agreed to acquire Flightcare Spain and Flightcare Belgium from FCC Versia.
Shippers often buy freight transportation on the spot market as a last resort when they have exhausted all of their route guide options or capacity is in short supply. Does that mean that these movements can't be tracked and managed in much the same way that more regular shipments are managed?
How we love our information systems, our management theories, our best-laid plans. And how often they fail us. It reminds me of what the playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett once said about his work. "Each time one thinks one starts fresh, new," he mused. "Yet each time one reaches the same impasse. There are many ways to begin, many roads to it, but always the same impasse at the end."
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the city has reached a lease agreement with developer Aeroterm, launching construction of the Chicago O'Hare International Airport Northeast Cargo Center. The nearly $200m center, which will sit on approximately 65 acres of property, will be built in three separate phases.
International transportation management, value engineering and strategic collaboration are three cornerstones of Menlo Worldwide's 4PL service offering, says Nick Caragher, director of 4PL operations.
In addition to technical and functional skills, supply chain managers need to hone their "soft" skills in areas like project management and change management, says Bill Seliger of R.R. Donnelly Logistics Services.
Amware Logistics LLC has acquired the assets of ParcelPort LLC, a provider of high-volume product and literature fulfillment services. The latter will be integrated into Amware under the name Amware Fulfillment Services.