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From robots to rivers, this week's got it all! FedEx is teaming up with AI to improve your package delivery, while USPS is still figuring out how to avoid another holiday headache. World trade's bouncing back, but don't get too comfy — LTL prices are climbing even as shipments slow down. Meanwhile, farmers are watching the Mississippi shrink and wondering how they'll get their crops to market while trains run on time (and then some). That said, keep an eye out for all those empty containers zipping around — they're trying to tell us something about what's coming next. Let's dig in.
FedEx is gearing up for a major leap in e-commerce fulfillment. The logistics giant just inked a deal with Nimble Robotics, betting big on AI and automation to supercharge its warehousing game, reshape how it handles online orders, slash costs, and boost efficiency across its colossal network.
FedEx's alliance with Nimble is a cutting-edge and strategic play to dominate e-commerce. FedEx will unleash Nimble's fully autonomous 3PL model across its 130+ warehouses in North America, and it’s poised to change everything. These smart robots can pick, pack, and ship orders with minimal human intervention, potentially shrinking warehouse space needs by a whopping 75%. No wonder FedEx Supply Chain, which already processes 475 million returns annually, sees this tech as the key to unlocking new opportunities for its customers.
Nimble's reach is expanding rapidly. They've already set up shop in the San Francisco Bay area, Dallas, and Trenton, New Jersey. But that's just the beginning. By 2025, Nimble plans to add three more hubs in Tijuana, Chicago, and Atlanta. Needless to say, this growing network, powered by $65 million in fresh funding, aligns perfectly with FedEx's vision. While the exact investment figure remains under wraps, it's clear FedEx is all-in on this AI-driven future and intends to hit the ground running with this partnership.
The 2023 peak season wasn't all cheer for the U.S. Postal Service. A newly released report from the agency’s Office of Inspector General revealed that package delivery performance fell way short of targets and left some customers waiting longer for gifts. What went wrong, and what does it mean for the future?
The USPS faced a double whammy of challenges. Severe weather, including an ice storm that swept across the northern U.S., threw a wrench in delivery schedules. But nature wasn't the only culprit. The agency's own "Delivering for America" plan, aimed at streamlining operations, created unexpected bottlenecks. A new regional processing center in Richmond, Virginia, opened in July 2023, quickly became overwhelmed, couldn't handle the incoming volume, and forced mail to be rerouted as far as New Jersey and Washington, D.C. That’s what happens when there’s inadequate planning for new transportation routes and reduced resources.
While overall package volume increased compared to 2022, on-time scores for Priority Mail and Ground Advantage services declined. The extent of this drop wasn't disclosed, but the effects rippled through the system. Delayed inventory in processing plants jumped by over 23% compared to the previous peak season, hitting the package category hardest. The silver lining? The USPS did improve package processing efficiency, with a 23.6% reduction in manually handled parcels and 16.9% fewer work hours required for those operations.
The world of international commerce rarely sleeps, and the latest World Trade Organization (WTO) data proves it. Global merchandise trade is shaking off the dust from last year's slump, painting a picture of resilience in the face of economic headwinds.
The WTO's goods barometer jumping to 103 from 100.6 in March tells a clear story: trade growth is surging past medium-term trends. Using 100 as the baseline, we're witnessing merchandise trade gain momentum in the third quarter of 2024. Picture a sprinter hitting their stride after a sluggish start — that's global trade right now.
While the overall picture looks rosy, it's not all easy living. Global trade's comeback story is a mix of highs and lows. Cars, shipping containers, and air freight are outperforming in the barometer, while electronic parts are stuck in the slow lane as an underperforming outlier. It's like watching a race where most runners are sprinting, but one guy keeps tripping over his shoelaces. The WTO sees this and can't help but scratch their heads. They've dialed back their expectations a bit, predicting 2.6% growth in goods trade for 2024. Still, considering we were in the red by 1.2% last year, that's still a pretty strong turnaround.
Remember when Yellow crashed and burned last summer, sending the LTL world into chaos? Those wild days of double-digit shipment growth are fading fast. Now, trucking companies are waking up to a freight market that's more sober than they'd like — but don't expect a break on your shipping bill anytime soon.
Old Dominion Freight Line, the industry's quiet powerhouse, just dropped a truth bomb. Their August shipments fell 5% compared to last year. Even Saia, the aggressive up-and-comer who snatched up 28 of Yellow's old terminals, feels the slowdown. They're still growing at 7%, but that's a far cry from the 14.2% surge they saw right after Yellow collapsed. The reasons are simple: we're finally seeing the real LTL market without Yellow's massive shadow. And it's not pretty. US manufacturing is in a slump, with new orders drying up, meaning fewer pallets and less-than-truckload shipments hitting the road.
Here's the kicker: even though freight volumes are cooling off, shipping prices are still heading to the moon. LTL rates jumped 7.1% in July compared to last year. Back in January, that increase was a measly 0.7%. Dean Jones, an LTL expert at AFS Logistics, spills the tea: carriers are gearing up to slap on general rate increases of around 5.9% in the coming months. But here's the thing — it's not because business is booming. It's all about capacity. With Yellow gone, there are fewer trucks to go around, and the remaining players are milking it for all it's worth.
The Mississippi River is drying up, and America's heartland is feeling the squeeze. Farmers are watching profits evaporate, barges are scraping bottom, and a nation's food supply faces a serious threat.
Picture this: Barge captains squinting at depth gauges, knowing every inch lost means dollars gained — for shipping companies, that is. Late August saw barge rates from Minneapolis-St. Paul to St. Louis shot up 19% in a week, hitting a wallet-busting $34.15 per ton. St. Louis didn't fare much better, with a 17% jump to $24.62 per ton. It's simple math with complex consequences. Lighter loads mean more trips, fuel, and headaches for everyone trying to move goods downriver. And the timing couldn't be worse, with farmers eyeing what could be a monster 2024 harvest.
This isn’t the first time the Mighty Mississippi has faced a drought. The story is also a lot deeper than just corn and soybeans. In 2023, 36,000 barrels of crude oil and petroleum products rode the Mississippi's currents from the Midwest to the Gulf Coast. That's a far cry from the river's peak oil-moving days, but it's still enough to make energy markets notice. Where it also gets really dicey? The weakened river flow lets saltwater creep upstream, threatening drinking water for people in southeastern Louisiana. The Army Corps of Engineers is playing defense, planning to build an underwater barrier for the third straight year — a never-before-seen hat trick nobody wants to celebrate.
The nation's railways are buzzing with renewed energy as train traffic surges for the third week running. By August 31, a whopping 516,632 carloads and containers were chugging along America's rail network — an 8.4% increase from last year. What's powering this railway renaissance, and why does it matter?
If you've seen more shipping containers hitching rides on flatcars lately, you're not imagining it — intermodal traffic shot up by 15.3%. We're talking 283,354 containers and trailers rolling down the tracks in one week. Meanwhile, traditional carloads held their own with a modest 1% bump, adding another 233,278 units to the mix. Flexibility is clearly the name of the game.
While Uncle Sam's railways are riding high, our Canadian cousins are dealing with some bumps on the tracks. Carloads climbed 4.7% up north, but intermodal units took an 18.8% nosedive. What gives? Recent labor issues forced many shippers to reroute their goods through US ports instead. Even so, when you zoom out to all of North America, the picture's still rosy — overall traffic chugged up 5.2%, with 697,536 units on the move.
You might not think much about shipping containers, but right now, they're telling us a big story about what's happening in the world of freight. Empty containers are piling up in Los Angeles at a mind-boggling rate — 70% more than last year.
Here's the deal: We're buying stuff like there's no tomorrow. All those gadgets, clothes, and furniture are sailing in from Asia, filling containers. But once they're emptied out in American stores, those containers have to head back west. All while createing this crazy imbalance: Loaded ships head our way and empties race back for another round.
The railroads are picking up the slack, moving 10% more full containers out of LA this August than last year. They're basically saying to the trucking industry, "We got this." And it's a good thing, too, because back in June, truckers saw volumes jump 20%, which had them overworked, congested, and turning down loads left and right. And even with all these empty containers flooding in, the trucking world still hasn't lost its cool. Prices for a truck from LA to Chicago barely went up last week — just a tiny 0.4% bump. But with more empties showing up and some trucking companies feeling the financial squeeze, we might be in for a wild ride as the holidays get closer.
From AI delivery bots to drought-stricken rivers, today's supply chains are in flux. But if you’re looking to tackle these challenges head-on, Intelligent Audit and its solutions can help, whether you need a freight audit, parcel invoice audit, or something else altogether:
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