Contributing Editor Toby Gooley is a writer and editor specializing in supply chain, logistics, and material handling, and a lecturer at MIT's Center for Transportation & Logistics. She previously was Senior Editor at DC VELOCITY and Editor of DCV's sister publication, CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly. Prior to joining AGiLE Business Media in 2007, she spent 20 years at Logistics Management magazine as Managing Editor and Senior Editor covering international trade and transportation. Prior to that she was an export traffic manager for 10 years. She holds a B.A. in Asian Studies from Cornell University.
The economy may be in freefall, but logistics salaries appear to be holding their own …for the most part anyway. About onethird of the 1,148 logistics professionals who responded to our fourth annual salary survey in February said their total annual compensation had stayed the same in the previous 12 months. And more than half (53 percent) said their annual compensation had actually increased—better than you might expect considering the headlines of late.
Not everyone was so fortunate, though. About 14 percent of the respondents said they were making less than they did the previous year. That's a significant jump compared to 2008's survey, when only 3 percent of respondents said their pay had fallen during the past 12 months. This group most likely includes people who are unemployed, have taken a pay cut, or have taken a lowerpaying position after losing their previous job. In fact, no matter how you looked at the data, median and average salaries were down slightly almost across the board.
Hard labor
Their paychecks may be smaller, but readers are working as hard as ever. Only 25 percent of those who took part in the salary survey said they worked 40 hours or less during the average week. Another 68 percent said they typically worked 46 to 60 hours a week (including time spent working outside the office). A harried 7 percent can't seem to tear themselves away, devoting more than 60 hours a week to their jobs. And it doesn't seem to matter much what your title, industry, or location may be—with 87 percent of respondents reporting that their work hours had increased or stayed the same, almost everyone is putting their nose to the grindstone these days.
That's partly because many people in this field have more responsibilities than they did in the past. Sixtysix percent of the survey respondents, in fact, reported that the number of functions they manage has increased over the past three years. Another 29 percent said their responsibilities had stayed the same, and 5 percent reported a decrease. The typical reader, moreover, is no longer responsible for a single function. Plenty of respondents said they carried responsibility for three or more of the six functions mentioned in the survey (see the sidebar). The greater the number of functions you oversee, of course, the more people to manage. No surprise, then, that 61 percent of the survey respondents said they had five or more direct reports.
So what kind of compensation are readers being paid for those long hours and growing lists of responsibilities? As we noted earlier, in many cases, it's less than they made before. The average salary this year was $97,776 (down from $105,834 the previous year), while the median salary was $83,000—some $6,000 less than the median in last year's survey.
That downward slide is due in part to the record number of respondents (14 percent) whose pay declined in the previous 12 months. Yet some respondents appear to be holding steady or even doing a bit better than in the past. Thirty-three percent said their pay had not changed over the previous year, and a fortunate 53 percent brought home more bacon during that same period. The latter reported an average increase of 5.5 percent over the previous year (the median was 3.6 percent). It's important to note that those numbers reflect more than just annual raises. Sixty-one percent of all respondents reported that at least part of their total compensation was based on performance.
Title bout
With respondents reporting a wide range of titles and responsibilities (see the sidebar), it's inevitable that our survey would show a significant range in salaries. For the most part, the latest results are similar to patterns we've been seeing all along. One interesting exception: The biggest paychecks this year did not go to the highest-level executives. The three highest-paid readers all identified themselves as managers; they hailed from the pharmaceutical and health care ($980,000), wholesale/retail ($950,000), and food and grocery ($900,000) industries. The three lowest earners, who came from the wholesale/retail and electronics/electrical equipment and components industries, brought home between $10,000 and $12,000—unusually low numbers that may reflect job losses or part-time work.
It's impossible to know whether that nearly million-dollar differential is an anomaly or signals some new trend. But in most cases, job title is still the biggest factor in determining the size of your paycheck.
Which titles pay the most on average? As was the case last year, vice presidents were at the top of the salary ladder. The median salary for VP-level respondents was $144,000—5 percent higher than the median salary of those next in line, corporate officers. Presidents and directors came next, with median salaries of $120,000 and $104,000, respectively.
From there, it's a big jump down to the lower levels. Managers made $28,000 less than directors, and supervisors earned $19,000 less than managers. Exhibit 1 shows the median salary and average salary for each title (we've used the median numbers, rather than the averages, as the basis for comparison because they are less likely to be skewed by statistical extremes).
Experience and education count
Job title may carry the most weight, but many other factors influence how much an individual logistics or supply chain professional makes. The region where you work, your level of education, and how long you've been in the business will typically play a big role in determining your salary.
Let's start with geographic region. As Exhibit 2 shows, this year, the highest median salary was found in the Western states, where the median pay was $87,500. The Middle Atlantic region paid second best, with a median salary of $85,700. Managers working in the Lower 48 did considerably better than their counterparts in Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the median salary was just $63,000.
Did your parents push you to get an advanced degree so you would make more money? Well, they knew what they were doing. Exhibit 3 illustrates the strong correlation between earnings and education. The median salary for respondents with only a highschool diploma was $67,000. With a median salary of $145,000, those who have earned a doctorate take home more than twice as much.
Experience in the field also influences earnings (see Exhibit 4). The median salary of newcomers to the profession (those with five or fewer years of experience in logistics) was $66,650. Those at the other end of the scale (respondents with more than 25 years' experience) command a hefty premium for their expertise. With a median salary of $100,000, the veterans outearned the newcomers by about 50 percent.
Grab bag
A grab bag of other factors can have an influence on salaries. Our survey found that a respondent's age and gender, the size of the company he or she works for, and the length of his or her tenure with the current employer can make a difference.
Take age, for example. It seems logical that median salaries should increase with age; as Exhibit 5 shows, that is true, although the differences start to taper off once respondents reach their mid50s. The median salaries for respondents aged 56 to 60 ($89,000) and for those over 60 were separated by just a few hundred dollars.
For as long as salary surveys have been around, women have lagged behind men in terms of their compensation. As Exhibit 6 shows, the difference in median salaries this year was $20,000, or 31 percent. The persistent gender gap appears to be based to some degree on experience. Sixtyfive percent of the women who responded to this year's survey had 15 years' experience or less, compared to 40 percent of the men.
The size of the company you work for makes a difference in your salary (see Exhibit 7). As you might expect, small businesses—those with fewer than 100 employees—pay the least, a median salary of $75,000. Working for a slightly larger company will get you a slightly larger salary—$2,500 more, to be precise. From there, it's a steady step upward to the large corporations that pay a median salary of $95,000.
When it comes to pay, the length of respondents' tenure with their current employers seems to be less important than you might expect. As Exhibit 8 shows, our survey found only a weak correlation between them. As has been true in past years, salaries do not necessarily increase with the number of years with a particular employer. This year, median salaries for those with 11 to 20 years of service with their current employer dipped below those of more recent arrivals. The most senior people, however, outpaced the rest of their colleagues by several thousand dollars.
Glimmer of hope
As anyone who's ever undergone a salary review well knows, there are countless other variables that might influence a person's salary—job performance, departmental budget, and perks and benefits, to name a few. But generally speaking, the primary factors in determining salary are title, geographic region, education, experience, age, company size, and gender.
What does that mean for those eager to boost their earnings? Well, there's not much you can do about your age or gender. But if you suspect your location or a lack of schooling might be holding you back, you can think about moving to a different part of the country or going back to school. But be realistic: In the current economy, even tactics that were once considered tried and true may not pay off.
It's clear that the salaries reflect what's happening in the economy at large. As orders and shipping volumes decline, companies are discontinuing bonuses and cutting compensation. Don't give up hope, though. More than half of the survey respondents saw their pay increase, albeit by a pretty slim percentage. And when times get tough, smart companies take a fresh look at their operations to find efficiencies and cost savings. Who better to take on that mission and prove their worth than logistics and distribution pros?
who are you?
The results of DC VELOCITY's fourth annual salary survey once again offer a comprehensive portrait of our readers. The study was based on the responses of 1,148 subscribers who completed a 20-question survey in February. The survey respondents came from a broad swath of industries—everything from wholesale/retail (27 percent), third-party logistics services (10 percent), and food and grocery (8 percent) to pharmaceuticals and health care (5 percent), consumer packaged goods (6 percent), and apparel and footwear (4 percent).
All of the respondents classified themselves as having some sort of managerial responsibility. At the higher levels, 3 percent said they were corporate officers (CEOs, COOs, CFOs), another 3 percent identified themselves as presidents, 9 percent were vice presidents, and 20 percent were directors. The largest group, 53 percent, described themselves simply as managers, followed by the 12 percent who said they were supervisors.
Respondents represented companies of all sizes, from the 21 percent who were employed by businesses with fewer than 100 employees, all the way up to the 29 percent who worked for companies with more than 5,000 employees. Thirty-three percent worked for midsized companies that employ anywhere from 100 to 1,000 people, and 17 percent worked for organizations employing 1,001 to 5,000 people. The respondents' companies were located throughout the United States, as well as in Canada and Mexico.
Our survey asked respondents to identify the functions they managed. The overwhelming majority of the survey-takers indicated that they had multiple areas of responsibility. Warehouse and/or distribution center management was the most frequent answer, cited by nearly three-fourths (73 percent) of the respondents. Logistics management (60 percent) was close behind, followed by supply chain management (50 percent), transportation management (52 percent), import/export operations (26 percent), and fleet operations (22 percent).
As for the respondents themselves, the vast majority (88 percent) were male; just 12 percent were female. Some were relative newcomers to the workforce—13 percent were 35 years of age or younger. Others could boast years of experience. The largest group of respondents (68 percent) fell into the 36-to-55 age range. Nineteen percent were over the age of 56 (including the 2 percent who said they were over 65). The majority (69 percent) had gone to college, earning a bachelor's degree or higher. But 31 percent— including a few of the most highly paid respondents—had ended their formal education with a high school diploma.
Most respondents were seasoned professionals. Only 12 percent said they'd been working in logistics for five years or less. Another 17 percent have worked in the field for six to 10 years, 19 percent for 11 to 15 years, 18 percent for 16 to 20 years, 12 percent for 21 to 25 years, and 22 percent for more than 25 years. And they're not the type to bounce around from one job to the next: Two-thirds (67 percent) said they had been working at the same company for six years or more.
States across the Southeast woke up today to find that the immediate weather impacts from Hurricane Helene are done, but the impacts to people, businesses, and the supply chain continue to be a major headache, according to Everstream Analytics.
The primary problem is the collection of massive power outages caused by the storm’s punishing winds and rainfall, now affecting some 2 million customers across the Southeast region of the U.S.
One organization working to rush help to affected regions since the storm hit Florida’s western coast on Thursday night is the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). As it does after most serious storms, the group continues to marshal donated resources from supply chain service providers in order to store, stage, and deliver help where it’s needed.
Support for recovery efforts is coming from a massive injection of federal aid, since the White House declared states of emergency last week for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Affected states are also supporting the rush of materials to needed zones by suspending transportation requirement such as certain licensing agreements, fuel taxes, weight restrictions, and hours of service caps, ALAN said.
E-commerce activity remains robust, but a growing number of consumers are reintegrating physical stores into their shopping journeys in 2024, emphasizing the need for retailers to focus on omnichannel business strategies. That’s according to an e-commerce study from Ryder System, Inc., released this week.
Ryder surveyed more than 1,300 consumers for its 2024 E-Commerce Consumer Study and found that 61% of consumers shop in-store “because they enjoy the experience,” a 21% increase compared to results from Ryder’s 2023 survey on the same subject. The current survey also found that 35% shop in-store because they don’t want to wait for online orders in the mail (up 4% from last year), and 15% say they shop in-store to avoid package theft (up 8% from last year).
“Retail and e-commerce continue to evolve,” Jeff Wolpov, Ryder’s senior vice president of e-commerce, said in a statement announcing the survey’s findings. “The emergence of e-commerce and growth of omnichannel fulfillment, particularly over the past four years, has altered consumer expectations and behavior dramatically and will continue to do so as time and technology allow.
“This latest study demonstrates that, while consumers maintain a robust
appetite for e-commerce, they are simultaneously embracing in-person shopping, presenting an impetus for merchants to refine their omnichannel strategies.”
Other findings include:
• Apparel and cosmetics shoppers show growing attraction to buying in-store. When purchasing apparel and cosmetics, shoppers are more inclined to make purchases in a physical location than they were last year, according to Ryder. Forty-one percent of shoppers who buy cosmetics said they prefer to do so either in a brand’s physical retail location or a department/convenience store (+9%). As for apparel shoppers, 54% said they prefer to buy clothing in those same brick-and-mortar locations (+9%).
• More customers prefer returning online purchases in physical stores. Fifty-five percent of shoppers (+15%) now say they would rather return online purchases in-store–the first time since early 2020 the preference to Buy Online Return In-Store (BORIS) has outweighed returning via mail, according to the survey. Forty percent of shoppers said they often make additional purchases when picking up or returning online purchases in-store (+2%).
• Consumers are extremely reliant on mobile devices when shopping in-store. This year’s survey reveals that 77% of consumers search for items on their mobile devices while in a store, Ryder said. Sixty-nine percent said they compare prices with items in nearby stores, 58% check availability at other stores, 31% want to learn more about a product, and 17% want to see other items frequently purchased with a product they’re considering.
Ryder said the findings also underscore the importance of investing in technology solutions that allow companies to provide customers with flexible purchasing options.
“Omnichannel strength is not a fad; it is a strategic necessity for e-commerce and retail businesses to stay competitive and achieve sustainable success in 2024 and beyond,” Wolpov also said. “The findings from this year’s study underscore what we know our customers are experiencing, which is the positive impact of integrating supply chain technology solutions across their sales channels, enabling them to provide their customers with flexible, convenient options to personalize their experience and heighten customer satisfaction.”
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Two European companies are among the most recent firms to put autonomous last-mile delivery to the test with a project in Bern, Switzerland, that debuted this month.
Swiss transportation and logistics company Planzer has teamed up with fellow Swiss firm Loxo, which develops autonomous driving software solutions, for a two-year pilot project in which a Loxo-equipped, Planzer parcel delivery van will handle last-mile logistics in Bern’s city center.
The project coincides with Swiss regulations on autonomous driving that are expected to take effect next spring.
Referred to as “Planzer–Dynamic Micro-Hub w LOXO,” the project aims to address both sustainability issues and traffic congestion in urban areas.
The delivery vehicle, a Volkswagen ID. Buzz battery-electric minivan, will feature Loxo’s Level 4 Digital Driver navigation software, a highly automated solution that allows driverless operation. The van was retrofitted to include space for two swap boxes for parcel storage.
During the two-year pilot phase, Loxo’s Digital Driver will navigate a commercial vehicle several times a day from Planzer’s railway center to various logistics points in Bern's city center. There, the parcels will be reloaded onto small electric vehicles and delivered to end customers by Planzer’s parcel delivery staff.
Following the completion of the pilot phase, Planzer and Loxo will build on the program for rollout in other Swiss cities, the companies said.
The partners said the project addresses the increasing requirements of urban supply chains and aims to ensure the “scalability of their disruptive solution.” With largely emission-free delivery, it contributes to greater levels of sustainability for the city as a living space, they also said.
“The uniqueness of this project lies in the fact that it will have a direct impact on society,” Planzer’s CEO and Chairman Nils Planzer said in a statement announcing the project. “We didn't just want to integrate automated technology into existing systems, we wanted to develop a completely new concept and a new business model.”
As the hours tick down toward a “seemingly imminent” strike by East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers, experts are warning that the impacts of that move would mushroom well-beyond the actual strike locations, causing prevalent shipping delays, container ship congestion, port congestion on West coast ports, and stranded freight.
However, a strike now seems “nearly unavoidable,” as no bargaining sessions are scheduled prior to the September 30 contract expiration between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) in their negotiations over wages and automation, according to the transportation law firm Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary.
The facilities affected would include some 45,000 port workers at 36 locations, including high-volume U.S. ports from Boston, New York / New Jersey, and Norfolk, to Savannah and Charleston, and down to New Orleans and Houston. With such widespread geography, a strike would likely lead to congestion from diverted traffic, as well as knock-on effects include the potential risk of increased freight rates and costly charges such as demurrage, detention, per diem, and dwell time fees on containers that may be slowed due to the congestion, according to an analysis by another transportation and logistics sector law firm, Benesch.
The weight of those combined blows means that many companies are already planning ways to minimize damage and recover quickly from the event. According to Scopelitis’ advice, mitigation measures could include: preparing for congestion on West coast ports, taking advantage of intermodal ground transportation where possible, looking for alternatives including air transport when necessary for urgent delivery, delaying shipping from East and Gulf coast ports until after the strike, and budgeting for increased freight and container fees.
Additional advice on softening the blow of a potential coastwide strike came from John Donigian, senior director of supply chain strategy at Moody’s. In a statement, he named six supply chain strategies for companies to consider: expedite certain shipments, reallocate existing inventory strategically, lock in alternative capacity with trucking and rail providers , communicate transparently with stakeholders to set realistic expectations for delivery timelines, shift sourcing to regional suppliers if possible, and utilize drop shipping to maintain sales.