Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) today took the wraps off an enhanced "Priority Mail" delivery
product that will offer day-definite deliveries in a one-to-three day time window, free insurance of
up to $100 per piece, and free tracking of every Priority Mail shipment.
The formal announcement was touted by USPS executives, including Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe,
as one of the most important enhancements to Priority Mail in 30 years. The program actually launched July 28.
Perhaps the most significant change is that shippers are now able to choose among one-, two-, or three-day
delivery options depending on the distance the package travels. The next-day service will be offered within a
limited geography, probably less than 150 miles. A longer length of haul—Atlanta to Chicago, for example—would
require two days to deliver, USPS said.
Since its inception in 1968, Priority Mail has operated as an alternative for Express Mail for price-sensitive shippers. It
started life as a two-day delivery product. However, in the 1990s, USPS changed its marketing to emphasize deliveries in two
to three days after research concluded it had trouble hitting the two-day delivery window.
Under the new alignment, USPS' overnight delivery product, known for decades as "Express Mail," has been renamed
"Priority Mail Express." Pricing for the former Express Mail will remain the same at $13.09 per package if paid online and
$14.10 if purchased at a post office counter. Priority Mail pricing will also stay the same at $5.05 per shipment online and
$5.60 at the postal counter.
Unlike its private competitors, USPS does not impose surcharges on fuel, residential deliveries, or Saturday deliveries.
Postal executives project that the product will generate $500 million a year in revenue. USPS' total annual revenues are $65
billion a year.
USPS has spent more than 18 months working on the concept of migrating Priority Mail to a tighter delivery window.
In March 2012, Megan O. Brennan, USPS's executive vice president and chief operating officer, told DC VELOCITY that her team
wanted to "stretch our capabilities to see how much of the second-day network we can advance into the overnight mail system."
In April, DC VELOCITY reported that that the strategy would likely be implemented, with an announcement coming in late
July.
Donohue told reporters on a conference call today that the enhanced service would be marketed to both the business-to-business
(B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) channels. It is aimed at capturing increased shipping volumes from the growth of e-commerce.
In a statement issued today, USPS said online
consumers are expected to increase their spending by 62 percent by 2016, and U.S.
e-commerce retail sales will grow by 41 percent to $370 billion a year by 2017. It didn't cite the sources of the data.
The next-day offering for shorter hauls may take on added importance as e-commerce delivery times compress into hours instead
of days. Amazon.com, the world's largest online retailer, is expected to build dozens of fulfillment centers through the country
in the next few years to bring orders closer to the end customer.
In its fiscal third quarter that ended June 30, USPS said revenue for its "shipping and packages" segment, which includes
Priority and Express Mail as well as various parcel products, increased 8.8 percent to nearly $3 billion. That amount represents
slightly less than 20 percent of all USPS revenue for the quarter. Volumes for the segment grew 7.1 percent from the same
period a year ago, USPS said.
However, the gains could not offset the continued decline in First-Class Mail volumes and revenue caused by the growth of electronic
mail options. First-Class Mail is the USPS' most profitable product.
In its required quarterly filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission, the agency that oversees the USPS, the Post Office
said last week that the gains in the shipping and package business "cannot fully offset the declines in First-Class Mail revenue
and volume." Revenues from the shipping and package segment "would have to grow at a substantially higher rate in order to
replace the contribution of First-Class Mail," USPS said.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
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.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.