David Maloney has been a journalist for more than 35 years and is currently the group editorial director for DC Velocity and Supply Chain Quarterly magazines. In this role, he is responsible for the editorial content of both brands of Agile Business Media. Dave joined DC Velocity in April of 2004. Prior to that, he was a senior editor for Modern Materials Handling magazine. Dave also has extensive experience as a broadcast journalist. Before writing for supply chain publications, he was a journalist, television producer and director in Pittsburgh. Dave combines a background of reporting on logistics with his video production experience to bring new opportunities to DC Velocity readers, including web videos highlighting top distribution and logistics facilities, webcasts and other cross-media projects. He continues to live and work in the Pittsburgh area.
I had an interesting conversation the other day with Steve Simmerman, who is a good friend of ours at **{DC Velocity.} Steve is the senior director of North American sales at JDA Software. He is among those in the supply chain who see a looming talent shortage—namely, a shortfall of technicians to keep complex automated systems running.
"Maintaining today's automated systems takes mechanical skills as well as computer skills," Simmerman said. "It is a skill set that a lot of people don't have." He adds that nearly every customer he talks to is looking to automate. He spoke with one recently about the problem of finding good technicians. The customer said it had really underestimated how difficult it would be to recruit and train these knowledge workers.
It is a growing problem. Steve Harrington, the industry liaison for the National Center for Supply Chain Technology Education, reports that there are currently 200,000 technicians working in the supply chain industry, but another 60,000 will be needed within the next two years alone. He says that reshoring is among the factors adding to the crunch, as these skills are needed both in manufacturing and in distribution centers.
Part of the problem is the stigma of being a technician. When I went to high school back in the '70s, technical programs were mainly geared to students who couldn't cut it academically. Society also looked down on jobs where people worked more with their hands than with their brains. But tech jobs are different now. Today's technicians require both mechanical skills and brainpower. And if you're very good in both areas, you end up working at Microsoft or Google—not at a distribution center in the middle of nowhere.
Another factor is that the Department of Labor does not even have a classification for a supply chain technician. It's kind of hard to get people to enter a field that the government doesn't even recognize as existing.
So where do we find the people to keep our automated systems running?
Last year, I attended a meeting at Baldor Electric Co. in Fort Smith, Ark., that included a tour of a tech center the company helped build at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith. Baldor also donated $1 million for a scholarship fund in 2011. Baldor continues to work with the university to assure that it has a constant stream of engineers and technicians entering the job market. Prospective students are more eager to sign up for programs if they know that graduates have a high probability of landing jobs.
Other companies should follow its example by working with local technical schools and colleges to recognize—and meet—the growing needs of the supply chain profession.
The independent airfreight handler Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd. (Hactl) has found a way to green up its operations and keep folks hydrated at the same time. The company recently announced that instead of sending old staff uniforms to a landfill, it had upcycled them into 5,000 plastic cups.
Old uniforms often end up in the waste stream because they’re made ofblended fibers, which are typically difficult to recycle. But through Hactl’s “Zero Waste Uniform Upcycling Project,” polyester fibers from the old uniforms were recycled through processes like melt-granulation into raw plastic granules that were then used to manufacture recyclable cups.
“In Hong Kong, the aviation industry, like many industries, provides uniforms for front-line staff. Dealing with old uniforms is an important environmental issue,” Hactl Chief Executive Wilson Kwong said in a release. “We hope that through this project, we can break through traditional limitations and recycle old uniforms to achieve ‘zero waste upcycling’ and reduce the burden on landfills, while encouraging the industry to contribute toward a circular economy and sustainable development.”
The initiative is part of the company’s overall efforts to curb waste. Hactl launched its “Green Terminal” sustainability program in 2018 and has committed to achieving a 75% waste recycling rate by 2030.
Business leaders in the manufacturing and transportation sectors will increasingly turn to technology in 2025 to adapt to developments in a tricky economic environment, according to a report from Forrester.
That approach is needed because companies in asset-intensive industries like manufacturing and transportation quickly feel the pain when energy prices rise, raw materials are harder to access, or borrowing money for capital projects becomes more expensive, according to researcher Paul Miller, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester.
And all of those conditions arose in 2024, forcing leaders to focus even more than usual on managing costs and improving efficiency. Forrester’s latest forecast doesn’t anticipate any dramatic improvement in the global macroeconomic situation in 2025, but it does anticipate several ways that companies will adapt.
For 2025, Forrester predicts that:
over 25% of big last-mile service and delivery fleets in Europe will be electric. Across the continent, parcel delivery firms, utility companies, and local governments operating large fleets of small vans over relatively short distances see electrification as an opportunity to manage costs while lowering carbon emissions.
less than 5% of the robots entering factories and warehouses will walk. While industry coverage often focuses on two-legged robots, Forrester says the compelling use cases for those legs are less common — or obvious — than supporters suggest. The report says that those robots have a wow factor, but they may not have the best form factor for addressing industry’s dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks.
carmakers will make significant cuts to their digital divisions, admitting defeat after the industry invested billions of dollars in recent years to build the capability to design the connected and digital features installed in modern vehicles. Instead, the future of mobility will be underpinned by ecosystems of various technology providers, not necessarily reliant on the same large automaker that made the car itself.
Regular online readers of DC Velocity and Supply Chain Xchange have probably noticed something new during the past few weeks. Our team has been working for months to produce shiny new websites that allow you to find the supply chain news and stories you need more easily.
It is always good for a media brand to undergo a refresh every once in a while. We certainly are not alone in retooling our websites; most of you likely go through that rather complex process every few years. But this was more than just your average refresh. We did it to take advantage of the most recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI).
Most of the AI work will take place behind the scenes. We will not, for instance, use AI to generate our stories. Those will still be written by our award-winning editorial team (I realize I’m biased, but I believe them to be the best in the business). Instead, we will be applying AI to things like graphics, search functions, and prioritizing relevant stories to make it easier for you to find the information you need along with related content.
We have also redesigned the websites’ layouts to make it quick and easy to find articles on specific topics. For example, content on DC Velocity’s new site is divided into five categories: material handling, robotics, transportation, technology, and supply chain services. We also offer a robust video section, including case histories, webcasts, and executive interviews, plus our weekly podcasts.
Over on the Supply Chain Xchange site, we have organized articles into categories that align with the traditional five phases of supply chain management: plan, procure, produce, move, and store. Plus, we added a “tech” category just to round it off. You can also find links to our videos, newsletters, podcasts, webcasts, blogs, and much more on the site.
Our mobile-app users will also notice some enhancements. An increasing number of you are receiving your daily supply chain news on your phones and tablets, so we have revamped our sites for optimal performance on those devices. For instance, you’ll find that related stories will appear right after the article you’re reading in case you want to delve further into the topic.
However you view us, you will find snappier headlines, more graphics and illustrations, and sites that are easier to navigate.
I would personally like to thank our management, IT department, and editors for their work in making this transition a reality. In our more than 20 years as a media company, this is our largest expansion into digital yet.
We hope you enjoy the experience.
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In this chart, the red and green bars represent Trucking Conditions Index for 2024. The blue line represents the Trucking Conditions Index for 2023. The index shows that while business conditions for trucking companies improved in August of 2024 versus July of 2024, they are still overall negative.
FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index improved in August to -1.39 from the reading of -5.59 in July. The Bloomington, Indiana-based firm forecasts that its TCI readings will remain mostly negative-to-neutral through the beginning of 2025.
“Trucking is en route to more favorable conditions next year, but the road remains bumpy as both freight volume and capacity utilization are still soft, keeping rates weak. Our forecasts continue to show the truck freight market starting to favor carriers modestly before the second quarter of next year,” Avery Vise, FTR’s vice president of trucking, said in a release.
The TCI tracks the changes representing five major conditions in the U.S. truck market: freight volumes, freight rates, fleet capacity, fuel prices, and financing costs. Combined into a single index, a positive score represents good, optimistic conditions, and a negative score shows the opposite.
A coalition of truckers is applauding the latest round of $30 million in federal funding to address what they call a “national truck parking crisis,” created when drivers face an imperative to pull over and stop when they cap out their hours of service, yet can seldom find a safe spot for their vehicle.
According to the White House, a total of 44 projects were selected in this round of funding, including projects that improve safety, mobility, and economic competitiveness, constructing major bridges, expanding port capacity, and redesigning interchanges. The money is the latest in a series of large infrastructure investments that have included nearly $12.8 billion in funding through the INFRA and Mega programs for 140 projects across 42 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The money funds: 35 bridge projects, 18 port projects, 20 rail projects, and 85 highway improvement projects.
In a statement, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) said the federal funds would make a big difference in driver safety and transportation networks.
"Lack of safe truck parking has been a top concern of truckers for decades and as a truck driver, I can tell you firsthand that when truckers don’t have a safe place to park, we are put in a no-win situation. We must either continue to drive while fatigued or out of legal driving time, or park in an undesignated and unsafe location like the side of the road or abandoned lot,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said in a release. “It forces truck drivers to make a choice between safety and following federal Hours-of-Service rules. OOIDA and the 150,000 small business truckers we represent thank Secretary Buttigieg and the Department for their increased focus on resolving an issue that has plagued our industry for decades.”