Booming economy drives U.S. business logistics costs up 11.4 percent
While shippers struggled to keep pace with tight capacity and rising rates in 2018, many of those pressures are starting to ease, says 30th annual State of Logistics Report.
Susan Lacefield has been working for supply chain publications since 1999. Before joining DC VELOCITY, she was an associate editor for Supply Chain Management Review and wrote for Logistics Management magazine. She holds a master's degree in English.
In the face of tight transportation capacity and rising freight rates, overall U.S. business logistics costs jumped 11.4 percent in 2018 to a total of $1.64 trillion, or 8.0 percent of the U.S.'s $20.5 trillion gross domestic product, according to the Council of Supply Chain Management Professional's 30th annual State of Logistics Report. (See Figure 1.)
The report, which was issued this morning at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., is written by the global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney and sponsored by logistics service provider Penske Logistics. It found that all the components that make up U.S. business logistics costs—transportation costs, inventory carrying costs, and other administrative costs—rose in 2018. (See Figure 2.)
The report's findings echo the experience of many major companies, which have reported in their Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings that they exceeded their supply chain budget spending in 2018.
The biggest increase occurred in the area of inventory carrying costs, as companies responded to trade tensions between the United States and China by building up their inventories before tariffs went into place. Inventory levels rose 4.6 percent year-over-year in 2018, and inventory carrying costs rose 14.8 percent. Meanwhile transportation costs jumped up 10.4 percent, with every mode experiencing an increase. Particularly big increases were seen in intermodal, which spiked up 28.7 percent, and in the private or dedicated fleet market, where costs rose 13.1 percent. The increase in these two modes was driven by shippers seeking alternatives to common carriers, which saw rising rates in the first half of the year, particularly in the spot market.
The report attributes the rising logistics costs to four factors:
The continuing growth in e-commerce sales (an increase of 14.2 percent over the previous year) has meant that many companies have had to redesign their supply chain networks. For example, the rise in urban fulfillment needs has led many companies to turn to smaller, more costly warehouses.
Existing truck fleets saw an extremely high utilization rate in 2018 due to growing demand. As a result, truck capacity was tight, and rates spiked.
Government regulations on driver "hours of service" forced many smaller trucking companies to cease operation, consolidate, or be acquired.
The low unemployment rate made it harder to attract and retain truck drivers and warehouse workers, causing companies to increase wages. In many cases, carriers and warehouse providers passed these costs on to their customers.
Cresting the hill
While the economy boomed in 2018, many economists anticipate that growth will soften in the later part of 2019. As a result, shippers can expect that transportation costs will ease somewhat in the upcoming year, according to the report. For example, trucking capacity started to catch up to demand in the second half of 2018, and freight rates have begun to slide back to "normal levels." The report also predicts that the air freight and ocean shipping sectors will not match the cost increases seen in 2019.
"[The logistics industry] has overcome a tough and exhausting year," said Michael Zimmerman, partner with A.T. Kearneyand co-author of the 2019 report. "Now, demand has softened, and growth is in doubt—but not to the point where a steep decline is visible, a context we summarize in the report's title, 'Cresting the Hill.'"
The authors predict that economic realities—particularly the tight labor market—will drive many companies to embrace new technologies and innovations in the upcoming years. They anticipate increases in automated trucks and warehouses and in vehicle electrification. In particular, the report emphasizes the positive impact that the rollout of the 5G mobile broadband and communications standard will have on the logistics industry. The new standard will enable faster download and transfer speeds, greater connectivity and device density, and greater energy efficiency. In the near-term, it will help reduce the cost of operations for existing information technology (IT) and increase visibility across the supply chain. In the long term, according to the report, 5G will enable large-scale deployments of emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, robotics, artificial intelligence, drones, and real-time tracking.
The report also sounded an optimistic note on greater collaboration between shippers and carriers. The report says that more shippers are moving beyond having an adversarial relationship with their transportation providers and are instead embracing concepts such as shipper of choice programs, collaborative contracts, and asset-sharing models for better use of last-mile drivers and warehousing space. More shippers, carriers, and third-party logistics providers are also collaborating on supply chain network design.
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.