Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Inbound

Logistics gives back

Here's our monthly roundup of some of the charitable works and donations by companies in the material handling and logistics space.

Workers with boxes of supplies
  • Trailer leasing and rental company Premier Trailer Leasing has teamed up with equipment supplier Thermo King to help combat hunger during the Covid-19 pandemic. Premier will provide free rental of up to 40 Thermo King 53-foot refrigerated trailers to the hunger relief organization Feeding America to help with the storage and distribution of perishable food this summer. Thermo King is also contributing funds to Feeding America foodbanks through its "We Move Food" grant program.
  • Amid growing demand for emergency relief as a result of Covid-19, the Toyota USA Foundation awarded $2.5 million in grants to a variety of nonprofits across the nation (see photo above). Funds address crucial needs—particularly food assistance—in urban hot spots and in many communities where Toyota operates.
  • Transcontinental railway Canadian Pacific will donate $1 million to four North American charities working on the front lines to help people impacted by Covid-19. In Canada, CP will donate C$350,000 to The Frontline Fund and C$250,000 to Food Banks Canada. In the U.S., CP will contribute US$250,000 to Feeding America and up to US$150,000 in matching funds to the American Red Cross.
  • In partnership with North Texas Food Bank, Amazon.com is leveraging its transportation network of Amazon Flex drivers to deliver shelf-stable groceries directly to the doorsteps of Dallas-area families impacted by the Covid-19 crisis.
  • Logistics and transportation services giant XPO Logistics Inc. is supporting the nonprofit Soles4Souls in its mission to to provide shoes to children living below the poverty line. XPO will provide multinational logistics services free of charge by shipping four ocean containers full of shoes donated by Skechers from China to Soles4Souls distribution hubs in the U.S., Canada, and the Netherlands.
  • RLS Logistics, a third-party transportation company specializing in temperature-controlled logistics, has created Pallets 4 Plates, a program under which every pallet moved by the company triggers a charitable donation. In 2019, 305,500 plates of food were supplied to charities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Utah.

The Latest

More Stories

forklift carrying goods through a warehouse

RJW Logistics gains private equity backing

RJW Logistics Group, a logistics solutions provider (LSP) for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, has received a “strategic investment” from Boston-based private equity firm Berkshire partners, and now plans to drive future innovations and expand its geographic reach, the Woodridge, Illinois-based company said Tuesday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the company said that CEO Kevin Williamson and other members of RJW management will continue to be “significant investors” in the company, while private equity firm Mason Wells, which invested in RJW in 2019, will maintain a minority investment position.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

iceberg drawing to illustrate supply chain threats

GEP: six factors could change calm to storm in 2025

The current year is ending on a calm note for the logistics sector, but 2025 is on pace to be an era of rapid transformation, due to six driving forces that will shape procurement and supply chains in coming months, according to a forecast from New Jersey-based supply chain software provider GEP.

"After several years of mitigating inflation, disruption, supply shocks, conflicts, and uncertainty, we are currently in a relative period of calm," John Paitek, vice president, GEP, said in a release. "But it is very much the calm before the coming storm. This report provides procurement and supply chain leaders with a prescriptive guide to weathering the gale force headwinds of protectionism, tariffs, trade wars, regulatory pressures, uncertainty, and the AI revolution that we will face in 2025."

Keep ReadingShow less
supply chain workers counting boxes in warehouse

US Bank tracks top three supply chain impacts for 2025

Freight transportation sector analysts with US Bank say they expect change on the horizon in that market for 2025, due to possible tariffs imposed by a new White House administration, the return of East and Gulf coast port strikes, and expanding freight fraud.

“All three of these merit scrutiny, and that is our promise as we roll into the new year,” the company said in a statement today.

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of business concerns from descartes

Descartes: businesses say top concern is tariff hikes

Business leaders at companies of every size say that rising tariffs and trade barriers are the most significant global trade challenge facing logistics and supply chain leaders today, according to a survey from supply chain software provider Descartes.

Specifically, 48% of respondents identified rising tariffs and trade barriers as their top concern, followed by supply chain disruptions at 45% and geopolitical instability at 41%. Moreover, tariffs and trade barriers ranked as the priority issue regardless of company size, as respondents at companies with less than 250 employees, 251-500, 501-1,000, 1,001-50,000 and 50,000+ employees all cited it as the most significant issue they are currently facing.

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of shipping business conditions

Shippers Conditions index reached high-point in September

A measure of business conditions for shippers improved in September due to lower fuel costs, looser trucking capacity, and lower freight rates, but the freight transportation forecasting firm FTR still expects readings to be weaker and closer to neutral through its two-year forecast period.

Bloomington, Indiana-based FTR is maintaining its stance that trucking conditions will improve, even though its Shippers Conditions Index (SCI) improved in September to 4.6 from a 2.9 reading in August, reaching its strongest level of the year.

Keep ReadingShow less