Victoria Kickham started her career as a newspaper reporter in the Boston area before moving into B2B journalism. She has covered manufacturing, distribution and supply chain issues for a variety of publications in the industrial and electronics sectors, and now writes about everything from forklift batteries to omnichannel business trends for DC Velocity.
With just a few weeks to go before a “deal or no-deal” Brexit deadline, companies doing business in the United Kingdom and Europe are preparing for potential logistics snags, disruptions, and delays in 2021.
That includes U.S. companies that are serving the EU market from warehouses or distribution centers in the UK. On January 1, 2021, every shipment between the UK and the EU will be an import/export, including every e-commerce shipment—a situation that adds customs checks, clearances, and cost to trading relationships and as a result is sending many companies searching for logistics solutions that can address the red tape on the horizon.
“For most industries, a single European distribution center is sufficient to support the European market. Now, with the UK being a separate market, we see a lot of U.S. companies investigating a two-DC solution for Europe: one covering the EU/EEA [European Economic Area] and one covering the UK ... ,” said Stan de Caluwe, senior manager for supply chain solutions at the Holland International Distribution Council (HIDC), a non-profit organization that represents the Dutch logistics sector and helps international companies enter the European market. “We have been helping these companies with the EU part of their business, finding logistics, warehousing, and VAT [value-added tax] solutions—especially those that have relied on a UK DC for many years that can now no longer supply the EU market timely and efficiently.”
HIDC was part of a panel discussion earlier this week on steps shippers and logistics providers are taking to prepare for Brexit, the UK’s 2016 referendum to exit the EU. The panel was hosted by The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency. As government officials continue to try and negotiate a deal by December 31, logistics experts emphasize that change is coming regardless of the outcome. Officials in The Netherlands have been preparing to accommodate increased import/export activity, especially since the country is home to Europe’s busiest container port, in Rotterdam. Customs officials in the country say they have hired more than 900 additional agents over the last couple of years, for instance, and Dutch ports have implemented a digital system to smooth the transition and address added volume; all trading partners will be required to use the digital system following Brexit.
De Caluwe and his colleagues say a shift in strategy is necessary for many U.S. companies who traditionally considered the UK as a first point of entry for the EU, regardless of whether or not they can move operations to mainland Europe.
“Some U.S. companies are heavily invested in the UK and they can’t just pick up a part of their operation and move it to the mainland, as they own a building, have a long lease or don’t want to lose good employees,” de Caluwe said. “For them, we are trying to find the best ways of moving goods post-Brexit. For example, by helping them find customs consultants/agents, fiscal representatives—to deal with their VAT obligations—consolidators or a warehouse for forward stock.”
A separate panel discussion this week hosted by advisory firm Gartner also emphasized the logistics headaches ahead for companies that aren’t yet prepared for Brexit. Delays and disruptions at ports are among the initial problems experts anticipate, leading to a ripple effect on product lead times, manufacturing operations, and storage requirements. Logistics delays and disruption ranked among the top concerns of audience members in a poll question during the November 30 Gartner online event.
“Brexit will mean change, with or without a deal,” said panelist Susan Boylan, a director analyst with Gartner Supply Chain, adding that “seismic change” in trading between the UK and EU are on the horizon.
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.