The Logistics Matters podcast: American Logistics Aid Network's Kathy Fulton | Season 1 Episode 3
How logistics and supply chain companies are helping out during the Covid-19 crisis; resources available to logistics businesses to help deal with the virus; the coronavirus impacts suppliers worldwide; freight-matching platforms aim to help with Covid-related capacity issues.
For links and show notes, mouse over the player and click the .
Transcript
Kathy Fulton of the American Logistics Aid Network
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity: 0:00 The supply chain industry responds to the challenges of Covid-19. Digital freight-matching platforms steer shippers to find carriers of choice. And estimates show that more supply chain disruptions are on the way. Pull up a chair and join us as the editors of DC Velocity discuss these stories, as well as news and supply chain trends, on this week's Logistics Matters podcast. Hi, I'm Dave Maloney. I'm the editorial director of DC Velocity. Welcome. Logistics Matters is sponsored by Fortna. Fortna partners with the world's leading brands to transform their distribution operations to keep pace with digital disruption and growth objectives. Known worldwide as the distribution experts, Fortna designs and delivers intelligent solutions powered by their proprietary software to optimize fast, accurate, and cost-effective order fulfillment. For more information, visit Fortna.com As usual, Senior News Editor Ben Ames and Senior Editor Victoria Kickham will join us to provide their insight into the top stories of this week. But before we get to Ben and Victoria, allow me to first introduce our guest today. Our good friend Kathy Fulton is the executive director of the American [Logistics Aid] Network, better known in the industry as ALAN. Kathy's expertise is at the intersection of supply chain and emergency management. She concentrates on the critical role that supply chain professionals play in disaster relief. Kathy, welcome to Logistics Matters. It's great to have you with us. For those who are not familiar with ALAN, can you briefly share about the role of this great organization?
Kathy Fulton, Executive Director, American Logistics Aid Network: 1:34 Yeah, thanks. Thank you. So ALAN is really here to leverage the skills, resources, and knowledge of logistics and supply chain professionals--specifically, the complex challenges that occur during disaster. So we bring, you know, across sectors, together, it's businesses and nonprofits and government entities, really to collaborate. And we're helping to provide information and services to the people who are really affected by a particular crisis, get the nourishment and the hydration, and the medical care that they need.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity: 2:10 And this was really a grassroots effort that started with the logistics community realizing that there was a great need. I believe it was after Hurricane Katrina, correct?
Kathy Fulton, Executive Director, American Logistics Aid Network: 2:20 That's right. Way back in 2005. This is our 15-year anniversary this year. Wow, what a way to remember our founding, by dealing with the things that we're dealing with early in 2020.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity: 2:35 Yeah, that's for sure. It's a great organization, and we're happy to have been a part, in support of it, as well, over the years. Now, normally your work deals with specific disaster areas--a hurricane here, an earthquake there, that sort of thing. But with Covid-19, the entire world is facing a disaster and needs that are really unprecedented. How is this different from what you're used to?
Kathy Fulton, Executive Director, American Logistics Aid Network: 2:59 Yeah. So, I mean, we've been monitoring this since way back in mid- to late January, when China went into their lockdown mode, and really looking at what the supply chain's ripple effects were going to be. Now, at that time, we had hoped that we wouldn't be dealing with the consequences of the virus in the U.S. the way that we are now. Unfortunately, that changed. So, now we're dealing with this global pandemic, and we're really dealing with the virus and the things that have happened because of the virus--the complications, the deaths, the surge in grocery demand--all of these things that have been causedbecause of the virus. But we're also dealing with policy decisions that are really disrupting the nature of the way supply chains operate. Whether it's the policy decisions to close, to shelter in place, or to close down certain rest areas, those things can really inhibit the volume and velocity of freight that's able to be moved. You know, we're looking at huge demand spikes on the grocery side, right? Huge challenges with food banks being able to get what they need. And at the same time, we have these so-called non-essential industries that are shuttered, this big disparity in freight markets right now. We're looking at all of those things in addition to working with on our nonprofits, who are in desperate need of logistics activities to fulfill their missions right now.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity: 4:43 So what ways are the logistics community coming together, then, to help to alleviate some of the concerns and problems that take place in supply chain right now?
Kathy Fulton, Executive Director, American Logistics Aid Network: 4:53 Yeah, so--you know, I'm so excited about a couple of different things that we see happening. Number one, the logistics community just continues to step up. We have organizations who have donated supplies like boxes or donated transportation, or donated containers so that organizations who are standing up mobile field hospitals, organizations who are packing boxes full of food, they are getting what they need because of the generosity of the logistics and supply chain community. The other thing that we're seeing is, all of the logistics and supply chain associations are gathering weekly to talk about common problems. They are, they're very focused on supporting their members with the problems that their members of dealing with, right? So it's things like, how do you get access to personal protective equipment? Where do you find hand sanitizer? How do you navigate all of these different policies? What are the best practices? So there's really this unity that we're seeing in supply chains right now, and that's a really kind of cool thing to see happening.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity: 6:11 Obviously, for that to happen, you have to have a lot of coordination and collaboration and cooperation. Are you seeing that both with the membership as well as the federal agencies and others that you work with, in state agencies?
Kathy Fulton, Executive Director, American Logistics Aid Network: 6:25 Yes. So there is communication, coordination, collaboration, cooperation. Our nonprofit partners call those the four Cs, right? So it is happening, especially within the industry. But also, you know, there are forums with which government and business can talk. So there are daily calls, either with the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, which is the DHS [Department of Homeland Security] private-sector integration component, or with FEMA's [Federal Emergency Management Agency's] National Business Emergency Operations Center. So they alternate calls every day. And that's a forum for businesses to engage. We also are helping support the coordination activities, right? So if people are coming to us with questions, we can help source the answers to that. People are coming to us with problems. You know, we can help them find a resource to solve whatever that particular concern may be.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity: 7:29 We talked about this last week on the Logistics Matters podcast, that supply chain in general is finally being noticed. People realize the importance of the supply chain and the work that we do. And I can imagine that that's also, it's something that other people in the industry and business and in government are realizing now as well, right?
Kathy Fulton, Executive Director, American Logistics Aid Network: 7:51 Yeah. You know, the number of times that I have heard the term supply chain, or I've heard people talk about, you know, "Thank a trucker," or "Thank a warehouse worker" or "Thank a dockworker," just throughout this crisis, I think people finally are starting to understand that you can't just go to the grocery store or the pantry shelf and pull something off of it if it wasn't delivered there, and understanding what that means, all the way back to the food manufacturing facilities, the food production facilities. There's so much in the news about those production facilities right now, and the impact that the virus is having on their workforce. So, supply chain, farm to fork, right now is really, I think, starting to be understood.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity: 8:44 And if we could just get the amount of toilet paper we need out there, folks, I think, will be in pretty good shape going forward. Kathy, I wish we had time to talk to you more in detail on this. For those of you would like more information on the good work that's done by the American [Logistics Aid ] Network, please visit Alanaid.org. That's A-L-A-N-A-I-D dot org. Now let's turn to our news editors. Ben Ames and Victoria Kickham to talk about some of the stories and trends that we've seen emerge this past week. Victoria, you've seen estimates on how the global supply chain disruptions we've already seen and experienced could actually double in May. Could you share more of what you've seen?
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity: 9:23 Sure, absolutely. I was listening in on a webcast yesterday by Resilinc, which is a supply chain software and risk-management, risk-monitoring group. And they have been monitoring the current virus outbreak in China since mid-December, and they say what they're seeing is about a 400% growth in the number of supplier impacts per month globally. Now, those are supplier sites around the world. They monitor data from more than, its like tens of thousands of companies and public entities, and they track disruptions to supplier sites, as I said, globally. And what they're seeing is just a regular study increase. And they say that it shows no signs of slowing down globally.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity: 10:06 And, Ben, you reported this week, too, on how several freight, digital freight-matching companies are helping shippers during the Covid-19 crisis. Can you share more about that?
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity: 10:16 Yeah, of course. And it really echoes some of what Kathy Fulton was saying about the disruption that we're seeing in the freight markets between some of the non-essential industries and the others that are seeing an enormous rush. There's really a disparity there. Some certain fleets and some certain sectors are practically idle and others are running at almost Christmas peak now, so it's part of a response to that, what we're seeing. As Kathy had also mentioned that's really, different sectors of the supply chain are stepping up and really using some of the tools that they have in new ways. In this case, just on Monday, there's a digital freight marketplace that's called Transfix. It matches loads and carriers. And they launched a program that singles out their most exceptional carriers and steers more loads to them. How Transfix determines an exceptional carrier, is those with the best scores on things like high load volume and acceptance rate and low cancellation rates, and on-time delivery, and a lot of those metrics that you see around the industry. So it was really interesting in their efforts, to try to equalize some of the big disruptions that we're seeing. And it really, it followed another effort, similarly, by Convoy, which is another online brokerage, which just last week made a similar move to provide a lot more metrics on how carriers are operating.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity: 11:49 And in time of crisis, it's important to be able to get that load from one place to another as quickly as you can. Ben, we also want to remind listeners of some of the great Covid-19 related resources on DCVelocity.com. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity: 12:04 Of course. As we talk with people throughout the industry, our in boxes have been full, our voicemail has been full of so many examples of ways in which the supply chain and logistics-sector folks are stepping up in this time. So we've been writing a daily collection of those and rounding up some of the really impressive examples that we see. So, most every day if you click on the DCV dot com, you're going to see a roundup story that shows some of those efforts. And we have a landing page that collects all of our Covid-19 coverage that's on the DCV home page. In addition, we have also compiled a list of specific links to industry sites that really gives a specified look at how the virus crisis is impacting the logistics sector, particularly. There's so much general information out there that we all hear, but we've tried to really funnel it down to the impact on the sector that we all work in here. And so that's another specific page on our home page.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity: 13:09 To find that landing page, just look at the top lefthand corner where it says Covid-19 and click on that to get to all the stories and coverage that we've done. We also have a direct link that you can get to the resources that Ben had just mentioned. That's DCVelocity.com/covid19resources. That'll get you directly to all those things in the supply chain that could be helpful to you in moving your freight or getting things that you need to have done to keep your businesses operating. Thanks Ben and Victoria for sharing the highlights of the news this week. And again, our special thanks go out to Kathy Fulton of the American [Logistics Aid] Network for sharing with us today the good work that they do. If you'd like more information on the stories we discussed today on Logistics Matters, be sure to check out DCVelocity.com for details. And we also encourage you to provide any comments or feedback that you'd like to make on a new podcast by emailing us at podcast@dcvelocity.com. And a reminder that Logistics Matters is sponsored by Fortna. Fortna partners with the world's top brands to transform distribution operations into competitive advantage. Expertise includes distribution strategy, DC operations, micro-fulfillment, automation, and intelligence software. Distribution solutions designed today for tomorrow's challenges. Learn more about the distribution experts at Fortna.com. We'll be back again next week with another edition of Logistics Matters. Please stay safe in the meantime, and we'll see you then.
Electric vehicle (EV) sales have seen slow and steady growth, as the vehicles continue to gain converts among consumers and delivery fleet operators alike. But a consistent frustration for drivers has been pulling up to a charging station only to find that the charger has been intentionally broken or disabled.
To address that threat, the EV charging solution provider ChargePoint has launched two products to combat charger vandalism.
The first is a cut-resistant charging cable that's designed to deter theft. The cable, which incorporates what the manufacturer calls "novel cut-resistant materials," is substantially more difficult for would-be vandals to cut but is still flexible enough for drivers to maneuver comfortably, the California firm said. ChargePoint intends to make its cut-resistant cables available for all of its commercial and fleet charging stations, and, starting in the middle of the year, will license the cable design to other charging station manufacturers as part of an industrywide effort to combat cable theft and vandalism.
The second product, ChargePoint Protect, is an alarm system that detects charging cable tampering in real time and literally sounds the alarm using the charger's existing speakers, screens, and lighting system. It also sends SMS or email messages to ChargePoint customers notifying them that the system's alarm has been triggered.
ChargePoint says it expects these two new solutions, when combined, will benefit charging station owners by reducing station repair costs associated with vandalism and EV drivers by ensuring they can trust charging stations to work when and where they need them.
New Jersey is home to the most congested freight bottleneck in the country for the seventh straight year, according to research from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), released today.
ATRI’s annual list of the Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks aims to highlight the nation’s most congested highways and help local, state, and federal governments target funding to areas most in need of relief. The data show ways to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth, according to the researchers.
The 2025 Top Truck Bottleneck List measures the level of truck-involved congestion at more than 325 locations on the national highway system. The analysis is based on an extensive database of freight truck GPS data and uses several customized software applications and analysis methods, along with terabytes of data from trucking operations, to produce a congestion impact ranking for each location. The bottleneck locations detailed in the latest ATRI list represent the top 100 congested locations, although ATRI continuously monitors more than 325 freight-critical locations, the group said.
For the seventh straight year, the intersection of I-95 and State Route 4 near the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey, is the top freight bottleneck in the country. The remaining top 10 bottlenecks include: Chicago, I-294 at I-290/I-88; Houston, I-45 at I-69/US 59; Atlanta, I-285 at I-85 (North); Nashville: I-24/I-40 at I-440 (East); Atlanta: I-75 at I-285 (North); Los Angeles, SR 60 at SR 57; Cincinnati, I-71 at I-75; Houston, I-10 at I-45; and Atlanta, I-20 at I-285 (West).
ATRI’s analysis, which utilized data from 2024, found that traffic conditions continue to deteriorate from recent years, partly due to work zones resulting from increased infrastructure investment. Average rush hour truck speeds were 34.2 miles per hour (MPH), down 3% from the previous year. Among the top 10 locations, average rush hour truck speeds were 29.7 MPH.
In addition to squandering time and money, these delays also waste fuel—with trucks burning an estimated 6.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel and producing more than 65 million metric tons of additional carbon emissions while stuck in traffic jams, according to ATRI.
On a positive note, ATRI said its analysis helps quantify the value of infrastructure investment, pointing to improvements at Chicago’s Jane Byrne Interchange as an example. Once the number one truck bottleneck in the country for three years in a row, the recently constructed interchange saw rush hour truck speeds improve by nearly 25% after construction was completed, according to the report.
“Delays inflicted on truckers by congestion are the equivalent of 436,000 drivers sitting idle for an entire year,” ATRI President and COO Rebecca Brewster said in a statement announcing the findings. “These metrics are getting worse, but the good news is that states do not need to accept the status quo. Illinois was once home to the top bottleneck in the country, but following a sustained effort to expand capacity, the Jane Byrne Interchange in Chicago no longer ranks in the top 10. This data gives policymakers a road map to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth.”
"Shrink" is the retail industry term for the loss of inventory before it can be sold, whether through theft, damage, fraud, or simple book-keeping errors. In the ongoing effort to reduce those losses, Switzerland-based retail tech company Sensormatic Solutions has expanded the scope of its Shrink Analyzer application to shine a light into previously unmonitored parts of brick-and-mortar stores where goods tend to go missing.
The newly enhanced, cloud-based application can now integrate radio-frequency identification (RFID) and electronic product code (EPC) data from overlooked parts of the building, like employee entrances, receiving doors, "buy online, pick up in store" (BOPIS) doors, or other high-risk areas selected by a store. It then integrates that data into Sensormatic's analytics engine to provide insights into when, where, and how shrink occurs to help users strengthen their loss-prevention strategies, the company says.
Those expanded capabilities allow the platform to provide enhanced "shrink insight" at locations beyond the store's main exit, Sensormatic says. For example, strategically placed RFID scanners at employee exits can reduce internal theft while providing item-level evidence for theft investigation efforts. Likewise, monitoring online-order pickup doors can help retailers both improve in-store e-commerce fulfillment accuracy and identify employee theft events, according to Sensormatic.
A few days before Christmas as I was busy preparing for the holiday, I received a text message from my bank asking if I had attempted to purchase a $244 Amtrak ticket in Orange County, California. Considering that I had the card in my possession and that I lived thousands of miles away from the attempted purchase location, I promptly replied "No." Almost immediately, a second message informed me that my card was locked and to contact my bank.
I'd like to say this was an isolated incident, but in 2024, I had to replace the same card four times. Luckily, it just took a quick trip to my local bank to replace the compromised card, but it was still an unwanted hassle.
Fraud is a never-ending issue facing not just consumers but businesses as well—no one is immune, it seems. In its latest industry report, "Occupational Fraud 2024: A Report to the Nations," the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) estimated that businesses lose 5% of their revenues to fraud each year. This report focused specifically on three basic types of occupational fraud: asset misappropriation, corruption, and financial misstatement. But what about other types of fraud?
The media often report on big organized theft rings stealing goods from trailers, trains, or containerships, or on bands of thieves breaking into warehouses or retail stores—but there are so many other ways in which fraudsters wreak havoc.
For instance, another area where fraud is rampant is consumer returns in the retail industry. Software company Appriss Retail, in collaboration with business management consultancy Deloitte, recently published its "2024 Consumer Returns in the Retail Industry" report. It states that "total returns for the retail industry amounted to $685 billion in merchandise in 2024." That might seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the $5 trillion in sales U.S. retailers racked up last year, but as the report's authors note in the executive summary, "the amount of fraud and abuse remains a significant issue that should be addressed. Fraudsters and abusers are often becoming adept at circumventing retailers' controls across all channels."
So what can businesses do? According to the ACFE study, internal controls (i.e., surprise audits, management reviews, hotlines or other reporting mechanisms, fraud training, and formal fraud risk assessments) are the best defense against occupational fraud.
When it comes to consumer returns fraud, Appriss Retail's report concludes that while retailers continue to adapt and refine their fraud prevention strategies, it's a delicate balancing act. The trick is for "retailers to implement solutions that have [a] minimal impact on the consumer experience," the report noted. "Brand loyalty can be fragile and competition continues to grow, so holding onto consumers is often a key to long-term success."
Then there's security and asset protection. Last October, I attended a session at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals' EDGE 2024 conference that focused on security and safety. In that session, Lee Ambrose, vice president of business development for Remote Security Solutions (RSS), discussed advanced strategies and technologies for violence prevention. But he also touched on asset/transit protection and specific solutions that can help companies discourage theft.
As an example, Ambrose cited his company's transit surveillance unit (TSU)—a portable monitoring device that can be installed on trailers to protect in-transit freight. According to the company's website, the TSU uses AI (artificial intelligence) detection, security cameras, and two-way communication to deter criminal activity, providing real-time detection and notification when unauthorized persons attempt to enter the trailer. It claims the device has a deterrence rate of 98%.
In the end, sometimes there is only so much a company can do to mitigate fraud/theft. But we are fortunate to have resources we can turn to if we need help. It's an uphill battle, but one that we will keep on fighting.
Most retail, wholesale, and manufacturing businesses are focused on fundamentally restructuring their supply chains to stay ahead of economic uncertainty. That’s according to results of the second annual State of Supply Chain report from supply chain solutions platform provider Relex Solutions, released Tuesday.
Relex surveyed nearly 600 professionals from retail, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and wholesale businesses across seven countries and found that 60% said they are overhauling their supply chains due to tariff uncertainty and market volatility.
Respondents said they are grappling with unpredictable consumer demand, escalating trade tensions, and unreliable supplier networks. More than half (52%) said demand volatility is their biggest challenge, forcing them to rethink inventory strategies in real time as shifting spending habits disrupt supply chains. In addition, 47% of businesses pointed to global trade disruptions and rising tariffs as a growing threat—with tariff volatility fueling concerns over higher costs and sourcing bottlenecks—and43% said they struggle with a lack of real-time data and visibility, making it harder to adapt to sudden shifts in demand, labor shortages, and transportation delays.
To counter those challenges, companies said they are making “bold operational shifts,” according to the study. Many are expanding their supplier networks, moving sourcing closer to home, and accelerating automation investments. Among retailers, 62% said they are addressing cost pressures through a combination of efficiency improvements and price adjustments, while 50% said they are actively broadening supplier bases to safeguard against economic and geopolitical instability.
“Supply chains are in a pressure cooker—between tariffs, demand shifts, and unpredictable disruptions, the outdated and traditional way of operating isn’t sustainable,” Dr. Madhav Durbha, Relex Solutions’ group vice president of CPG & Manufacturing, said in a statement announcing the findings. “Companies that lean into AI, automation, and supplier diversification will not only weather this volatility but emerge stronger. The ones that don’t risk falling behind.”
The full report, Relex State of Supply Chain 2025: Retail and CPG Dynamics, is slated for release in March. The report was conducted by market research firm Researchscape in January 2025.