Victoria Kickham, an editor at large for Supply Chain Quarterly, 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 Supply Chain Quarterly's sister publication, DC Velocity.
Trade associations, trucking companies, and freight industry service providers are lining up to recognize and thank the nation’s 3.6 million professional truck drivers as part of National Truck Driver Appreciation Week (NTDAW), September 12-18.
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) kicked off the week by pointing to its NTDAW resources page, which includes tools and resources organizations of all kinds can use to initiate or enhance driver appreciation events. Also, beginning Monday and lasting all week, ATA will host a raffle to thank professional drivers, randomly picking drivers to win #NTDAW21 merchandise. Drivers can enter the raffle via the ATA website. The association has also joined forces with state trucking associations and the group Trucking Moves America Forward to post billboards thanking truckers at locations across the country, the group said.
“I call on every American to join ATA and me in honoring our drivers,” ATA Chair Sherri Garner Brumbaugh, president and CEO of Garner Trucking in Findlay, Ohio, said in a statement Monday. “This year has a special meaning in recognizing these frontline heroes who have continued to deliver life’s essentials during the pandemic.”
A variety of in-person events are taking place nationwide, as well. Transportation and logistics provider Werner Enterprises is honoring its 10,000 drivers with celebrations at select terminals throughout its network all week. The company kicked off the celebrations, which include grab-and-go lunches and gifts, at its terminals in Fontana, Calif., and Phoenix last week.
“Our professional drivers are the heart of our company, and we know they have a choice in who they work for,” Werner’s Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer Derek Leathers said in a statement. “At Werner, we take pride in showing appreciation for our drivers every day, and our respect extends out to all drivers within the industry. Their service and dedication to moving America’s goods is something we all rely on.”
Contract logistics provider DHL Supply Chain said it will recognize its 1,800 truck drivers with gifts and celebrations around the country as well, including raffles, giveaways, and cookouts.
“If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it is that our dedicated truck drivers are critically essential to ensuring we’re able to deliver exceptional outcomes for our customers,” Jim Monkmeyer, president, transportation, DHL Supply Chain, said in a statement. “Our drivers prove day-in and day-out their commitment to going the extra mile. Each is essential and we’re grateful for the opportunity to highlight their contributions to our customers’ business and celebrate them.”
Freight marketplace Truckstop.com is joining with nationwide truck stop operator Roady’s to host “Rockstars of the Road” appreciation events.
Truckstop.com will host appreciation booths at three Roady’s truck stop locations—in Jerome, Idaho, September 13; Baker City, Oregon, September 15; and Kenosha, Wis., September 17. Each location will have a photo booth with a backdrop designed to make truckers look like rockstars, “because they truly are rockstars of the road,” according to both companies.
Truckstop.com made the announcement in conjunction with the release of research about the “joys and challenges” of the trucking profession, in which they asked drivers about what attracted them to the industry, the hardships they face, and their concerns during the pandemic. Ninety-six percent of the 500 drivers surveyed said they feel their job is appreciated, and 56% said they feel proud to deliver essential goods to fellow Americans. Nearly three-quarters said they enjoy being in a profession that allows them to be “on the open road and explore the country” while 25% listed the greatest professional hardship as being on the road for long hours and/or days at a time. Just over half of respondents (51%) said they are concerned about bringing the Covid-19 virus home to their families as a result of their work, according to the survey.
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.