Podcasts about airfreight

Send me a messageAir freight has long been the wild west of logistics, complex, opaque, and often wasteful. In this episode, I sat down with Chris Condon, founder and CEO of Aircon and the mind behind Captain Cargo, to unpack how AI and automation are reshaping air freight for the better.Chris brings decades of freight forwarding experience and has built a platform specifically to help small and mid-sized freight forwarders compete with global giants. We explore why air freight isn't just for emergencies, how faster quoting often matters more than faster transit, and how real-time exception management is the missing piece for most operators.We also dig into sustainability. Chris explains how smarter consolidation and capacity optimisation, enabled by predictive analytics, can reduce unused cargo space and avoid unnecessary flights. In a sector where emissions are high and transparency is low, that matters.This isn't just about tech for tech's sake. It's about giving operators the tools to retain customers, improve margins, and respond to disruption, without losing control to the big players.If you're in logistics, supply chain management, or sustainability and you want to understand where AI is actuallydelivering value in freight, this one's well worth a listen.

Airfreight expert Brandon Fried talks about how the air cargo industry is adapting to world changes and turmoil.

In this episode of The Digital Executive Podcast, host Brian Thomas interviews Chris Condon, founder and CEO of Aircon, a Dallas-based platform that's transforming air freight logistics through AI-driven workflow automation. Drawing on over 26 years of leadership experience in global logistics, Chris shares how his competitive spirit and firsthand frustrations with traditional freight forwarding inspired him to create Aircon. His mission: to empower small and mid-sized freight forwarders with the speed and efficiency needed to compete with global logistics giants.Chris explains how Aircon's AI agents—Laura, Rocky, and Rosie—are reshaping the freight industry by automating quoting, booking, and exception management. From cutting quoting time to under two minutes, to rebooking shipments based on predictive analytics, Aircon is eliminating bottlenecks and boosting margins. With a focus on people, trust, and real-world problem solving, Chris paints a compelling vision for a more agile, connected, and AI-augmented future in freight logistics.Join thousands of curious minds and never miss a beat – Subscribe to our Newsletter for exclusive insights, episode highlights, and expert takeaways delivered straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Zach Meese, Business Development Manager at Airfreight Express Global, unpacks the dynamic world of air freight logistics—from life-or-death medical shipments to navigating complex international cargo moves.Zach dives into the flexibility of air freight, debunking myths that it's always cost-prohibitive and showing how businesses can use tailored solutions to avoid costly delays. He shares eye-opening stories, including organizing charter flights for organ transplants and leveraging strategic air routes to optimize global supply chains.He also explores the growing potential of air freight in emerging markets like Colombia and Africa, where infrastructure challenges make it a game-changer for transporting raw materials.=========================

For more than 60 years, the air freight industry has adapted passenger aircraft for cargo fleets resulting in limited capacity and diminished fuel efficiency. However, a long-overdue shift toward a volume-optimized blended wing body (BWB) design is enabling freight aircrafts to carry 40-50% more in cargo capacity per trip while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. . Leading the way is Natilus, a company that develops hyper-efficient cargo and passenger BWB aircraft that dramatically improve aerodynamic efficiency and provide a powerful increase in internal volume. The result? Less fuel burn, lower emissions, higher payloads, and lower operating costs. . To learn more, we sat down with Aleksey Matyushev, CEO and Co-Founder, to discuss how Natilus' next-generation BWB aircraft design can improve economic efficiency and sustainability, as well as the company's foray into the passenger aircraft space. . We'd love to hear from you. Share your comments, questions and ideas for future topics and guests to podcast@sae.org. Don't forget to take a moment to follow SAE Tomorrow Today—a podcast where we discuss emerging technology and trends in mobility with the leaders, innovators and strategists making it all happen—and give us a review on your preferred podcasting platform. . Follow SAE on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Follow host Grayson Brulte on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Sustainability continues to be a goal for the supply chain industry to benefit both businesses and the world they inhabit. One effort to help achieve that goal is sustainable aviation fuel. But what is it exactly and how can companies leverage it to reduce emissions across their supply chain? Leendert Van Delft of DHL Express joins us to  share his insights into the sustainable aviation fuel movement. For more information: https://www.dhl.com/us-en/home/innovation-in-logistics/logistics-trend-radar/sustainable-fuels.html DO YOU WANT TO RESPOND TO THIS EPISODE? Call our Dialog Line: 888-878-3247 DOWNLOAD THE NEW INBOUND LOGISTICS APP featuring the updated and expanded Logistics Planner! Available on iTunes and the Google Play Store: bit.ly/ILMagApp  bit.ly/ILMagAppGoogle Are you a #logistics Thought Leader that would like to be featured on the Inbound Logistics Podcast?  Connect with me on X:  @ILMagPodcast   Email me: podcast@inboundlogistics.com   Connect with Inbound Logistics Magazine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inbound-logistics Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ILMagazine Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InboundLogistics Catch our latest videos on YouTube: www.youtube.com/inboundlogistics   Visit us at www.inboundlogistics.com

Aleksey Matyushev, Co-Founder & CEO, Natilus joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss optimizing air freight with autonomous blended wing body (BWB) aircraft. A blended wing aircraft body enables 20% more volumetric space and 30% better fuel efficiency for freight cargo when compared to traditional aircraft design. 10% of the world's good travel by air freight, yet comprise 90% o the value. With most of the world's electronics being made in Asia, including the iPhone, air freight plays a vital role in the global supply chain. With a growing global pilot labor shortage, autonomous blended wing body aircrafts can ensure that the world's supply chain continues to function without hiccups.Episode Chapters0:00 Current State of the Air Freight Market2:38 Air Freight Routes8:57 Natilus Flight Distances 10:09 Blended Wing Body (BWB) Design14:07 Economics of Natilus17:59 Manufacturing the Aircraft22:10 Why Build an Autonomous Aircraft?26:14 Fuel28:56 Scaling Manufacturing30:08 Projected Aircraft Costs31:05 Inspiration for Natilus33:58 Future of NatilusRecorded on Thursday September 19, 2024--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy® is a leading source of data, insight and commentary on autonomous vehicles/trucks and the emerging autonomy economy™.Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter: https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/autonomy-economy/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

EP320 - News, First Half Recap, Early Holiday Preview http://jasonandscot.com 0:23 Welcome Back After Hiatus 2:51 Upcoming Events in Retail 7:28 GroceryShop 16:02 Retail Growth Trends 21:28 Concerns for Holiday 2024 30:27 The De Minimis Provision 40:27 TikTok's Impact on E-commerce In this episode of The Jason and Scot Show, we discuss the current state of retail and e-commerce. We analyze macroeconomic factors impacting the retail landscape, noting a 3.4% growth in core retail and a maturation of e-commerce, dominated by giants like Amazon and Walmart. We address consumer sentiment heading into the holiday season and the potential influences of the upcoming election and interest rate changes. The episode also covers the role of AI in enhancing personalization experiences, challenges faced by dollar stores, and supply chain issues. We conclude with insights into Amazon's recent earnings and their strategies to engage younger consumers through TikTok Shops. Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Download the complete 54 page deck of all my insights from the US Dept of Commerce Retail Data for the first half of 2024 here https://rgeek.co/retail2024 Transcript [0:23] Welcome Back After Hiatus Jason   [0:23]Welcome to the Json and Scott show this is episode 320 being recorded on Monday september 16th 2024 I'm your host Jason retail gee Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scott Wingo. Scot   [0:38]Hey Jason and welcome back after a very long time, Jason and Scott show listeners Jason our last show was an early May so it's been about a little over a 4-month hiatus and when people ask me I always blame you do you blame me. Jason   [0:57]I do blame you and I'm bitter because in my mind. Nobody's really complaining to you but like I I've gone called out on stage by like I've I've been heckled by people that are like what are you going to do a new show. Scot   [1:15]It's part of our it's it's a Nintendo like strategy where you you dribble you know if you could really constrain Supply scarcity that drives demand so yeah. Jason   [1:25]Yeah it it we are we are playing 3 dimensional chess in a world of checkered players. Scot   [1:31]Exactly the the real reason is as Chief digital Innovation retail and payments and grocery officer your title's gotten bigger and your your more famous your allies on a plane I can never record because I'm like how about now he's like Paris how about now Australia how about now India so you've been flying all over the world. Jason   [1:52]I sadly I have been it does feel like travel is back there there have been more International trips this year than any year before coid so I I can I can only partially deny that accusation. Scot   [2:08]Cool well we're glad that we have you here for for an hour give us an update what are you any uh show you know what's going on out in the world of retail as you've been expanding the globe for the Json and Scott show. Jason   [2:20]Yeah it's been another Super interesting year for retail we'll we'll certainly get into some of what we think are the key topics that have been planned out this year but I have attended a bunch of events I I can't even remember which ones where since this this last show visited a bunch of customers out in the field which is always great learning new things from them [2:51] Upcoming Events in Retail Jason   [2:40]but the upcoming show is in early October is grocery shopping in Las Vegas so I'll be moderating a panel on. AI enabling Next Generation personalization, at at that show which I always look forward to to grocery shop and then a week later they're they're shop talk is moving their show their other stuff to Chicago so they're going to have their first, fall shop talk that will be in my backyard in Chicago so I'll be curious to see how if the world wants another another iteration of shop talk every year. Scot   [3:18]Yeah give us the behind-the-scenes did you like throw down the gauntlet and said shop talk must move to Chicago or I'm not going to attend or and run all the speaking stuff. Jason   [3:28]I basically did that with everything I told every client that they had come to Chicago I told shop talk and I told you you had to come here to record the podcast and yeah you'll note we haven't had a lot of podcasts and you know I still have the same 3 customers here I've always had. Scot   [3:44]But you got to show them to me for at least that's a 1 w. Jason   [3:46]I did but they really just added a show they're just looking for more Revenue so like it seems like it's probably not. Not just me but I feel like your LinkedIn feed has been more active than me and mostly with accolades for for the the fund that you helped kick off. Scot   [4:05]Yeah yeah so the just to update everybody I'm in a post spiffy world so started spiffy in 2014 and then, you know decided to to we got to kind of north of a 60-ish million run rate which is plenty big lots of employees lots of things going on and I had started this little side hustle well first of all I started this thing for our little local ecosystem here called the tweener list in 2015 which was just a little passion project and then started a little fund around that called the tweener fund which invests in early stage startups so I've I've really enjoyed that and decided to, move on from spiffy and make this my full-time gig so have been really enjoying doing that and actually have. I'm sure you do this where you have a list of things you're kind of like want to learn about and you can hardly ever get to it and I've been doing a lot of that the last 4 weeks and 1 of the big 1 is AI I've been going really deep on AI and it's been been a lot of fun to play around with all the cool new stuff going on there and I got a couple interesting ideas I'm not going to reveal anything but there's some interesting if you think from a AI native remember how we used to talk about mobile native well now thinking AI native I think there's some interesting things that could happen in the world of e-commerce so I'm going to I may go back to thinking more about e-commerce so we'll see. Jason   [5:23]Come on back though we're we're waiting for you the water is fine man they're they're for your point there's a lot of super interesting stuff the grocery shop will be fun a a show after that that I'm looking forward to is NRF because you know they have this Innovation Pavilion and they've kind of upped the the, rigger around recruiting exhibitors at The Innovation Pavilion this year and I think it's going to it's a big year for Innovation so, probably be a cool time for all of us to meet in the New York in January with global warming it's not even cold anymore. Scot   [5:58]Not been there not too long ago and it's still pretty darn cold for this North Carolina. Jason   [6:04]Oh okay fair enough fair enough I'm just last year was the first time it snowed in like 2 years in New York at at in her uh and then. Scot   [6:10]Okay yeah yeah last time I remember trudging through like 6 inches to get to your hotel which was painfully far away. Jason   [6:17]I mean that's yeah that's been my normal life so it's been weird that you haven't had to take the heavy coat to New York so although I wouldn't recommend that if you go to New York in January I'd bring that vote uh. And, I feel like in addition to everything else I know we're going to jump into the retail but all the Apple software updates dropped today so cool new icons and emojis and and delayed chats so I can have, like Emoji based chats hit Scott Wingo at every hour of the day now it's amazing. Scot   [6:48]Nice I look forward to that at 4:00 a.m. I'll have my do not disturb on to counteract your your attack. Jason   [6:53]Yeah although I may need you talk about new things you want to learn 1 of the things I want to learn is how to make Do Not Disturb work right in the the modern app like the system because I feel like all the focus modes have made it complicated. Scot   [7:05]Yeah I have to have you know that that kind of funny YouTube where the dad puts on 6 seat belts that's me putting on do not disturb I have to do the physical thing check the moon do my watch hit D and D in a profile and then that's that that combination of things I don't know which of them does it but that seems to stop everything. [7:28] AI in Grocery Shopping Jason   [7:23]Yes I feel like I'm in a similar boat but it would be interesting to figure out how to do it for as intended. Scot   [7:29]Yeah or just we know it works so just keep doing it do so just give us a preview of grocery shop can AI do better recommendations than kind of the old school way we used to do it. Jason   [7:42]So 1 would hope certainly it can do it at greater scale than we used to do it there's some anecdotal evidence that it's. Better it you know part of it I'm I'm curious to talk to some of these folks So So Meta will be on my panel. They they have a strong POV you know what's going on in the digital ad space right now is all the the ad platforms are trying to talk you into going hands off the wheel and turning over. The bidding to their AI engines and I would say at the moment it's an uneven playing field there like if I if I talk to my. Performance media folks they'll tell you that the the AI robots from some of the platforms are very effective and tend to outperform a manual bidding and on other platforms that they they wildly do not so. Jason   [8:33]That it'll be interesting to kind of hear their perspective 1 of the panelists is hungryroot, which to me is a super interesting example they they're truly doing AI based recommendation so they're essentially they're a ger. That is mainly filling out your whole cart for you proactively with AI based. Recommendations so you manicure a Char a cart that they recommend to you versus you hunting and pecking for each individual item and putting it in your cart and they they have some pretty interesting sales metrics using that methodology so they're all in, there you might almost think of them as like the Stitch fix of food and so they'll they'll be interesting to hear, and then my friend Ben from Endeavor and Endeavor may be familiar to some listeners not to others they're the largest adult beverage and hospitality company in Australia. And so they they have a nationwide chain of beer and wine stores that are doing some really interesting personalization hubs and kind of Shifting all of their customer touch points to to 1 to 1 so. I'll be curious to hear how effective they all claim to be. Scot   [9:47]How do these it seems like you're going to need some training data like how do they Kickstart that do they look at like your email or credit card data to kind of get an idea for what you like or they just kind of start you at a demographic Baseline and build from there or do you know. Jason   [10:01]Yeah well so in many cases you've been a customer of theirs for a long time right so they have you you have a significant amount of personal data I mean Walmart launched a predictive cart feature, in January that's in beta so I think it's only available to a select group of. Of Walmart Plus members but yeah it you it's trained on all of th those members pass purchases leading up to the launch of that product. Um so I yeah good question what signals do they use for a net new customer but I think the first crop where customers where they they already had a significant history. Scot   [10:40]Got it cool well that's gonna be a good panel riveting it's also pretty wild they have them so close together now that's like 10 days you're gonna have to kind of like Zip back home rest for a couple days and jump in. Jason   [10:50]I I do I was going to zip back home anyway so it's not an inconvenience for me but I my heart does go out to all the the shop talk folks that that have responsibilities of both shows because that I'm certain is not fun for them. Scot   [11:02]Cool which of the shop talks is bigger now the. Jason   [11:09]Shop talk is still the biggest show that's their March show um and it's it's north of 10,000 people so it might have been like 11,000 this year I'm not sure they, release an official number so hopefully I'm not disclosing something proprietary and grocery shop is only about half that size. So think closer to 5 500 attendees and then this fall shop talk this will be the first time so so. All all bets are off I I certainly wish them no ill will but part of me thinks it's a it's a big lift to get people. To add yet another event to their schedules. Scot   [11:48]Yeah maybe the Fallen will be more Regional like you know folks in the midwest or east. Jason   [11:53]Yeah I mean that that would be my initial assumption but you know they've they've been able to build up some really good shows in the past so so you know we'll see how they do with this 1 I certainly, would like to see a good show in Chicago they're in as you would remember in the old days you know there was like internet retailer here which still exists but I would argue it's it's probably well past its prime. Problem is when you did the orientation and used to teach everyone how to do e-commerce on the first day. Scot   [12:20]Amazon yeah that was fun that was they were like well you do this and I was like well how many people come and they're like I usually 100 and I did it and there's like 700 people say dude you vastly underestimated your crowd size at this thing the um. Jason   [12:32]I know I know you're a big draw. Scot   [12:34]Yeah well of course the uh and what was always funny is people would want to meet I forget what hotel it was either Hyatt, or a Hilton and there was 4 of them around that convention center and like No 1 could ever find each other at that that Hotel chain because they know 1 realized they all had the same name I'm sure that's still a problem. Was always funny to watch the chaos ensue. Jason   [12:54]Yeah. Scot   [12:55]The only thing works is in Las Vegas when you're at the Mandalay Bay when the hotel is called the hotel and the bars called the bar it's like a whose first kind of scenario trying to get. Jason   [13:04]Yeah I'm sure they thought that was really clever when they. Scot   [13:07]Yeah that was the worst worst naming. Jason   [13:08]When they first named it yeah. Scot   [13:11]Cool well you guys have been waiting for it and we are recording this mid-september all of our friends and Retail and e-commerce are making their final changes to their sites they're implementing their new features they're putting new vendors in place and going through the final QA test, before the big October code freeze so. This is when the Pod turns to really thinking about a holiday of 24 it's a fun to believe that we're already here this fast and Jason to tee that up let's set the table a little bit you put out a really interesting kind of adjacent Mega deck on LinkedIn that was really good and I thought maybe we could go through a couple slides of that and kind of tee up, you know how the year has gone so far and then that'll take us into kind of a little bit of a prediction of how holiday 24 is going to shape up. Jason   [13:58]Yeah yeah yeah happy to do it thanks man so maybe setting the table. I don't want to go back and get too deep we'll put a link to the deck so anyone that wants it's like 54 pages of data visualizations about about the Commerce industry so anyone's welcome to download it and check for themselves but the the highest level metric that I like to think about is this thing that NRF calls core retail so that's, all of retail sales from the US Department of Commerce US Census Data uh except restaurants Gas and Automobiles and. Jason   [14:33]If you go back in time and you say how how much does core retail grow year-over-year for the last 20 years core retail grew about 3.9% a year. And then of course we had this this huge anomaly more recently which was Co. And you know I like to joke that like well you know some people feel like oh man those were really hard years for retail what they forget is we mailed 5 trillion dollars in extra cash to everyone and didn't let them spend any of that on flights or Taylor Swift tickets. And so those were actually the greatest growth years in the history of retail like we like the the peak year was like 14% growth for core retail. So we had that this like Giant mountain of unusual growth 3 years that were twice as big as the normal 3.9% growth, and then 2023 happened and 2023 was right back to the average 3.9% again, and so now we're halfway through 2024 and we're actually below that average a little bit so we're at 3.4% growth year to date. Which is you know meaningfully off from 3.9% like that you know these are these are big numbers so that's 2.9 trillion dollars worth of sales year to date. Jason   [15:50]And the you know. [16:02] Retail Growth Trends Jason   [15:53]When we look at holiday I I mean we'll we'll talk about it in a minute but you know that's kind of setting the the table for retail for holiday but of course. People on this podcast are probably particularly interested in e-commerce and will know that historically at least in the modern era e-commerce has grown much faster. So the problem with talking about the average growth rate of e-commerce is of course it only started about 24 years ago and so it's. You know the the rate of growth has has decreased over time if you look at the last 24 years e-commerce is growing 17% a year versus that 3.9% for retail. Over the last 10 years right before coid e-commerce was growing at 12.4% a year. Jason   [16:37]So I kind of tell people think about you know e-commerce typically growing at 12% a year retail typically growing at 4% a year is kind of the. The the basic ratios so 4 times faster but this year 2024, retail is only growing at 3.4% and e-commerce is only growing at 7.5% so still twice as fast growth but a meaningful slowdown from the, historic average and you know at the risk of of giving away a spoiler. I I don't think that's like some bounce because of a spike during Co I actually think it's just an indication of the maturing of. Of e-commerce and e-commerce is a you know increasingly big chunk of of the whole retail pie it's. E-commerce is 21.8% of core retail so almost 22% so you know we'll spend over 7 trillion dollars this year and you know well over a trillion of it will be e-commerce. Scot   [17:38]Interesting cool so that's the full year. Jason   [17:41]Yeah well. Scot   [17:43]Basically kind of an average year. Jason   [17:45]So so last, yeah so so well so last year e-commerce had already started slow down it it grew again the average was about 12% it grew 10% last year and we're only growing 7.5% year to date this year. Scot   [17:59]Okay got it okay. Jason   [18:01]But. As I keep pointing out to people the story depending on who you are the story is either vastly better or worse than that those industry averages I just shared because the real story of of retail in 2024 is. This this concept of bifurcation right that there are 5 retailers that are vastly outperforming those industry averages. And they are eating up all of the growth in the industry so these 5 retailers represent 51% of all that growth so if you're 1 of those 5 retailers, you're having a great year if you are not 1 of those 5 retailers you're having a way worse than average year in in most cases so that's, Amazon which alone represents 16% of all retail growth it's Walmart which represents 15% of all retail growth, and it's it's Tik Tok which, you know was well under a billion dollars in sales last year and is trending towards twenty billion dollars in sales this year so they're the fastest growing retail, in the history of mankind and then rounding out these top 5 Growers are the the fastest growing return history of mankind from the last 2 years T-Mobile and shien so, it's kind of T-Mobile Sheen Tik Tok Walmart and Amazon's world and the rest of us are just living in it which is you know somewhat alarming for the rest of retail. Scot   [19:26]Yeah yeah definitely is it seems like those the chinese-based guys seems like they're taking share from somebody but it's not Amazon is it dollar stores because it's kind of like this convenience-oriented lower price kind of stuff right. Jason   [19:42]Yeah so it it it it's it's inexpensive variety Goods the, it it very likely is taking share from from the the dollar stores the dollar stores have not fared well which historically, you know there's there's some economic headwinds there's a thing going on in the United States that I I like to call A vibe session which means, some of the the economic fundamentals are actually pretty decent but people are really, consumer sentiment is down and people are really cutting back on their spending there's a lot of evidence that people are trading down and and trying to be more frugal, and that kind of climate normally has favored the dollar stores and yet you know they're they're definitely performing below these, these industry averages so certainly a chunk of of the Tik Tok team mushy and growth um is coming at their expense. Some of the sheen growth is coming at the expense of luxury which you know historically luxury has been been insulated from downturns in the market but you know we're starting to see. Some softness in their earnings and for sure softness in their guidance. So you know the you know people that would have bought more designer stuff maybe they're still buying some designer things but they're mixing it in with really affordable fashion from. From shien like I I am sure Amazon is losing some sales to Tik Tok shops that they would like to have but for your point. Jason   [21:08]Amazon still you know growing much faster than the rest of the market and so yeah it's not it's not eroding Amazon's any share it's just eroding their Tam. [21:28] Concerns for Holiday 2024 Scot   [21:19]Got it okay so that's the setup so e-commerce has slowed down a bit retails kind of doing its thing what what does that mean for holiday. Jason   [21:29]Yeah so I I have become Debbie Downer I am concerned about holiday this year, so if we just kind of extrapolate out these Trends again 3.4% growth is below our historic average so if something dramatically didn't turn around if consumer sentiment didn't get a lot better. For this holiday you would expect this to be a slightly soft. Holiday and I I really think this trend of winners and losers is likely to continue through holidays so I think you're going to see a handful of retailers perform really well holiday at the expense of everyone else and I. I I think on average that's going to mean that revenue is kind of similar to traditional holiday growth. But I I suspect that that's that margins, will be even further eroded than usual so so usually for Holiday retail grows about 4.3% e-commerce grows at 12.9% I don't think we'll see either of those numbers for holiday this year and I think. Jason   [22:34]You know if if retail grows at 3.7% and Ecom grows at 8% you know I still think you're going to see Amazon Walmart and Tik Tok grab, disproportionate share of that holiday spend which is going to be bad news, for a lot of other folks and those are just kind of the macro Trends you have to layer in that that there's a couple of reasons to to be worried about this holiday regardless of the trends going into this holiday so. We have a different calendar a number of days in the holiday season every year, and this is our worst year this is the year when we have the fewest days and holiday which actually you know historically does depress sales if there's fewer days to shop then then we sell less stuff and so this is the shortest holiday season that we ever get, and historically an election year is not favorable to Holiday spend right so traditionally there's some some anxiety and you know. Competition for attention, that plays into these November elections that impacts holiday and I I think you know this will be the most polarized election ever and so I think it's you know no matter what the outcome is half the country is going to be pretty depressed and that that likely you know translates into not an awesome holiday so so we got some things working against us. Scot   [23:53]Yeah so if that's the headwinds I'll throw in a Tailwind so as a our celebrated CNBC junkie the all they talk about is the Fed meeting tomorrow where you know it's pretty clear the fed's going to lower interest rates and the big question is is it going to be a quarter point or half a point I think I I I'm not a prognost prognosticator on that I think whatever they do it's going to be wildly popular and relief a lot of this kind of interest rate pressure we've everything's been on so even if it's only a quarter point I think it'll be somewhat euphoric for the market and for for hopefully for consumers to feel like interest rates are coming down a little bit so maybe that'll like bump start some house buying and selling and they'll be a little bit more liquidity in the market so so I'm going to think of that as more of a Tailwind so there's some positivity going on there do you worry about the election because I think it's just going to take forever to figure out who won and, everyone's going to contest it and it's gonna be like this unknown thing for a very long time so we'll see how that goes. Jason   [24:55]Yeah and you live in a swing state so I can only imagine what's happening to your media. Scot   [24:59]Yeah we just kind of we can't even like the male is an inch thick full of like Gunk and you kind of have to sort through all the stupidity I'm not a political person to get to like you know the bill and make sure you pay it and that kind of stuff and then the you know, at the TV is just crazy but thank goodness I'm not in Pennsylvania I think they're getting just totally hammered right now. Jason   [25:18]Yeah probably so and In fairness while we're covering Tailwind like this could be a headwind or a Tailwind but like I will say in general the macros are getting a little better right so inflation has been steadily coming down the 1 the most stubborn version of inflation had been. In in this core retail category is is food and even food you know they're all down below 3% which like pre-pandemic they were kind of in that, 2.1 2.3% and the FEDS sort of stated goal was to keep inflation between 2 and 3% so, you know we still had all the pain of the high prices over the last couple of years but like. Prices really have started to come down so on the 1 hand that helps consumer sentiment you know just like in announcement from the FED would and so that that's favorable you know most of the jobs reports have been you know pretty good there's there there's some decent news that in theory should make people feel better, the flip side is inflation going down actually hurts retail sales because the stuff they sell is cheaper and so when, comping with low inflation against a previous year of higher inflation it actually can make your comps more challenging. So yeah it's a a complicated mix of stuff going on. Scot   [26:35]Yeah does that if you boil all that down do you end up with a like a semi prediction like if your clients were to say to you give me a number what what do you spit out. Jason   [26:45]Yeah I I'm saying buckle up I normal retail holiday growth is 4.3% and I think we're retail growth is going to be below 4 this year. Margins vary wildly depending on the category but I think average margins are going to be down across the board like there there are going to be some some outliers like the the interest rates have really been brutal on the Home Improvement guys right like if you know people can't get loans they're trapped in their house uh they don't buy new houses they spend a lot less in Home Depot and Lowe's and I think it's pretty likely Buy holiday that there's some, some movement in the in the interest rates which like at the at the very least is going to Goose. That housing market which is going to have a trickle on effect to the the Home Improvement guys so I I suspect they'll have. Better holiday than they have the last last couple of years but overall I I'm not optimistic, you know with the caveat that some some really good operators or some people with a really clever model like the Amazon Walmart Tik toks are are likely gonna you know have a really good run this holiday. Scot   [27:51]Okay cool I will I do not have a prediction so I'll stick with yours. Jason   [27:58]Usually that doesn't work out well for you but thanks. Scot   [28:01]I have to go review our it's been so long I have to go look at our New Year's predictions because there's always start to be coming to fruition here soon. Jason   [28:09]Yeah yeah yeah I've kept half an eye on some of them and there's there's going to be some some are going to come down to the wire some I I would have thought were safer but like you know surprisingly Amazon's pretty slow getting their their AI stuff out the door so we'll see. Scot   [28:23]Yeah yeah there's the so this is a sidebar that we didn't really prepare for but did you see they tried to build their own and they kind of couldn't and they had to punt and they're using and. Not anthropology the 1 that starts know they're using anthropic. Jason   [28:41]Anthropic that's right yes I did see that um. Scot   [28:44]Yeah so that's got to be embarrassing I mean they invested like some bazillions of dollars. Jason   [28:47]To I mean Amazon is kind of a not invented here company so like when they have to give up on the internal initiative and and rent someone else's Tech that that probably doesn't feel very good. Scot   [28:59]Yeah I made the mistake of changing my action button on my phone to the chat GPT voice and then I've been I switched from Google in my search to perplexity so I've gotten used to asking these pretty complex questions and then I chat with Alexa and I feel like I'm talking to a kindergarten I'm like I'll even like ask it something you know play this song from this album by that artist and it loses itself halfway through half the time I feel like it's brain is melting and it's just like getting Dumber even though I know it's at a Baseline. Jason   [29:29]Yeah no absolutely and and I would say it's even more acute in my household because I live with a 9-year-old um and and his default is that, it should know all of this stuff right and it asks he asks these really complicated questions and I like can't tell you how many times a day I have to say to my son she's not going to know that. Scot   [29:50]Why dad why. Jason   [29:54]But but for your point hand him like, you know he basically lives to play Roblox and watch you to Awful YouTube videos um and I can hand him chat gbt 40 and like it's about as entertaining as Roblox to him which is amazing. [30:27] The De Minimis Provision Scot   [30:13]Gotcha does uh so you mentioned Teemu and all that jazz you have been tracking this rule that allows China to use our postal system to send stuff free what's going on with that puppy. Jason   [30:27]Yeah so that is famously called the Dominus provision and it's this rule that got. Put into the US Customs Enforcement in like 1938 and the idea was hey if people are going to ship stuff in the United States like we want to charge tax on it we want to charge duties and we want to have rules about what kinds of things from a safety standpoint and from a a human interest standpoint can be imported into our country right and so so normally you ship something from another country it has to go through inspections it has to go through duties but gosh there's this new kind of peer-to-peer marketplaces and there's eBay sellers selling stuff in London to people in the US and we don't have enough Customs agents to inspect all these little, packages that Scott Wingo is helping people sell on the internet right so we're going to pass a rule called the Dominus provision which is if you ship something that has less than 5 dollars of value, you don't have to declare it you don't have to pay taxes on it it's not getting inspected by anyone and it was really just a labor savings for for the the Customs agents in like you know originally in 1939 when like it was it was an e-commerce it was mail order back then. Jason   [31:44]But in like 1996 that that. 5 Dollar limit got bumped to Dollars and then in 2016 the hundred dollars got bumped to $800 and that really opened the floodgates that's when companies like shien and tiemoue figured out that hey instead of filling up a container of stuff, and shipping that container to the US and having to pay C duties on that container and having that container come over in a boat and take a long time to get here I can put each. Sale in an individual envelope, and Air Freight it to the US and it'll be under the 800 hour minimum so I won't have to pay duties on it I won't have to get it inspected. And you know these these factories in China, and these these marketplaces of these factories in China you know quickly built a huge business shipping individual packages to Americans right and so that's. Jason   [32:48]You know today they they quote unquote exploit what we call the Dominus provision. To to ship all those packages right and so there's been a lot of complaints by people that have to compete with the, the those those you know cheap Imports and there's been a lot of saber rattling in Congress about how you know this is exploitation and all these things, and so last week Biden proposed, that he was going to issue an executive order that goods from China no longer qualify for the de minimis exception and so what that would mean is regardless of the value. Every single package that comes from China would have to go through customs would have to be inspected would have to meet all of our import requirements and so, you know some people are looking at that and saying oh man that's going to put a huge dent that's going to make shien goods and Tik Tok goods and tiemoue goods more expensive. And that might rebalance you know all of these trends that that you and I have just been been talking about. I regrettably am a little more skeptical that it's going to have a huge impact. Jason   [33:58]Couple of other sort of interesting facts to know about this Dominus thing so first of all. Not going to shock anyone there's a lot of american-based companies that are now taking full advantage of this de minimis Clause right so. Jason   [34:12]Not going to name names on the podcast but there's a lot of big sellers that are us-based that import containers of goods to Mexico and then put those, unpack those containers in Mexico and ship, the goods in individual packages from Mexico to the US so they get relatively fast delivery and they get to bypass all the duties and tariffs and you know that's that that's being done by by a number of like big famous, uh retailers and brands in the US so this kind of Dominus rule if it if it affects goods from China. I guess the first thing I would expect to see is Tik Tok and team who are going to start shipping containers to Mexico and importing them from another country right and so we're going to get kind of a a wacko, situation and if you if you Google section 321 which is the the. Part of the the Customs law that that that amendments provision is in section 321 shipping you're going to find that there's dozens of 3pls that specialize in in doing this for you so. I think it's going to be harder to knock down than 1 executive order but the bigger problem is. Tik Tok to and shien together are by some estimates sending about 900,000 packages a day. Jason   [35:33]2 of the United States and so if you could magically wave a wand and say all 900,000 of those packages have to be inspected before they can come in. Think what that would do to the rate of goods flowing into the United States right like all everybody's Imports all the containers would get slowed down because, we have the same number of Customs agents we've always had an executive order can't hire a bunch of new Customs agents that would require new budget from Congress and that seems a lot less likely. So just like the reason the Dominus was there is we didn't have enough people to look at all these packages and that was when they're way less packages than there are now so. If we could somehow like do away with Dominus like would it, reduce the number of shipments probably but it still would be way more shipments it would still overwhelm well customs and would likely suddenly mean all those goods that are I guess holiday Goods for the most part are already on the way are already here but like, it it would probably have a dramatic effect on on q1 availability of goods because it would just gum Up Customs so while I I like the ex the spirit of trying to, update the laws to have a More Level Playing Field I kind of doubt in practice that 1 Executive Order is is going to fix this super complicated problem. Scot   [36:51]Yeah now that we're through earning season did you hear anything else interesting in earnings that we were not able to do an Amazon's earning podcast there wasn't really anything super exciting other than. You know kind of more of the same I think you know the AWS did better than a lot of people thought which was good, and that everyone's really focused on that because of the AI stuff everyone's worried Amazon's going to lose share but they seem to be holding their own and then e-commerce and, the retails were were kind of in line so they didn't really slow or speed up, if you have any there was a little color around Prime day but nothing Earth shattering any other interesting things from earnings Seasons you saw. Jason   [37:31]Yeah so so again like what you've you've kind of had 3 kinds of retailers right you had those 5 retailers that I mentioned only only 2 of them have like earnings calls in the US which is, Amazon and Walmart. Tik Tok is owned by bike dance which has has earnings calls in China and team was owned by poor which has earnings calls in China she and is trying to go public they're trying to list in in London so we haven't really seen any, any earnings calls from them so they they've had interesting things you've actually had T-Mobile stock took a pretty big hit after their earnings because they, reported great sales but by dance like lowered his guidance and part of it is I believe. In in response to how much share Tik Tok shops has captured so this is 1 of I think 1 of the most interesting stories of the year is. Jason   [38:23]For probably as long as I've known you Scott like we've always talked about social commerce and people are always talking about like. Hey there's all this attention on Facebook are people going to be able to sell Goods on Facebook and just not even need e-commerce sites anymore and the narrative we've always had is man it's been tried dozens and dozens of times and it so far hasn't worked it seems like. Us consumers don't want to shop on their social platforms they want to interact with their friends on their social platforms and they want to shop on their shop platforms, but the 1 place in the world where this does seem to be working is China where, pendo Duo on Alibaba had been you know pretty successful 10-cent had been pretty successful with with social commerce and, that narrative is kind of over right now because Tik Tok shops is selling twenty billion dollars worth of stuff direct to Consumer and Tik Tok is. Really winning with consumers attention and especially with younger consumer consumers attention so you know. Jason   [39:21]Gen Z Shoppers are are gen Z consumers are spending like an hour a day, on Tik Tok like the Olympics didn't do very well because nobody watches long form video on television anymore like they're all watching all this this short form content on Tik Tok and Tik Tok has been able to turn that attention, into sales so much so that you know the most successful e-commerce site on the planet while Amazon has has kind of said like hey we can't beat him so we're joining him right so Amazon announced, a deal with Tik Tok where you can run an ad on Tik Tok have direct Commerce in that ad and check out with your Amazon credentials and have your order fulfilled by Amazon Prime, in an ad on the Tik Tok platform so that is super interesting and Amazon has said and we're going to start shipping Goods direct from China just like Tik Tok and T-Mobile and shien so they've announced that they're going to, [40:27] TikTok's Impact on E-commerce Jason   [40:19]direct to Consumer from factory model you know presumably to take advantage of some of this these same de de minimis. Jason   [40:27]Provisions that we we talked about earlier so it's kind of interesting to see Amazon have to kind of match some of the, the offerings and play with some of these Frenemies you know historically you know that's that's gone the other way right like it was it was the old Legacy retards that were having to begrudgingly or brands that had to begrudgingly, moved to Amazon so interesting to see Amazon moving to Tik Tok so that was a super interesting. Jason   [40:56]Sort of evolution this year I'm going to be really interested to see whether the, the Tik Tok thing you know it's mostly inexpensive impulse Goods at the moment and, you know can that get traction with staples will people buy more premium Goods we're starting to see more and more Brands I just spent some time with, Keurig which owns you know a bunch of the coffee brands and they're now doing direct Commerce on Tik Tok shops so it kind of went from all unbranded stuff on Chinese factories to, you know we're starting to see branded merchandise in the Tik Tok shop so, that super fascinating and then on a much more scale 1 other thing that really jumped out of me in the investor call after the Amazon earnings is the Amazon CFO talked about. Jason   [41:43]The softness that people have seen in the drug channel right and so Walgreens write a CVS haven't been having a very good run lately and and he called out that like Amazon probably got a boost in sales because the the Walgreens so helpfully locked all the products behind cages and that like uh. You know was an impediment to sales at Walgreens and caused a lot of those sales to happen on Amazon instead and so you know if you remember last year a lot of retailers were claimed you know crying about shrinking complaining a lot about shoplifting you're not hearing a lot of conversation and earnings calls about shrink this year. And now you know Amazon saying like man we're we're a beneficiary of all the the eroded customer experiences, that that have resulted from an overreaction to shrink. Scot   [42:34]Hu yeah I saw there's a CVS has a thing where you can actually tap with your phone I guess it has an NFC chip in it and so I imagine you have to have the CVS app and be logged in and then you can tap to get into that cage so at least you don't have to wait an hour for someone to wander by and and get you your your pack of gum. Jason   [42:55]Yeah which I have mixed feelings about on the 1 hand I really admire The Innovation and that's a clever way to reduce the friction if you are going to put all these products and product jail which is what I call those those cases the, the pro you know the the argument would be, in CVS's case you have to be a member of their Affinity program and have their app on your phone in order to unlock the cases and so like in practice essentially what that means is you know all of America used to be able to shop at CVS now it's a members-only store right like now it's it's it's essentially Costco like you you have to be a member and give them all your data or you're going to have really inconvenient access to the razor blades and so you know, I could see that going either way like if if you compare it to Walgreens or Raid where you don't get that option like it might be looked at favorably but if you kind of look at it in big picture and say wait a minute you're going to lock up all this stuff and then you're going to make me be a member of your Affinity program in order to, to just be able to do what I've always done or at least since the 1920s when Piggly Wiggly opened up all this stuff. Jason   [44:01]I you know I could imagine consumers not not reacting super well to that, I don't actually know if the CVS is is like Bluetooth or NFC but you did bring up another point. IOS 18 launch today and 1 of the cool features in iOS 18 is they have apple is for the first time opened up the NFC chip to third-party apps so. Under iOS 18 it would be possible for CVS to use that NFC chip to unlock the, the uh their their smart locks that would not have been possible in the previous operating system so that's a fun Commerce innovation, that came to uh Apple today, and I haven't seen any announcements yet but I'll I'll be surprised if we don't see some some cool evolution of some of the digital wallets to take advantage of that new feature as well. Scot   [44:50]Pretty cool yeah so anything else before we wrap up that that you want to prep listeners for as we go into holiday. Jason   [44:58]No no I feel like we covered a lot of ground again I'm I'm super sorry on my behalf and and Scott's behalf that we've been a little sporadic with the shows we really appreciate all the kind words people have, been sending our way and for sure I take it as a compliment that people are mad at me that we haven't been putting out shows so hopefully we'll we'll be able to find some good Windows throughout the rest of the year to get some, some shows out there I you know certainly want to do a recap after grocery shop coming up and we'll certainly want to cover holiday and maybe we can do some. Go old school and do some live shows from interrupt this year if we can get you to come to to New York Scott. Scot   [45:35]Yeah yeah the we'll look at the weather and see how it goes. Jason   [45:39]Yeah yeah yeah if if you're an investor in his fund use use that leverage to pressure him to do it. Scot   [45:45]Hey that hurts. Jason   [45:46]And if you're not an investor nurse fund why the heck not. Scot   [45:49]Heck yeah between your fund.com come on aboard. Jason   [45:52]Exactly well Scott that's probably going to be a great place to leave it if you're super ecstatic that we are back on the air feel free to jump on iTunes and give us that 5-star review we want to refreshen those up and. Until next time happy commercing.  

In this episode of Supply Chain Now, hosts Scott Luton and Kim Reuter delve into the intricacies of the airfreight industry, a critical yet often overlooked component of the global supply chain. Joined by special guest Sean Francisco, Chief Operating Officer for the Americas at Apex Logistics International, the conversation explores the current state of airfreight, the profound changes post-pandemic, and the evolving strategies companies must adopt to stay ahead.Listeners will gain valuable insights into how e-commerce is reshaping airfreight dynamics, the importance of selecting the right logistics partners, and the challenges of managing change in a rapidly shifting industry. Tune in to learn how to optimize your organization's approach and stay competitive in a changing landscape.Jump into the conversation:(00:00) Introduction to today's topic: the airfreight industry(09:15) Overview of the airfreight industry(14:16) Changes in the airfreight industry post-pandemic(18:28) The importance of picking the right airfreight partner(22:18) The role of change management in airfreight(24:01) Securing airfreight capacity: a strategic approach(27:27) Flexibility and silo-busting in supply chain(30:07) The consequences of sticking to old supply chain strategies(35:53) Predictions for the peak season in airfreight(41:03) Challenges of adapting to changes in the airfreight market(44:18) Final thoughts: the importance of evolving supply chainsAdditional Links & Resources:Multi-Modal Flexibility Within Your Logistics Network: Future-Proofing Operations Amidst Supply Chain Volatility Whitepaper: https://bit.ly/3X0ZmWMApex Introduces the Final Boeing 747-8F: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPqegI866w8Learn more about Apex Logistics: https://apexglobe.com Connect with Sean: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanm-francisco Learn more about our hosts: https://supplychainnow.com/aboutLearn more about Supply Chain Now: https://supplychainnow.com Watch and listen to more Supply Chain Now episodes here: https://supplychainnow.com/program/supply-chain-now Subscribe to Supply Chain Now on your favorite platform: https://supplychainnow.com/join Work with us! Download Supply Chain Now's NEW Media Kit: https://bit.ly/3XH6OVk WEBINAR- Optimizing Procurement Operations with Group Purchasing Organizations: https://bit.ly/3yKnaVBWEBINAR- Mastering Shipping: Insider Tips for Reliable and Cost-Effective Deliveries: https://bit.ly/3XdC3t5WEBINAR- Creating the Unified Supply Chain Through the Symbiosis of People and Technology: https://bit.ly/3XDtrejThis episode was hosted by Scott Luton and Kim Reuter and produced by Amanda Luton and Katherine HIntz. For additional information, please visit our dedicated show page at: https://supplychainnow.com/air-freight-roulette-how-win-1322

Israeli aircraft developer Air has one rule when it comes to electric aviation: Keep it simple. The startup's Air One electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is simple, comfortable and efficient, with eight motors and a user-friendly control system, Air Chief Executive and co-founder Rani Plaut tells Air Cargo Next in this episode of “On Air with Air Cargo Next.”    “The core of the design is trying to keep things as simple as possible,” he said. “We don't have any moving parts. Our solution is based on smart compromises and a little bit of aerodynamic trickery versus high complexity.” Air One, capable of traveling up to 150 miles per hour with a payload of 550 pounds, debuted in 2022, and Air joined the U.S. Air Force's Agility Prime program in 2023 to expand technology transition paths for electric aircraft manufacturers.   The eVTOL, which is intended to optimize last-mile cargo deliveries, can also be used recreationally and seats two people, Plaut said. “The cargo unit is the same unit, simply without the seats and the avionics,” he said. “And since we have started testing the aircraft, as all the individual companies are doing by remotely piloting or autonomous piloting, it is already set for cargo use cases. So far, we have $17 million in purchase orders for cargo units.” Air generated more than $1 million in revenue in 2023 and, this year, that number is expected to reach $7 million, Plaut said. In this episode of “On Air with Air Cargo Next,” the CEO discusses how the company was founded, why eVTOL designs should remain simple and Air's next moves. 

The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and Supply Chain Xchange  bring you this podcast filled with deep industry discussions. We talk to today's top thought innovators, spanning topics across the entire supply chain. Supply Chain in the Fast Lane fast tracks topics you need to know from leaders you want to know.In this Fifth Season of ten episodes, we look at The State of Logistics.SEASON 5 :The State of LogisticsEPISODE 5: Air Freight Market OutlookCapacity is much tighter in the air freight market than what was forecasted at the beginning of the year. What can we expect for the rest of 2024? Balika Sonthalia, a partner at the global consulting firm Kearney, weighs in.Guest: Balika Sonthalia, partner at KearneyModerator: Susan Lacefield, executive editor, Supply Chain XchangeSupply Chain in the Fast Lane is sponsored by:HERE TechnologiesLinksLearn more about CSCMPJoin the CSCMP communityCSCMP's Supply Chain XchangeSubscribe to CSCMP's Supply Chain XchangeSign up for our FREE newslettersListen to our sister podcast, Logistics MattersAdvertise with CSCMP's Supply Chain Xchange

AI, which is increasingly improving operations in the supply chain, may also be a gamechanger for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) looking to broaden their networks, Yikun Shao, head of North America supply chain at Alibaba, told Air Cargo Next.

One of the most exciting aspects of advanced air mobility (AAM) is the potential for innovation in air freight, particularly with autonomous, highly efficient aircraft. Innovating in this field comes with technological, regulatory and cultural challenges. However, companies like Natilus are making significant strides, offering valuable insights for the industry and paving the way for advancing technologies such as immersive engineering.  In this episode, Todd Tuthill, Vice President of Aerospace and Defense for Siemens Digital Industries Software is joined by Aleksey Matyushev, Founder and CEO of Natilus, a company transforming the global air freight sector with their unique blended wing body aircraft. Together, with host Patty Russo, they discuss the vision and technological advancements driving success at Natilus and the broader implications for the AAM industry.  In this episode, you will learn:   • The role of Siemens digital transformation technology and immersive engineering capabilities in aircraft design  • Why innovating in air freight is crucial for the aerospace industry   • The key enablers Natilus is adopting to develop this groundbreaking aircraft      Todd Tuthill    Todd Tuthill is the Vice President of Aerospace & Defense for Siemens Digital Industries Software.  Connect with Todd on LinkedIn    Aleksey Matyushev – Speaker    Aleksey Matyushev is the Founder and CEO of Natilus.   Connect with Aleksey on LinkedIn    Patty Russo – Host    Patty Russo is a Global Marketing Manager for Siemens Digital Industries Software.  Connect with Patty on LinkedIn 

Jason Miller and Joe Lynch discuss market insights. Jason is a professor of supply chain at Michigan State University, which is ranked as one of the top supply chain schools in the world. Summary: Market Insights In this podcast, Jason Miller, a professor at Michigan State University, shares his expertise on the current state of the supply chain and logistics industry. He discusses the ongoing freight recession, the impact of Trump tariffs on the US economy, and the potential effects of reshoring. The podcast also covers recent disruptions in the container shipping market and air freight volumes from Asia to the US. Additionally, Jason Miller emphasizes the importance of understanding data quality and expresses skepticism about the revolutionary potential of AI in certain domains. The discussion highlights the significance of making informed decisions based on real-time data and qualitative forecasts. #SupplyChainInsights #FreightMarketOutlook #DataDrivenDecisions About Jason Miller Jason Miller (PhD The Ohio State University) is a tenured Associate Professor of Logistics and the John D. and Dortha J. Withrow Endowed Emerging Scholar at Michigan State University's Eli Broad College of Business. His primary research stream examines firms' logistics operations, with an emphasis on studying motor carrier safety, productivity, pricing dynamics, and driver turnover. Jason has been recognized with multiple awards for research and teaching. He was recognized as the undergraduate faculty member who had the greatest impact on students based on the 2017 graduating senior survey. The website Poets & Quants has recognized him as one of the top 40 undergraduate professors. About Michigan State University, Department of Supply Chain Management Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan. MSU was founded in 1855. Today, MSU is one of the largest universities in the United States and has approximately 634,300 living alumni worldwide. MSU's Department of Supply Chain Management is the consistently ranked as the top supply chain management school in the country. The department educates students to succeed in careers such as procurement, manufacturing, inventory management, warehousing, transportation, and customer service. Students graduate with foundational knowledge across all areas of SCM, positioning them to work in multiple capacities for the top global companies. The business world views Broad's graduates and faculty as the voice of the SCM field. Key Takeaways: Market Insights Jason Miller shares insights on the current state of the supply chain and logistics industry, discussing freight rates, inventory levels, and consumer spending. The freight market has been in a recession since late 2022, with spot rates and demand moving along a trough. The impact of reshoring on the US economy depends on the location of the parts ecosystem, and interest rate cuts by the Fed will likely be needed to stimulate freight volumes and housing activity. Air freight volumes from Asia to the US, particularly from India and China, have seen a significant increase due to ecommerce demand for cheap goods. AI will revolutionize fields like drug discovery and engineering but may struggle with economics and human-related activities due to unpredictability and measurement difficulties. Making informed decisions involves understanding data sources, forming a coherent narrative, and using qualitative forecasts based on experience and intuition. Timestamps (00:00:01) Market Insights with Supply Chain Economist (00:00:17) Supply Chain Challenges and Economic Outlook (00:01:09) The Supply Chain Economist (00:03:26) Freight Markets: Trough, Capacity, and Demand Surges (00:10:27) Tariffs' Negative Impact on the Economy (00:19:06) Reshoring, Interest Rates, and Freight Volumes (00:21:14) Container Shipping Demand Surges, Rates Soar (00:24:22) Navigating Disruptions in Global Shipping Routes (00:27:55) The Surprising Surge in Air Freight (00:32:20) Freight Recession Amidst Economic Stability (00:40:40) The Limitations of AI and Data (00:49:57) The Potential and Limitations of AI (00:57:57) Freight Markets, Recession, and AI Readiness (00:59:21) Making Sense of Data and Decision-Making (01:01:10) Data-Driven Decisions in a Transforming World (01:03:05) Engaging with Logistics and Supply Chain Leaders Learn More About Market Insights Jason Miller MSU Supply Chain Management Program Jason's profile on MSU's website Supply Chain Basics with Jason Miller Logistics and Supply Chain - 1940 to 2040 with Jason Miller The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast Check out The Logistics of Logistics on Youtube

Digital twin technology allows air cargo operators to visualize how new technologies will integrate into operations in real time while reducing overall costs and improving efficiency — all within a highly accurate and immersive digital space.

After 50 years in the logistics industry, both in sea and air, Cargo iQ Executive Director Lothar Moehle has seen a lot of change, some good and some bad. Reflecting on his five decades of experience in this sector, Moehle discusses how the air cargo industry has changed, what changes still need to happen and what will never change, in the latest episode of “On Air with Air Cargo Next.” 

Raft Chief Marketing Officer Greg Kefer discusses how AI has created a global inflection point, akin to those created by the introduction of the personal computer and the internet, in the latest episode of “On Air with Air Cargo Next.” 

Airforwarders Association Executive Director Brandon Fried emphasizes the need for the U.S. government to invest in airport infrastructure in the latest episode of “On Air with Air Cargo Next.”

Joining Morten Johansen, Carla Montenegro, vice president of commercial freight forwarding for the Americas at DP World, discussed automation integration, globalization trends and nearshoring in this episode of “On Air with Air Cargo Next.” 

In this episode of the Crane Worldwide Logistics News Podcast, Coffee with Crane, we share some insights on Canada's CARM, Ohio's major freight hub, air freight update and more on the Baltimore bridge collapse. Tune in! 

Cargo.one founder and co-Chief Executive Moritz Claussen sat down with Air Cargo Next at the World Cargo Symposium in Hong Kong to discuss end-to-end quotation capabilities, digitalization, AI and cybersecurity for the latest episode of “On Air with Air Cargo Next.” 

The Air Cargo and Freight industry has faced many challenges over the past few years. The COVID-19 pandemic, increasing operational costs, and fluctuating customer demand have all been issues the industry has had to deal with. In this episode of Down to Business English we look at all of these factors. This episode is perfect for anyone looking to enhance their understanding of global trade dynamics while improving their business English skills. Skip Montreux and Samantha Vega examine the state of the air cargo and freight industry. Their discussion offers an insightful look into the sector's response to unprecedented times, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the surge in e-commerce, and the evolving needs of global supply chains. For those looking to enhance their business English, Skip and Samantha's conversation provides a rich source of learning. Topics they discuss include: The distinction between air freight and air cargo, and the specific terms used within the logistics industry. The dramatic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on air transport and how it altered global supply chains. The role of e-commerce growth in increasing demand for air freight services. Strategies airlines have adopted to convert passenger planes to cargo carriers, including the financial and operational implications.. Do you like what you hear? Become a D2B Member today for to access to audio scripts, bonus vocabulary episodes, and D2B Member-only episodes. Visit d2benglish.com/membership for more information. Follow Down to Business English on Apple podcasts, rate the show, and leave a comment. Contact Skip, Dez, and Samantha at downtobusinessenglish@gmail.com Follow Skip & Dez Skip Montreux on Linkedin Skip Montreux on Instagram Skip Montreux on Twitter Skip Montreux on Facebook Dez Morgan on Twitter RSS Feed

With emerging technologies and growing demand, this year marks a comeback period for airfreight, Joe Kronenberger, senior vice president of airfreight for the Americas at Geodis, told Air Cargo Next in this episode of “On Air with Air Cargo Next.” 

Aventus founder and Chairperson Alan Vey discusses how Web3 technology works, how it benefits supply chain operations and how the air cargo industry is lagging other sectors in digitalization.

Is the air cargo market ripe for its own technology revolution?Aleksey Matyushev and his team at Natilus are certainly doing their bit to make it happen.A graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Aleksey has been working at the cutting edge of aerospace technology for quite some time, both on civilian and military projects.He is the founder and CEO of Natilus, a Californian startup that is working on a family of truly disruptive blended-wing-body freigther aircraft that are also designed with autonomous flight capabilities and hydrogen propulsion in mind.A tall order, for sure. But Natilus has secured the backing of quite a few prominent technology investors as well as some major players in the air cargo industry.The Natilus project encapsulates also some of the themes that the broader aerospace industry faces in decades to come: go for a clean-sheet design or not? should commercial aircraft be autonomous or remotely operated? what's the role of hydrogen in the future of aviation?We talk about all this and some more with Aleksey in this episode of the podcast!

Meet Megan Ramsey, a talented freelance journalist who recently clinched the prestigious Air Freight Journalist of the Year award at the Seahorse Journalist Awards. In this YouTube video, Megan shares insights into her award-winning pieces covering e-commerce trends, an Asia report, and the sustainability of air cargo in her engaging interview. Discover Megan's journey into air freight journalism, her perspectives on the rapidly evolving aviation industry, and her thoughts on crucial topics like data sharing and environmental impact. Join us for an insightful conversation with a rising star in the field. Don't miss out on her unique perspective and the fascinating world of air freight journalism! #MeganRamsey #AirFreightJournalism #AviationInsights

Hi everyone, and welcome to the inaugural episode of the Sustainable Supply Chain Podcast – an exciting evolution from the widely acclaimed Digital Supply Chain podcast, which concluded just last Friday. In this fresh series, we're diving deep into remarkable sustainability stories and strategies that are shaping the supply chain industry.In today's episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Gautam Jain, CEO and co-founder of GoComet, a platform that's transforming the landscape of international logistics. Gautam's journey, from a college dream to revolutionising supply chain visibility, isinspiring. He shares how GoComet, born out of a side business and a need for more efficient logistics, is now aiding major global players like Unilever and Sony in managing their logistics more sustainably.One of the episode's key highlights was our discussion about how GoComet is addressing the crucial issue of carbon emissions in shipping – a significant contributor to global greenhouse gases. Gautam elaborates on how GoComet's platform allows companies to make informed decisions by evaluating carriers based on three pivotal factors: reliability, cost, and most importantly, sustainability. This capability enables companies to align their logistics with environmental goals.We also delved into the dynamics of maritime and air shipping and their environmental impacts. While air freight is generally perceived as more polluting, ocean shipping actually accounts for a larger share of global emissions due to its volume.As we wrapped up, Gautam left us with a powerful message: up to 50% of carbon emission goals can be met simply by choosing more efficient shipping routes and carriers, if only companies had the right information. This is a testament to the power of data and technology in driving sustainable transformation in the supply chain sector.This episode is a must-listen for anyone passionate about sustainability in supply chain management. Don't miss out on these valuable insights. Catch the full episode and join the conversation. Your thoughts and feedback are always welcome. Remember, sustainable supply chain practices are not just good for the environment – they're good for business too.Don't forget to check out the video version of this episode at https://youtu.be/pibSupport the showPodcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous supporters: Lorcan Sheehan Krishna Kumar Christophe Kottelat Olivier Brusle Alicia Farag Joël VANDI Luis Olavarria Alvaro Aguilar And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Digital Supply Chain episodes like this one.Podcast Sponsorship Opportunities:If you/your organisation is interested in sponsoring this podcast - I have several options available. Let's talk!FinallyIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks for listening.

Experience the power of AI in forecasting Markets. Subscribe to CI Markets Free: https://completeintel.com/marketsWelcome to the latest episode of The Week Ahead with your host, Tony Nash! Today, we've assembled a stellar lineup featuring Tavi Costa, Albert Marko, and Tracy Shuchart, ready to dive into some captivating discussions.

Dallas-based airfreight consolidation company Aircon is using AI and machine learning to offer a platform that helps smaller freight forwarders consolidate shipments. Aircon Chief Executive Chris Condon discusses the benefits and challenges of airfreight consolidation. 

Quantum-South's Product Lead Matteo Stipanicic discusses quantum computing, artificial intelligence and challenges to technology integration in the supply chain in this episode of "On Air with Air Cargo Next."

What's going on in Global Trade this Week? Today Keenan Brugh of CAP Logistics & Doug Draper of Inland Star Distribution cover: 1:52 -Libya's Top Oil Field Halts Production 8:51 -Air Freight as the Solution for Chaos in the Red Sea? 12:38 -Halftime 20:06 -US Mexico Rail Closures Cost $100 Million Per Day 26:00 -The Year of Parcel is Underway www.capwwide.com/international-insights/1/29/24/gttw-podcast-episode-129 https://youtu.be/RRAgVTvyrJc  

Risk management solutions provider Overhaul is using AI to mitigate cargo thefts. With products like RiskGPT, launched in July, Overhaul integrated AI into its software to scrape the internet for information on cargo theft and synthesize it. Overhaul response teams use then use the information to determine where a crime is likely to occur and quickly identify a corrective path. 

Robust shipments from southern China are driving peak volume growth in the Americas that could reach 16% this year, according to DHL Express Americas' CEO Mike Parra. In this Talking Transports podcast episode, Parra joins Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Lee Klaskow to discuss how peak season is shaping up. Gains are coming from deliveries of fashion, auto parts, technology and gaming products, and Parra sees long-term growth opportunities from a gradual move away from China into northern Mexico. Airfreight rates may find support at current levels until the Chinese New Year, which bodes well for earnings at DHL Express and competitors.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of "On Air with Air Cargo Next," Tristan Koch, chief commercial officer at Awery Aviation Software discusses the future of AI in air cargo, how it can attract new talent and where the industry stands in the digitalization shift.

Welcome to Bryan Air, the podcast where we discuss the latest news and insights from the aviation industry. In this episode, we cover the following topics:

Our guest on this week's episode is Pawan Joshi, executive vice president, product management & strategy at E2open. With the rebound in air travel, there are more flights available now to shippers, including cargo-only flights and belly space on passenger planes. How can shippers take advantage of that extra capacity and the lower rates now available? We've seen a lot of advances in robots that move inventory around the warehouse in recent years. But one problem that has remained really hard to solve has been getting boxes into and out of truck trailers or shipping containers. But now we are seeing new technologies to address truck loading and unloading, with some significant investments and pilot programs making progress on this difficult, labor-heavy aspect of distribution.More women are joining the trucking industry as technicians. A new survey shows a year-over-year increase in the number of female equipment technicians. This news comes as the trucking industry celebrates National Technician Appreciation Week.CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly  also offers a podcast series called Supply Chain in the Fast Lane.  It is co-produced with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals.  The current series features Transportation Tech. Go to your favorite podcast platform to subscribe and to listen to past and future episodes.Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:E2openFedEx pilots trailer-loading robot with twin armsMore women join trucking industry as techniciansGet episode transcriptsVisit Supply Chain QuarterlyListen to CSCMP and Supply Chain Quarterly's Supply Chain in the Fast Lane podcastListen to Supply Chain Quarterly's Top 10 Supply Chain Threats podcastSend feedback about this podcast to podcast@dcvelocity.comPodcast is sponsored by: nVision GlobalOther linksAbout DC VELOCITYSubscribe to DC VELOCITYSign up for our FREE newslettersAdvertise with DC VELOCITYTop 10 Supply Chain Management Podcasts

FreightWaves' Mike Baudendistel and Grace Sharkey discuss General Mills' results last week, food ingredient prices, anticipated Halloween spending and interview Bill Rinehart, CEO of Bold Carts Follow The Stockout Podcast Other FreightWaves Shows Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the latest episode of the “On Air with Air Cargo Next” podcast, James Golding, head of cargo at London Heathrow Airport; Kenneth Chircop, general manager at Dronamics; and Mike van Berkel, account manager at VRR, discuss community cargo systems, drones and sustainability ahead of their appearances at the upcoming Air Cargo Tech Summit 2023, set for Sept. 18-19 in Brussels.

Rahmel Wattley and Joe Lynch discuss the FreightFest 2023. Rahmel is a transportation entrepreneur and host of the popular trucking podcast, Truck N' Hustle. FreightFest 2023 is presented by Truck N' Hustle. About Rahmel Wattley Rahmel Wattley is a transportation entrepreneur and host of the popular trucking podcast, Truck N' Hustle. Rahmel got his start in the trucking business in the early 2000's. After getting his CDL, Rahmel quickly learned that driving was not for him, so he transitioned to a dispatcher role at a small mom and pop trucking company. From there he held a series of leadership roles with increasing responsibilities at several carriers. In 2015, after seeing an opportunity in driver turnover, he started a CDL driver staffing company with a partner. In 2019, Rahmel successfully exited the business and began the Truck N ‘Hustle podcast, which seeks to provide valuable information and resources to the business owners and entrepreneurs of the trucking community. Rahmel is also the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Mega Driver Solutions, a CDL driver staffing company based in the Philadelphia metro area. Rahmel and his team are excited to bring the “Truck N' Hustle” experience to the world stage with the commencement of FreightFest 2022 in Houston, TX. About Truck N' Hustle Truck N' Hustle is the #1 trucking and logistics community in the world. Truck N' Hustle is a community and platform specializing in educating and inspiring trucking and logistics entrepreneurs and their teams. Truck N' Hustle provides the news, stories, resources, and tools for transportation and logistics professionals to be successful in the trucking business. About FreightFest 2023 FreightFest 23, presented by Truck N' Hustle, is an eagerly anticipated event in the Trucking, Transportation & Logistics industry. Taking place at The Hilton Americas Hotel in Houston, TX from September 28 to October 01, 2023, this conference is expected to attract over 1,000 providers from across the country. The event aims to explore profitable industry niches and provide valuable insights from subject matter experts. Attendees will have the opportunity to network and establish meaningful connections while also benefiting from business opportunities. FreightFest 23 offers a chance to scale businesses and take them to the next level. A wide range of topics will be discussed at the conference, including Last Mile Delivery, Dump Trucking, Heavy Hauling, Oil & Gas, Waste Management, Cannabis Transportation, Auto Transport, Air Freight, Freight Brokerage, Government Contracting, Freight Forwarding, Intermodal & Drayage, Truck Repair Services, Freight Factoring, Dry Freight, Refrigerated Freight, SBA & Business Financing, and USPS Postage Freight. FreightFest 23 promises to be an exciting and informative event for professionals in the industry. Key Takeaways: FreightFest 2023 FreightFest 23 is presented by Truck N' Hustle and is a highly anticipated event in the Trucking, Transportation & Logistics industry. The conference will take place at The Hilton Americas Hotel in Houston, TX from September 28 to October 01, 2023. Over 1,200 providers from across the country are expected to attend the event. The main goal of FreightFest 23 is to explore profitable industry niches and provide valuable insights from subject matter experts. Attendees will have the opportunity to network and establish meaningful connections with other professionals in the industry. The conference will also offer business opportunities to attendees, allowing them to scale their businesses and take them to the next level. A wide range of topics will be discussed at FreightFest 23, including Last Mile Delivery, Dump Trucking, Heavy Hauling, Oil & Gas, Waste Management, Cannabis Transportation, Auto Transport, Air Freight, Freight Brokerage, Government Contracting, Freight Forwarding, Intermodal & Drayage, Truck Repair Services, Freight Factoring, Dry Freight, Refrigerated Freight, SBA & Business Financing, and USPS Postage Freight. FreightFest 23 promises to be an exciting and informative event for professionals in the industry. This is the 2nd annual FreightFest conference organized by the Truck N' Hustle community. The event aims to provide attendees with valuable industry insights and facilitate meaningful connections. Learn More About FreightFest 2023 Rahmel on LinkedIn Truck N' Hustle on LinkedIn Truck N' Hustle Podcast on Apple Truck N' Hustle Podcast on Spotify Truck N' Hustle Website Freight Fest tickets and Event Entrepreneurship Conferences 2023 The Truck N' Hustle Story with Rahmel Wattley Sponsor: Tusk Logistics Tusk Logistics is a national network of the best regional parcel carriers that puts Shippers first, with lower costs, reliable service, and proactive support. Tusk save Shippers 40% or more on small parcel shipping. Tusk's technology connects your parcel operation to a national network of vetted regional carriers, all with pre-negotiated rates and reliable, predictable service. Integrating to your existing software takes minutes, and Tusk has your back with proactive shipper support on each parcel, in real time. Episode Sponsor: Wreaths Across America Wreaths Across America Radio - Wreaths Across America Episode Sponsor: Greenscreens.ai Greenscreens.ai's dynamic pricing infrastructure built to grow and protect margins. The Greenscreens.ai solution combines aggregated market data and customer data with advanced machine learning techniques to deliver short-term predictive freight market pricing specific to a company's individual buy and sell behavior. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast Check out The Logistics of Logistics on Youtube

In the latest episode of the “On Air with Air Cargo Next” podcast, Celine Hourcade, founder of Change Horizon, and Gianluca Marcangelo, head of industry relations and marketing at Challenge Group, discuss cybersecurity and digitization ahead of their appearances at the upcoming Air Cargo Tech Summit 2023, set for Sept. 18-19 in Brussels.

Today we will be speaking with Michelle Williams, managing director of strategy and business services at Southwest Airlines Cargo, and Ed de Reyes, chair and chief executive of Sabrewing Aircraft. Each will participate in panel discussions at our second annual Air Cargo Tech Summit in Brussels on Sept. 18-19. 

Podcast: Coffee with Crane S4 - E20 In this Air Market update episode, we'll all find out the current state of air cargo demand, how the industry deals with these figures, and a lot more. To help us untangle all the existing air market news and updates, we've brought back a show favorite! None other than Crane Worldwide Logistics' Regional Director of Airfreight, Christian Nielitz. #CraneWorldwideLogistics #Logistics #SupplyChain #3PL #Warehouse #Freight #Shipping #CustomsBroker #Podcast #Coffee #NewEpisode #Cartage @ChristianNielitz  @CraneWorldwideLogistics   To learn more about #TheCraneWay, visit https://craneww.com/ Script: @Christian Nielitz & Joseph Patrick Host: Joseph Patrick Production: Joseph Patrick

In this Air Market update, we've asked David Gallay to come on to help us with the most recent air market happenings. David Gallay is Crane Worldwide Logistics' Director of Airfreight for the Asia Pacific region. We will discuss air cargo demand, belly capacity, spot rates, and more! Be sure to #Subscribe and hit the Notification Bell so you'll never miss another episode again. #CraneWorldwideLogistics #Logistics #SupplyChain #Warehousing #FreightForwarding #CustomsBroker #LogisticsPodcast #SupplyChainPodcast #AirFreight #AirCargo #AirCarriers #CargoPlane #LogisticsPodcast #Podcast #coffee #interview #NewEpisode #AsiaPacific #APAC #warehouse #3PL  To stay updated, follow #TheCraneWay, and visit https://craneww.com/

Is "climate-friendly eating" a thing? We discuss what makes food carbon-intensive and how to reduce carbon emissions by choosing food that is in season, transported by boat instead of a plane, and grown locally. LINKS Get funding for your food science research: https://en.raps-stiftung.de/ Find out more about the book The Carbon Footprint of Everything More info and links to resources on https://redtogreen.solutions/   Connect with the host, Marina https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidt-marina/ Connect with the host, Frank https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankkuehne/ More info and links to resources on  https://redtogreen.solutions/   Please rate the podcast on Spotify and iTunes!

In this Air Market Update, we've brought back a good friend of the show, The Regional Director of  Airfreight for Crane Worldwide Logistics, Christian Nielitz. We will discuss air freight cargo developments and situations globally, capacity, and some good news! Be sure to #SUBSCRIBE to The Coffee with Crane Logistics Podcast on your favorite player and our #YouTube Channel. And when you do, be sure to hit the #NOTIFICATION bell so you'll never miss a single episode again! At Crane Worldwide. Logistics, our highly-dedicated #PEOPLE, superior customer #SERVICE, and top-tier #TECHNOLOGY differentiate us from all the rest! To learn more about #TheCraneWay, visit https://craneww.com/   #CraneWorldwideLogistics #Logistics #Podcast #Coffee #NewEwpisode #airfreight  #AirCargo #Air #Shipping #Transportation #3PL #Follow #Like #Share #SupplyChain #Warehouse #FreightForwarding #CustomsBroker

#trucknhustle #podcast #trucknhustlepodcast Latina Women-Owned Courier Business; Talks How To Deliver Air Freight, Growing Up In South Central LA, $27M Dollar Goals & More!! Live From Manifest at the Caesar's Forum in Las Vegas, Nevada; Lorena Camargo, CEO and Founder of Pearl Transportation & Logistics. Lorena is a Last Mile and Air Freight Logistics Expert, who has overcome many obstacles on her road to success. She sits down with our host, Rahmel Wattley and discusses her upbringing in South Central Los Angeles; How it changed her life and how she has built a multi-million dollar Last Mile Delivery Service Specializing in Medical and Air Freight! We want to know Your Thoughts on this episode!! Don't forget to Leave Comments on the video and Like and Subscribe as well!! CONNECT WITH LORENA CAMARGO & PEARL TRANS https://pearltrans.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorena-camargo1 https://www.linkedin.com/company/pearl-transportation-services/ https://www.instagram.com/pearl.trans/ https://www.facebook.com/pearltransportation/ hello@pearltrans.com GET EARLY BIRD TICKETS FOR FREIGHT FEST 2023!!: http://FreightFest.com FOR MERCH: http://www.trucknhustle.store FOR EXCLUSIVE CONTENT & MORE VISIT: https://www.trucknhustle.com/ __________ SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!!: OTR SOLUTIONS https://otrsolutions.com/trucknhustle/ CALL (470)900-3338 GTT COMMERCIAL TIRES https://www.gttcommercial.tires/ CALL 1(800)991-6251 __________ MENTIONED ON TRUCK N' HUSTLE PODCAST: DAT POWER - The Industry's Most Advanced Load Board http://www.dat.com/power/0001922618 DAT TRUCKERS EDGE http://www.truckersedge.com/0001922618 DAT EXPRESS http://www.dat.com/express/0001922618 __________ THIS PODCAST WAS PRODUCED, RECORDED, SHOT & EDITED by Kweku KingNabi for Truck N' Hustle Media HERE IS WHAT WE USE: Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro: https://amzn.to/3BwRUYm Rode RODECaster Pro Podcast Production Studio: https://amzn.to/3Bw3cvW Electro-Voice RE320 DYNAMIC MICROPHONE: https://amzn.to/3BuhmxD Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 Art DC HSM Lens for Canon, Black: https://amzn.to/3FMqvUE Godox SL-60W CRI 95+ LED Video Light SL60W White 5600K Version: https://amzn.to/3HqXRtE __________ JOIN THE HUSTLE FAM ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Instagram: http://instagram.com/trucknhustle/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@trucknhustle Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trucknhustle Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tnhmedia/ Discord: https://discord.gg/g8kzDNu7 Twitter: https://twitter.com/TruckNHustle Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Trucknhustle Listen to the TRUCK N' HUSTLE PODCAST: iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/truck-n-hustle-1-trucking-podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/55GP6pfA0RlmtEgNH70d5K _________ NOTE: This description contains affiliate links that allow you to find the items mentioned in this video and support the channel at no cost to you. While this channel may earn minimal sums when the viewer uses the links, the viewer is in NO WAY obligated to use these links. Thank you for your support!

Our guest on this week's episode is Jenny Vander Zanden, chief operating officer of Breakthrough. Shippers are facing many challenges today. There is the world's political situation for one. Another is inflation and the need to diversify. Our guest today offers some insights into the challenges of shippers and what they can be doing to mitigate their risks.The air cargo sector was one of the supply chain transport modes that was the most disturbed by the pandemic. While most of that chaotic period is hopefully behind us, the air freight market continues to see a turbulent path forward. We report on some of the latest numbers and what they mean for the remainder of the year. A recent survey found that most companies remain committed to investing in their environmental sustainability goals, despite economic challenges like inflation and a potential recession in 2023. We look deeper into the research to find out what business leaders are thinking and whether current economic conditions will affect their future commitments to sustainability. DC Velocity's sister publication CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly  offers a podcast series called Supply Chain in the Fast Lane.  It is co-produced with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. The third season of eight episodes has fully launched  and focuses on attracting and retaining labor in our supply chains.  Go to your favorite podcast platform to subscribe.Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:BreakthroughAir cargo demand slumped in 2022 after extraordinary levels in 2021Companies to grow investments in energy-transition solutions and emissions reductionVisit DCVelocity.com for the latest news. Visit Supply Chain QuarterlyListen to CSCMP and Supply Chain Quarterly's Supply Chain in the Fast Lane podcastListen to Supply Chain Quarterly's Top 10 Supply Chain Threats podcastSend feedback about this podcast to podcast@dcvelocity.com.Podcast is sponsored by:  TGWOther linksAbout DC VELOCITYSubscribe to DC VELOCITYSign up for our FREE newslettersAdvertise with DC VELOCITYTop 10 Supply Chain Management Podcasts

Our guest on this week's episode is Dan Gilmore, chief marketing officer at Softeon. Increased demand and fewer available workers during the past couple of years have combined to accelerate the adoption of automation in distribution centers- and material handling companies have responded with a wide range of systems. But what do the end-users of today's automation think about the available technologies? The latest numbers from the Logistics Managers' Index are in. The report reflecting November activity shows growth, but at a much slower pace. What's behind the numbers and what do they reveal about possible growth in 2023?Freight rates were incredibly high the past two years, but have been steadily dropping since Spring. New research shows what is happening in the freight markets and where shippers can expect to see rates for various modes of transit in 2023.DC Velocity's sister publication CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly  offers a podcast series called Supply Chain in the Fast Lane.  It is co-produced with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. The third season of eight episodes has launched with new episodes each Tuesday . The focus this season is on attracting and retaining labor in our supply chains.  Go to your favorite podcast platform to subscribe.Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:SofteonNovember Logistics Managers' Index reportForecasts call for freight rate slumps in 2023Visit DCVelocity.com for the latest news. Visit Supply Chain QuarterlyListen to CSCMP and Supply Chain Quarterly's Supply Chain in the Fast Lane podcastListen to Supply Chain Quarterly's Top 10 Supply Chain Threats podcastSend feedback about this podcast to podcast@dcvelocity.com.Podcast is sponsored by:  ApteanOther linksAbout DC VELOCITYSubscribe to DC VELOCITYSign up for our FREE newslettersAdvertise with DC VELOCITYTop 10 Supply Chain Management Podcasts

The North American inbound supply chain was well-run and extremely cheap before the pandemic brought disruption to the logistics and transportation space. Since the pandemic, the shipping industry had to adapt and is still adapting to this uncertainty. Prices are going up, congestion is at an all-time high, and these we won't recover from these challenges overnight. Join Joe Lynch as he talks to John Murnane about the disruption in container logistics. John is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company. At McKinsey, he is the leader of the logistics sector. So he covers everything from air & ocean carriers to warehousing & fulfillment. Listen and learn more about the shipping industry, shipper & carrier relationships, sustainability, end-to-end shipping, and much more. Find out about the disruption in container logistics and how it can be solved. Disruption In Container Logistics With John Murnane Thank you so much for joining us. Our topic is disruption and container logistics with my friend, John Murnane. How is it going, John.  I am doing great. Thanks for having me. How are you? Excellent. I am glad we are talking about this topic. Please introduce yourself, your company, and where you are? I am a Senior Partner at McKinsey. I am based in Atlanta. I lead McKinsey's Logistics Sector globally with a colleague named Martin Joerss, who is based in Hamburg. Tell us what you guys do over in that McKinsey's Logistics Practice. We call it a sector, but we serve the logistics industry. For us, that is all the different, interesting, fascinating parts of logistics throughout the global supply chain, ocean and air carriers, forwarders, folks doing container leasing, and Marine services. We do a lot of work in ground handling and transport, terminal operators, and rail trucks, both asset-based and brokerage. We also do a lot of work in the warehouse and fulfillment. I serve companies that operate fulfillment, real estate, and industrial developer. We also do Last Mile post and parcel returns, plus all the folks that are in and around that space doing data, transparency, tech, robotics, and all the fascinating, fun companies that are trying to knit it all together. Do you work more with shippers or the actual logistics providers? We work with both. In the group I lead, the logistics sector, we serve companies that make a living in moving stuff around. I have got a number of colleagues in a practice that is adjacent to ours that are in manufacturing and supply chain. Those consultants and partners serve the big retailers and manufacturers who pay to have the goods moved. I do not know what you guys did at McKinsey but it was not so long ago that there was no logistics practice. It was logistics and supply chain or supply chain and logistics or manufacturing supply chain and logistics. It was always the tail end of something else. We have arrived because we have a McKinsey partner who is responsible for watching over us. We have got 100 McKenzie partners that I do not know if we are responsible for it. [caption id="attachment_7990" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Container Logistics Disruption: The pandemic hit the shipping industry in many ways. People started buying a lot more, which meant more containers being moved while the staff was low. There was just a lot of congestion.[/caption]   The business needs some babysitters. Tell us a little bit about you. Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school? Give us some career highlights before you joined McKinsey. I grew up in California, pretty close to the ports of LA and Long Beach, but did not get into logistics. At a young age, I was a Mechanical Engineer at Duke. I worked in entertainment for many years at Disney and the NBA in finance and design roles, which was a lot of fun. It is not as entertaining as logistics. When I got into logistics, it was at McKinsey. I went to Business School at Michigan and then I joined McKinsey. You joke about logistics being the end. I got recruited into the travel and logistics practice because I knew a thing or two about travel. I started serving logistics companies back in the day. This is 2003 or 2004. It was not sexy. Logistics was not quite as hot as it is now, but I found the work fascinating. I liked the people. I got into rail, parcel, and trucking, and then I moved to South America to lead our logistics practice. I was in Chile for three years and then I got into the ocean space and Marine terminals. I have been hooked ever since. It has become more fascinating given all the things that we have seen in the last years, from the eCommerce boom to automation to the push for sustainability and what happened with the pandemic. It is fantastic that you have got that South America experience because I feel like we have had so much stuff in China for so long. I have nothing against China, but it makes more sense to ship stuff from Mexico or South America in general. We do not do nearly that much business with our South American partners who we fully understand compared to China. There are lots of bags coming in and out in a lot of air freight. I was in Chile, which does a lot of flowers and salmon, and exports a ton of copper and minerals. Let's talk about our topic, which is the disruption in container logistics. Why don't you take us back to before there was this disruption? Talk about what was going on in the space back in the day? You hear a lot about underinvestment in infrastructure and “failing” logistics infrastructure in the US. Many years ago, things were working well. If you were a manufacturer or a consumer, you probably had the lowest cost supply chain in the world that was able to get you products from anywhere in the world any time. The cost was quite low and the supply chain runs very well. It is smooth. As such, it was something that a lot of people took for granted. It seemed very opaque compared to now. Many years ago, if you were moving freight, your stuff disappeared into the ocean for three weeks or a month. There is also opaque because no one has looked into it. We have all learned how important it is. I used to serve clients and I did a lot of marketing and sales work, helping people with sales and pricing. I serve clients in logistics. I remember hearing sales executives complain to me. I can't make these value-based arguments. I can't talk about our value prop because I can't get access to anyone that matters. Ten years ago, people had a well-ran, extremely cheap North American inbound supply chain. And they took it for granted. I am talking to a procurement leader four levels down and they do not care about our value. It was opaque because, to some extent, there was not engagement on this topic at the highest levels, and certainly, there is now. Many years ago, you had a well-run, extremely cheap North American inbound supply chain. The infrastructure did not get bad overnight. The pandemic hit us in three ways. One is we all started buying a lot more stuff. We did not spend any less. We stopped spending on travel and restaurants. No new car, no vacation, but I can buy crap online. I can upgrade my house. I did some of that myself. I am in the house more and I invest in doing some things around the house. I got an indoor bike to stay in shape, but we spent 20% more money on stuff. I always call it not your grandparents or great-grandparents pandemic. In the 1920 pandemic, 50 million people died worldwide and there was poverty. We joke that the COVID-19 or 20 that we gained from sitting around eating and buying stuff. That is not to discount all of the misery that it brought, but most of the misery was isolation for us. When you have a situation where there is more volume being purchased, that means more containers and more trucks move. At the same time, global capacity fell by about 14% or 15% over a similar timeframe. If you have been paying attention, that probably feels intuitive. We had people that were sick so we could not stack. We had operations that were shut down at times. We had congestion because people were stacking and storing containers because they could not get them to the next place and they were waiting and also every stage in the value chain. We all saw the earnings releases that talked about, “I am 65% short of the team. I need to operate these warehouses.” They are open, but they are not running anywhere near full capacity. If it is 20% up in demand and 15% down in supply, you have got a congestion problem. On top of it, those increases weren't smooth. If those increases were smooth, our logistics industry might have had a chance, but it was overnight, then it stopped and started again. That made for some challenging times, and you ended up getting what you got, which is pretty poor service, long lines, congestion, delays, and uncertainty where things were. You also have price increases because the companies that were moving the goods were trying to manage to make sure that they were at least taking good care of the clients that were willing to pay the most. It became challenging for our shippers. I do not think it hit the biggest shippers, the Home Depots or the Lowe's. Those guys had contracted rates. They call them the bat phone when they call the shipping companies. They did not all of a sudden get double or triple the cost of a container. They were okay. It was a lot of the other smaller players. You mentioned this spike 20% up in demand, 15% less in capacity, but if you were 20% or 30% off in your headcount in your consulting practice, you could address that internally because you are all a team. This was across a whole bunch of supply chains that are spread out across the world. Communication was always difficult given time zones, languages, and the lack of computer systems. The coordination and fixes were all slow. I was talking to my daughter and she is in Portland. She was excited. She called and said, “The couch that I ordered in October 2021 is going to be here. I forgot what it looks like.” We are all getting used to waiting a little longer than we used to, but it is nice when they arrive.   We still seem to have these shocks every once in a while. Shanghai had more COVID. In the US, we are seeing shortages of headcount in a lot of places, especially in warehousing, dock workers, and trucking. There is a lack of capacity when it comes down to it. [caption id="attachment_7991" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Container Logistics Disruption: The two things to watch to know when congestion and prices will moderate are consumer spending on goods in North America and labor availability.[/caption]   I know everyone wants to know and figure out when this is going to be over. I do not think it is going to be overnight, partially because I do not think that the disruption is going to be over soon. The fact that we have got basically almost no trucking going on in China despite the manufacturing plants being open, but the trucking operation is pretty much ground to a halt. It means we have got days of inventory that are going to stack up and then need to be pushed through the system. The disruption and uncertainty are going to be a part of our new normal. With regard to when the average demand and supply get back closer to where they used to be, it is going to be a matter of consumer spending and labor. We love the idea of things normalizing and getting to a new normal, but we are seeing inflation and other problems. We see the war in Ukraine and the recurrence of issues in China with COVID. We have trade issues with China. In a lot of ways, the new normal is not normal. The new normal is going to change because of events outside of our control of weather or geopolitical. Change is going to be more prevalent in the coming decade than it was in the last few, which is why to some extent, I think we did have that false sense of security that everything was working. We did have a period of relative sanity, which allowed us to fine-tune the system despite its insufficient infrastructure. We talked about the way it used to be pre-COVID years ago and what happened. What is next? What is next is recovery. I think that, in time, we would expect to see supply improve and consumer spending on goods moderate a little bit. We are seeing an increase in consumption of services, which makes sense because there is the ability to do that. My wife works in travel and she has never been busier. People are eager to get back out and travel again. I do not think we are going to see the end of events and discontinuities. Those are two things to watch to tell us when congestion and prices are going to moderate are going to be consumer spending on goods in North America and labor availability. Talk about those shocks. There are many ways we can describe this. We could say our supply chains got a little brittle, meaning they broke rather than being bent. Another way to describe it is we have too many risks in there and a lack of resiliency, depending on how you want to talk about it. We know we are going to have some more shocks in this system. How do we deal with all that? There are a few things. A lot of this is ongoing. It is already happening. We need to stop looking at the supply chain as a simple commoditized part of the operation. It is not a simple call center. It is not something that should be managed by a small team in procurement focused on the cost lever. This is a C-level topic. The supply chain is and forever will be a C-level topic. Shippers need to be thinking about all the things that they can do to accept the fact that the logistics industry will always be more complicated than it used to be. Part of that is more safety stock. I know you are an auto guy. The old just-in-time Math assumed simple, easy commodity-priced trucking and logistics operation. The world is more complicated than that. Certainly, some companies are looking at how I can think about de-risking my supply chain, both in terms of the number of locations that I sourced from, to increase the number so I have more flexibility. If I lose one node, they will be looking at nearshoring and reshoring. The math on those deals is never easy, but they are certainly spending time thinking through that, especially thinking about that in light of new sustainability targets. All of my clients are hearing calls from their clients who are hearing calls from their customers to say, “How can I be more sustainable? How can I meet the new carbon aspirations?” You hit a whole bunch of topics. I want to break them down a little bit. It speaks to where we are at in this business. The first thing you said is this is no longer a small decision. When I used to sell logistics and supply chain services, the way I sold mostly less than truckload in some truckloads, but we had the technology. I remember I would call and say, “I want to talk to the owner, the CEO, the head of operations, or a general manager.” We impact finance because we are going to take some of those functions away. We do it as part of our service. We interface with the sales guys because they are the ones who are always saying, “Where is my stuff?” We work with your ops team on the inbound and we work with your logistics team. A lot of times, when I would call that C-level guy, they would say, “Talk to Tony in the back.” The disruption and uncertainty in the shipping industry will be a part of the new normal. It's not changing overnight. I would go see Tony and back, and he did not want to have a strategic discussion. He did not care if the finance guys had to audit the bills. I said, “We audit the bills because we have a TMS,” and I start my whole spiel. I am going to parody this a little bit. He was like, “Those guys got me Kid Rock tickets.” That is why he bought from that logistics company. He did not have that strategic focus that I wanted my customer to have. One of the things we have all been through is when you call that guy and say, “I want to manage all your freight. I want you to use our technology and you are going to see all of your shipments there. He says "I will give you an Excel spreadsheet with all our loads in it. You put your price in and if you are cheaper, I will give you those lanes tomorrow.” I was like, “I do not want to save you $50 on tomorrow's load. I want to save 10% on your annual spend.” It would be like, “What are you talking about?” The number might have been used to bend. We spend $500,000 a year, which is bad enough to leave it to somebody who does not care about the strategic function of logistics. Now that number got to $5 million, you go, “What the hell, guys?” There is a lot of change on both sides of that transaction that we are going to go through over the next few years. I have a good friend who is a former CEO of one of the container lines. He says, “Enough with this value base. I lose customers for $50 a box. It does not matter how much better we are.” That was the history. In that world, you do not have the right executives in the decision on the shipper side. You do not have the head of sales, marketing, or operations. You have someone in procurement. When you have someone in procurement, they have one metric, which is how they can get the unit costs down. You also need to get better on the sales side. The guys that I work with, the carriers, trucking companies, and railroads, now have an opening to say, “It was not so commodity-based,” but they have got to be able to deliver. They got to be able to go and articulate what they do that is different than the next guy and why that is worth it. I always use the same analogy back in the olden days when we had stockbrokers. They are transactional. You would always hear the term churn. They wanted to churn your account, “I want to sell your Dell stock and move you over to Apple.” They make money on both of those transactions. Those guys did not care about your overall financial picture. They cared about what you had in your investment account. Now we have moved to financial planners. You do not hear anybody say in their stockbroker. Financial planners are aligned with their clients. They say, “We are going to get paid 1% or 1.5% of what you have in your account. I want to make you rich so I can get 1% or 1.5% of that every year.” It is the same thing in this business. We have to switch out of this transactional thinking and move to that financial planner. A lot of companies want to do that. They do not want to be ringing the bell and having the siren go off that they made $1,000 on a transaction and celebrating at the office that day. That is a lack of alignment and it is yesterday's news. You will see more gain share partnerships and relationships like that between carriers and shippers. It takes real change on both sides. This will be the shock that gets the awareness to a place where those things are pursued. Not just between carriers and shippers, but to some extent, between different players in the logistics chains, carriers and ocean terminals, railroads and trucking lines, warehouse fulfillment operators and last-mile parcels. One of the things I want to touch on briefly is the timeout containers. We will get more back to the containers for a second. We started using containers a lot in the late ‘50s and ‘60s. There is a book, The Box That Changed the World. Prior to that, we could not even do global trade because the cost of logistics was so high. That was a tremendous innovation. We have seen this change the world. We would not be doing nearly the global trade we do now without it, but we have not seen a lot of innovation in that space. Now we are starting to see information technology. That is another piece of that. Speak to that and the sustainability that is important to us. The technology has come along in terms of tracking. It is available. You will see more adoption of that, especially in the reefer space, but also in dry boxes. I have seen a lot of startups and investments in foldable boxes and alternative equipment. The main way we are going to get better sustainability on our container fleet is by finding better ways to extend their lives.   I never heard that. We are throwing a lot of those out. [caption id="attachment_7992" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Container Logistics Disruption: 75-80% of containers are leaving LA empty so they can be filled up in China with more goods while there is a shortage. That's because the supply chain has always been an afterthought.[/caption]   We lose track of a lot of them because we do not know quite where they were. Telematics, tracking, and things like that will help there. How long does a container last? There are containers out there that have been in the fleet for twenty-some-odd years. The average is probably closer to 12 to 15. There are all sorts of uses. One of them is use for alternative storage. If anybody from the container ship lines is reading, give me a call and I will deliver you 50 containers. I live about 25 minutes out of Ann Arbor. There are some farms and not quite rural, but I always drive by and think, “What are you doing with that container?” They only need them where they need them. Our supply chain is imbalanced. They need them to pick up soybeans and send those to São Paulo. The fact that they are in Ann Arbor does not help them a whole lot because of the amount of money and time spent to get them down there. Managing that global fleet better and extending its life would be great from a sustainability standpoint. It comes up a little bit on my show about sustainability. Some people might be shaking their heads and say, “I do not believe that the man is causing global warming.” I always say, “I do not care what you think. It does not matter what I think.” This is what consumers and brands are asking for it. When one of those big brands says, “What are you doing?” you better have an answer. It is too late to do anything at that point. You do have to embrace it now. There are a lot of small ways. When it is over the road, we are trying to get rid of empty miles. That starts with measuring the empty miles, which brings me to another point. We were saying that 75% to 80% of containers are leaving LA and Long Beach empty so they can go be filled up in China with more goods for us. Meanwhile, we have a shortage and we have gone mad. It is illogical, but the understandable conclusion from the supply chain is an afterthought. The supply chain has always been an afterthought. It is not designed. It just happened. There are many forces well beyond the global supply chain that decide what is our import and export balance with China and where do we manufacture intermediate goods for auto? There is nothing logistics can do to account for the fact that there is that much import-export balance on goods. With empty backhaul and empty miles within the US, there are a lot of things that the logistics industry can do to help. There are smarter ways to reroute though there are still a lot of empty miles even in the US. I have become more aware of this. There is the empty truck that is moving from LA to New York, and you go, “That should never ever happen.” I do not think that happens nearly as often as it used to, but what is becoming more of a concern is the half-empty trucks and you go, “I had 10,000 half-empty trucks leave this location. Is there a way?” I know there are technologies and the guys over at flock freight and others are saying, “We can do something about it.” The main way of getting better sustainability on container fleets is by finding better ways to extend their lives. We will see more shared loads and multi loads where everyone will call multi-stop, where we are going to say, “That truck is full.” That is good for the environment and truckers. For the shippers, we are going to have to figure that out. We do not want to put I-can't-move-your-food onto a truck with auto parts. We have to be careful about how we manage it with the shippers but I think it is going to lower the price of shipping. Once we are fully loaded with the real cost of all of this stuff, whether it be the drivers, assets, new vehicles, or the autonomous and electric vehicles that we bring in to make a more sustainable fleet, the cost per unit is going to be higher. It is going to put the burden on us to figure out how we can make better use of each of the units. Maybe it is two hours later, but that allows me to share a load and double my density on the chunk move. All of those things can happen in time, but it takes great collaboration between carriers and shippers to make it work. The transparency and tools of the data exist to be able to do it, but it takes tremendous collaboration and trust to get it done. I am going to put you on the spot here. I know you work with a lot of different companies. I want to tick off some standard categories and what kind of work you are doing for these companies. Let's say an over-the-road carrier calls you. What do you tell them these days? What would be a typical project you would work on with them? Over the road, carriers were doing a lot of work and helping them think about how their network is going to change as manufacturers figure out a new supply chain or as we try to start to think about electric vehicles and ultimately autonomous vehicles. Not just how should you think about the timing of those technologies, but what are the network decisions you are making now that will feel sub-optimal in 5 or 10 years because the investments that those companies make in assets and infrastructure are not short-term. We are helping them think about sustainability in terms of how they can help their shippers with their sustainability targets. Those are some of the big themes. Do you talk to any brokers, 3PLs, and non-asset-based? What are you doing for them? Sustainability is a topic for them in terms of how I can provide. I am already helping them knit together. A lot of them are trying to figure out, “How can I knit together solutions across modes? How can I optimize those around sustainability targets?” We are doing a lot of work almost across the board in growth. How do companies find growth? There are a lot of new freight flows that are coming, not just because there are always new freight flows that are coming, but sustainability and the targets that all these companies are taking on are creating a whole lot of new goods to move. We are working with a lot of companies, whether they be asset-light, asset-heavy, broker, truckload, but also parcel and the like. It is like, “Where do you find freight? How do you get it? How do you leverage the tools today to find those companies?” Do you work with Final Mile or Last Mile guys? We do. We work with from a pallet and LTL Final Mile, and heavy goods Final Mile. We do a lot of post and parcel work. We have got a huge practice globally that has done tremendous work in helping drive efficiency in the postal space and parcel as well. They need it.   Those companies are struggling. [caption id="attachment_7993" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Container Logistics Disruption: Once the real cost of all these new things comes, the cost per unit will increase. It's going to take time to manage that. There needs to be a great collaboration between carriers and shippers to make it work.[/caption]   From what I understand, the Final Mile for home delivery to goods is the most expensive part of the journey. I was not being critical of the post office. We want it to be better, but we put a lot of constraints on it, and I think it is the hard part. I do not want a pallet delivered to my house and then distributed all of those parcels to my neighbors. I would like just my piece delivered to my house. Getting my piece delivered to my house is expensive. The costs are getting better relative to the pallet moves because the density of residential delivery has come up so much. Many years ago, the density of residential delivery was terrible. It was hard to make the economics work for the big parcel companies. As our volumes have gone up, that has improved the relative density, but it is still tough. What about warehousing and fulfillment? We have seen so much change in that space. What is going on when you work with them? First of all, permitting and getting sites are extremely challenging. The sites have to be closer to current consumers. If you want a site or the old model of three sites in the middle of nowhere, you can still get that. If you want the sites that people want now, which is one hour or maybe even less outside of every resident in the country, those sites are hard to come by. We do work with developers on construction and permitting on how to do that well and how to forecast and identify where the sites are going and where you need to be. We are also working with operators on how to drive productivity in those sites. We are doing a lot of work on how to refine, recruit, train and retain talent. That is a theme across all logistics. I was talking to somebody about a paint company and they said, “We do not have anyone retire from this location.” It was their DC. The reason they had no one retired from there is because it was a young man's game. He did not want to walk 10 miles picking stuff up and moving stuff around. We have to make that job in the warehouse easier so you are not breaking your back. If you walked by an auto assembly plant and walked through it, you would see that nobody was doing a job that was backbreaking or that required excessive strength, crouching, or reaching. We have eliminated those and we see that same mindset move into fulfillment. Those guys are going to become technicians rather than strong backs. We have had conversations for years about technology in the fulfillment space. Now it is happening. They made fun of us many years ago because it was early and no one had proven all the economics. It was whizzbang cool stuff, but is it having an impact now. There are certain functions that are being largely automated and you are seeing high ROIs. Also, you have got a lot of technology now that is more flexible than it used to be. Building the $10 million conveyance system just for this client and then hoping you retain them is a scary proposition for a fulfillment operator. Having flexible, robotic assets that can move seasonally or move to a new facility if you lose a client. We are also seeing longer contracts which helps. Fulfillment operators are saying, “I do not want to do a three-year deal.” You can't facilities for that and build a location if necessary for a bigger customer. We are trying robots now. This is becoming somewhat like automotive. In automotive, what we learned is if you give me one year, I am not going to invest in it. From a container line standpoint, a lot of people are trying to figure out how to facilitate end-to-end shipping better. The payback cycles on some of those technologies are getting shorter, but it is hard to make many of them work on a three-year contract. We are seeing a lot of fulfillment players and manufacturers agreeing to 5 or 7-year deals or agreeing to co-invest in the technology that they want to offer something that customers can't get elsewhere. Let's circle back to the beginning. What do you talk to about the container people, the guys with the ships, the rail, drayage, and the modal? From a container line standpoint, a lot of them are trying to figure out, “How can I better facilitate end-to-end shipping? I do not know if I want to own all those pieces of the operation.” It does not do me a whole lot of good to get it to the port if it sits in the port. Much worse is it does not do me a whole lot of good if I am sitting at the pilot station waiting to get into the port. A lot of the conversation and work in the container space is, “How do you collaborate with the terminal, the rail operation, and the consolidation or deconsolidation facility to get boxes and get them back?” The whole concept of end-to-end is probably the strongest when you think about container terminals, dray, rail, or trucks. Figuring out how to create more seamless, more partnerships, and share data to do that. In some of those, you see the metrics and the CMAs of the world that are investing quite a bit in buying companies to knit together that offering, They are buying over the road companies here. They made an extra $100 billion or something in those ship lines during COVID. To your point, they are investing in that end-to-end solution. Somebody said this to me and they work closely with one of these companies. They said, “Do not be surprised if we see single-use containers because we do have a trade imbalance with China.” If that container is only going one way and I have to ship it back on a boat that is filled with containers that are empty, somebody might say, “Why am I shipping it back there?” “It is because these are expensive containers.” Do they need to be expensive containers? Could they be less expensive and single-use? I know somebody is going to say, “What about recycling and all that?” There is a design that has to happen here. We got people like John and his team there. They will figure it out. From my perspective, we see it in automotive. Sometimes, you ship back the containers that brought your stuff. Sometimes, you do not because it does not make sense because it is one way. Do you guys work with air freight companies? We do but it has been a challenging and rewarding a couple of years for air freight. The belly players have been tough because they have not had the majority of their capacity with many of the passenger lines, much of the passenger capacity down. The pure freight players have done extremely well. Airfreight was a key enabler and one of the early winners in the pandemic and continues to be. I think the questions on air freight are how can they use advanced analytics to drive even better forecasting of volumes and, therefore, even better service levels and yield management? We think there is a lot of opportunity in the air freight space around advanced analytics and pricing. I heard it from Flexport and the guys over freight ways. One percent of all overseas volume is on air freight, but it is 30% of the revenue. What it speaks to is you are not shipping auto parts, usually on a plane. You are shipping electronics, chips, medicines, and stuff like that that is high value and small. Mostly high density. Value per cubic foot is off the charts. That ratio feels approximately right. I also heard that 50% of the air freight is passenger planes.   That is why air freight prices absolutely skyrocketed. [caption id="attachment_7994" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Container Logistics Disruption: A lot of the work in the container space today is how do you collaborate with the terminal, the rail operation, the consolidation & deconsolidation facilities? It's all about creating partnerships.[/caption]   They were flying anywhere. They moved up first. Ocean container rates have skyrocketed too, but in the air cargo, when your supply chain breaks down at some point, the only option you have is to get it there. It is the last resort for a lot of things and the first resort for high-value cargo. A lot of companies, for the release of the phone, will send enough phones for the first couple of months via air, and then they will send the backup to refill stock via ocean. In a pandemic, it was the first choice. The majority of the global air freight capacity is the belly of the passenger. When so much of our passenger fleet was grounded without anyone to pay for the international passenger move, you lost the belly cargo. I heard somebody use the term preighter, which is passenger freighter. They sometimes took the seats out of planes and filled them up. Other times, they put stuff on the seat that you might have been flying to a conference on. Now, it has got a stack of mobile phones on it. I am going to try and summarize all this and then I want to get some final thoughts before you go into what is new over at McKinsey. The topic is disruption and container logistics. John talked about the steady-state. We will talk about many years ago, pre-COVID, and what happened during COVID, that horrible time with demand spike, capacity down, sick people, and broken supply chains. We learned how brittle our supply chains were. You talked a little bit about what is next and where consumer spending is going. We are spending more on services and a little less on products. We are going to see how the industry reacts to what are still shocks and aftershocks of what happened. We do not even know the implications of the conflict in the Ukraine and inflation. We are better, but we will see. Lastly, we talked about what we learned during this time that logistics is not a commodity and that we have to insist on a seat at the table. We no longer be just a commodity service. John took us through all of the different things he and his team do with their clients. Any final thoughts on this big topic, John? A few final thoughts, two things we did not talk about and one thing I wanted to reinforce. We did not talk about the war in Ukraine. The near-term impact of that has not been huge on the global logistics industry. Carriers have pretty quickly rebalanced their networks in response to that. The long-term impacts could be significant. Ukraine and Russia are large exporters of commodities like wheat, oil and gas. I think we will see a lot of those supply chains shift around. While we are all watching the human tragedy and suffering through it, the near-term impact from a logistics standpoint has not been significant. We have been talking so much about eCommerce. It is going to be omni commerce. You have seen a bit of a drawdown and a correction back. We talked about ten years of eCommerce acceleration in two months. That was true. You have seen brick and mortar make a comeback. Some things are better are bought in person. My kids bought mattresses online and they are like, “We love it.” I was like, “I am going to have that mattress for ten years. I have to lay down on it.” I am not going to look at 5,000 reviews. I love eCommerce, but to your point, some of those shopping experiences are going to have to become experiences, not a pain in the ass experiences. Everyone wants to go to the Farmer's Market or a cool boutique. We have to get back to a cool experience if I am willing to leave the house. For shippers, many of them want to get to a place where they are managing more on Omni channel commerce supply chain. One of the most frustrating parts of the pandemic was when we had out-of-stock items on the website and obsolete items sitting in storerooms in the retail centers. That was painful and was a function of having two supply chains, which is the case for many shippers. They built their old brick and mortar supply chain, then they added a supply attender to eCommerce, and they did not talk to each other. You will see companies now figure out, “How do I have one more flexible Omni commerce supply chain?” There are going to be some variations. There will be times and products where you want to buy online or in-store. Certain companies will have a blend of the two. That is where we are going on that front, which we did not talk about but I think is important. It also needs to be designed. It has to be created. It can't be a bolt-on because we bolted on the gig economy and thought that, “We got an eCommerce solution.” Instacart, Shipt, and some of those solutions for grocery, from what I understand, the grocery store companies are losing money on those and they obviously do not like that. The gig economy stepped up. It is great. We are always going to have it. There's a lot of opportunity in the air freight space around advanced analytics and pricing. We are always going to use it in logistics, but it needs to be managed by logistics guys who are operational experts and good at routing and technology. It can't just be, “Bob down the street buys groceries for the neighborhood. It does not work as the way it needs to.” We are going to see those grocery stores become grocery store/fulfillment centers in some cases or maybe one fulfillment center in the Detroit Metro area that serves all of the eCommerce. Some of those business models will evolve. Even a company as great as Instacart or some of the early applications is adding cost on the top of the already existing flow and retail, brick and mortar, and all that stuff. The ideal way of doing that is to have dark stores that are designed for efficiency and pick, pack, and ship, not for the grocery experience that we have all grown to love. Tell us what is new over at McKinsey and how do we reach out? Do you have any webinars coming up or case studies? We love to have conversations. The best way to get in touch with us is on our website. It is easy to find me or any number of colleagues. You can send an email and we will respond. I will probably get the email. If I am not the right person to talk to, I will find someone else. On the site, we have got an interview with Sanne Manders, the COO of Flexport, which is great. We are putting up content all the time. What conferences are you guy going to?  I know we are excited about TPM in 2023. When is that? TPM is in Long Beach in the early spring every year. It is still a long way away. I do not know what the next conference we have got. We have coming up in May 2022 in Northwest Arkansas. I interviewed a professor from the University of Arkansas, the number one supply chain school carrying Gartner. John, thank you so much for taking the time. Thanks so much for having me. It was a pleasure talking to you. I look forward to keeping in touch. It was my pleasure.    Important Links John Murnane The Box That Changed the World Flexport Sanne Manders https://www.LinkedIn.com/In/JohnPMurnane/  – John Murnane https://www.LinkedIn.com/Company/Mcinsey/ – McKinsey & Company   About John Murnane John advises companies across a variety of industries and continents on their transformation and growth efforts. His broad cross-sector experience ranges from hospitality to global transport—including hotels and airlines, ocean and air freight, and trucking and distribution—and spans the value chain from capital-intensive real estate development to asset-light brokerage and distribution. He advises clients on growth at both a strategic and tactical level including M&A, new product development, value-based pricing, digital sales, and sales force effectiveness.