LOGISTICS INDUSTRY UPDATE in 3 MINUTES. We give you a quick recap on key transportation news.

Reactions to the new infrastructure bill…

Now that the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill has been passed by the House, it heads over to Congress. They are hoping to clear the budget bill by the end of 2022 so that they can start to get to work on implementing it. The whole supply chain could benefit from work being done on the railroads, roads, and tunnels that need to be built and repaired. However, there is also some strong opposition and pressure that the spending should be done appropriately and where it can actually have impact for our country.  This package was created with the intention to help pave the way for a much more modern and resilient logistics network. Let’s see where this heads.

More on this topic: https://www.ttnews.com/articles/us-senate-debate-social-infrastructure-build-back-better-budget

Black Friday lost its glimmer…

For the first time ever, the online spending on Black Friday went down. Plenty of people turned up to shop online but the $8.9 billion this year was less than the $9 billion consumers spent in 2020. The Thanksgiving Day sales were flat and in-person shopping wasn’t much better. More people went shopping in person but it still isn’t back at where it was pre-pandeminc level!

Source: https://www.supplychainbrain.com/articles/34169-black-friday-spending-fell-for-the-first-time-ever

Get ready for full automation…

In the past, the complexities of full-truckload automation have inspired many companies to focus their efforts elsewhere. However, the plethora of supply chain disruptions we’ve all experienced in 2020 and 2021 have made logistics automation a must moving into the future.

API integrations with carriers have allowed for full-scale automation on the less-than-truckload side for years, but automation has been much trickier on the full-truckload side. “With capacity constraints, we are starting to see some really cool capacity tools that help brokers start to automate on the full-truckload side.” said Sean McGillicuddy, Tai Software’s Vice President of Sales.

Another exciting innovation in logistics automation is centered on broker outreach. The ability to automatically offer the right loads to the right carriers dramatically reduces mismatching loads.

We, at Simple Logistics, have partnered with some of the top automation providers in the logistics marketplace and we are also building our own tools. Our goal is to automate tasks, so we can elevate our employees and our carrier/customer relationships.

Ports are slowly unclogging…

As everyone is getting ready for the holiday season, it seems like all you see on the news is how backed up the U.S. ports are. While two of the nation’s busiest ports, Los Angeles and Long Beach, say they are making progress clearing up the tens of thousands of shipping containers that have been backlogged at their facilities, there is some good news. “Amid the array of challenges facing the supply chain, we continue to deliver more cargo than ever,” Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said. Even though October was slower than October or 2020, the Port of Los Angeles has processed 22% more cargo volumes year-to-date than year ago levels. And the Port of Oakland had its slowest month in October but was also up 14.7% for the year compared to last year.

However, experts believe that the delays in shipments are likely to continue into next year. Because of shipping delays at the ports compounded with the ongoing shortages of truck drivers, products are arriving later which is creating a domino effect throughout the supply chain.

Source: https://www.ttnews.com/articles/ports-report-high-volume-holiday-shopping-gears

The bottom line…

When you work with Simple Logistics, you know you’re working with a team who is on top of the Logistics Industry Transportation topics and executing solutions that can streamline and simplify your logistics. We do the hard stuff for you – we make it SIMPLE!

Talk with our supportive and available logistics team about how to prep for your shipping needs.