FreightWaves LIVE: An Events Podcast

The instability of early-stage COVID-19 vaccines will push the limits of supply chain capabilities worldwide, but as more traditional medicines enter the market, distribution will become easier for many logistics companies and regions of the world, a key figure in DHL’s preparations for the blockbuster shipping event said.At least 10 billion doses of coronavirus vaccine will likely be required to immunize 7.8 billion people worldwide, according to some estimates. More than 220 vaccine candidates are under development, including nine in Phase 3 trials that could be approved in the coming weeks and months.Some drug companies are using new technologies to speed up development, but these vaccines contain a high-protein base and need to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures as low as minus 80 degrees Celsius.“In the initial phases it’s quite plausible we’ll see many shipments that are direct to the point of inoculation,” Larry St. Onge, president of life sciences and health care for DHL Customer Solutions, said in a virtual presentation to the FreightWaves Cold Chain SummitWatchApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As e-commerce sales are projected to hit over $709 billion in the U.S. in 2020 in large part because of the COVID-19 pandemic, logistics companies are focused on last-mile delivery and improving customers’ experience.JT Engstrom, chief strategy officer of FreightWaves, and Lakshmanan Chidambaram, president of the Americas for Tech Mahindra, discussed the evolution of e-commerce over the next two years during FreightWaves’ virtual Last Mile Logistics Summit WatchApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Responding to pressure to be more transparent about their service performance following the major railroad mergers of the 1990s, the freight railroads began providing shippers and regulators weekly data on metrics such as rail car velocity and terminal dwell times.But one measure that they haven’t been providing, asserts an executive at one of the country’s largest agribusiness companies, is how well they’ve been performing against the promise of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), an operating methodology adopted by most of the railroads and one that can have a significant effect on first-mile and last-mile delivery for customers.“As far as a rail shipper is concerned, the game is won or lost in that first-mile, last-mile segment of the supply chain,” said Brad Hildebrand, global lead for rail and barge at Cargill Inc., during a fireside chat Thursday with FreightWaves Senior Staff Reporter Joanna Marsh at FreightWaves Last Mile Logistics Summit. “If that’s not going well, it can have a huge impact on operations.”WatchApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purchase returns and the reverse logistics portion of last-mile delivery have become a focal point as more consumers settle into the lifestyles and purchasing habits that have become the new norm in a COVID world.Consumers’ acceptance of a digital retail channel has provided salvation to many retailers that have seen pandemic-related shutdowns choke off traditional in-store buying. At the FreightWaves Last Mile Logistics Summit on Thursday, Tony Sciarrotta, executive director, Reverse Logistics Association, and Nicholas Isasi, executive VP, DM Transportation Management Services, chatted about some of the issues and best practices used in reverse logistics and processing purchase returns. WatchApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To put the U.S. last-mile trucking market in broader perspective, look at non-U.S. markets. Things are really different over there across the border.In a fireside chat during the FreightWaves Last Mile Logistics Summit, Liftit co-founder and CEO Brian York outlined how his company is growing its last-mile operations in Latin America, which now span Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Ecuador. With Andrew Cox.WatchApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is nothing simple about providing a reverse logistics service, especially for large replacement or return items that do not fit neatly into a small package.However, more U.S. third-party logistics service providers (3PLs) and trucking companies in recent years have found this to be the type of niche service where their expertise can shine.“We have found this especially important to our appliance customers and anyone doing furniture delivery,” Jason Neal, manager of dedicated accounts at Kenco, told Andrew Lockwood, senior manager of solutions design for Suddath Global Logistics, during a virtual FreightWaves Last Mile Logistics Summit fireside chatWatchApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grocery stores in Canada need to invest in robust e-commerce capabilities to prevent a repeat of stock-outs and long delivery delays that disappointed large numbers of customers who opted for virtual shopping at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a food industry expert at the FreightWaves Last Mile Logistics Summit.Canadians are hungry to shop online for food and staples, but the grocery sector’s infrastructure significantly lags demand, said Gary Newbury, who spent 30 years reshaping distribution networks for Gordon Food Service in the U.K. and Canada. WatchApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. Postal Service faces a set of conditions that no other business in the U.S. confronts on a daily basis, and it isn’t helping that its potential and actual competitors get a seat at the table in determining its fate.That was the view of Gordon Glazer, a senior consultant with Shipware LLC and a specialist on the Postal Service. Glazer was interviewed by FreightWaves senior writer Mark Solomon as part of the FreightWaves Last Mile Logistics Summit. WatchApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The head of J.B. Hunt Transportation Services Inc.’s (NASDAQ:JBHT) final-mile operation said Thursday that significant investments must be made in the home delivery of big and bulky items because it is fast becoming the most critical part of the supply chain.Nick Hobbs, who runs the Lowell, Arkansas-based company’s Dedicated Contract Services (DCS) and Final Mile Services operations, said during the FreightWaves Last Mile Logistics Summit that Hunt is aggressively investing in its final-mile network for heavy goods ordered online. That’s because it is a relatively new area and it is critical to its brand and its customers’, Hobbs said. Since the reputations of both brands are at stake, carriers and their customers must invest the time and resources to collaborate for the benefit of the end consumer, he said.The key difference between home deliveries of heavy goods and small packages is that large-format items are typically brought into people’s homes. This requires an entirely new level of interaction that many companies with roots in truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL) services are not accustomed to or trained for.  WatchApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As e-commerce continues to take market share from brick-and-mortar retail, the heavy bulky last-mile market is seeing rapid growth, with reverse logistics as a particularly strong revenue driver.That was one of the takeaways from a fireside chat between Kirby Fine, principal, ATL Partners, and Gordon Branov, CEO of Pilot Freight Services, during the FreightWaves Last Mile Logistics Summit on Thursday. WatchApple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices