The main cause is e-commerce growth, which globally has increased 30% year over year, <\/span>according to Bloomberg<\/i><\/span><\/a>, which also <\/span>reported physical sales on Black Friday of this year dropped by 52%.<\/p>\n Some of the accelerating forces driving this are the natural increase in activity due to the holiday season, the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, current outbreaks of COVID-19 keeping people at home, and consumers being accustomed to shorter lead times.<\/span><\/p>\n The U.S. Department of Commerce said online sales now account for 14% of all sales<\/a>. The upward trajectory has skyrocketed since the pandemic.<\/p>\n The impact may not be as severe as Jindel forecasted, as logistics leaders started increasing seasonal employment in preparation for the online onslaught. UPS reported it would add 100,000 seasonal workers, FedEx 70,000, and DHL 10,000. FedEx also acquired ShopRunner, an e-commerce site focusing on clothing that offers two-day deliveries.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe acquisition, once closed, aligns with our continued efforts to create an open, collaborative e-commerce ecosystem that helps merchants deliver seamless experiences for their customers,\u201d said Raj Subramaniam, FedEx president and CEO.<\/span><\/p>\n The United States Postal Service also hired ShipMatrix to support its operations with marketing, communication, and IT.<\/span><\/p>\n In the last week, though, there have still been delays. UPS told drivers to cease pickups at retailers including Macy\u2019s, L.L. Bean, and NewEgg, an online electronics provider,\u00a0<\/span>according to the Wall Street Journa<\/i>l<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The USPS has also experienced delays. Truckers in Cleveland reported<\/a> delays up to 15 hours, while in Louisville<\/a>, a business called JSO Wood Products said customers were waiting on packages for more than a month.<\/span><\/p>\n In a statement, USPS said: \u201cThe Postal Service is experiencing significant volume increases, while at the same time employee availability has been reduced due to the impacts of COVID-19. We are flexing our resources to process and deliver the mail as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While the name Shipageddon, and these anecdotal occurrences, hint at a dark and foreboding future, logistics experts really see this moment as just the latest inflection point for a world changing from the physical to the digital. It\u2019s a sign not of the end, but the beginning. And that logistics companies must radically shift their e-commerce strategies.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCompanies thought that they had three years to execute on e-commerce growth, because of the way that it was coming in, where we went from 8% to 10% to 12%,\u201d explained Drew Ehlers, Zebra Technologies’ global futurist. \u201cBut now all of a sudden, this pandemic hit, and we’re in the 30 to 60% range, depending upon the month, typically averaging out around 43%. People don’t have three years anymore; they’ve got six months.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Zebra offers technology solutions such as SmartPack Trailer<\/a>, a suite of sensors and software deployed at the trailer and loading docks to help give shippers and receivers better visibility at the loading dock.<\/span><\/p>\n For example, a camera at the distribution center door can peer into the trailer and use machine learning to guide cargo stackers on how to safely and efficiently build their walls of boxes to optimize fullness. This ensures fleets with limited capacity due to higher demand and fewer drivers, due to the general trucking industry shortage exacerbated by COVID-19 infections, can still fulfill their service-level agreements. Amazon, for example, has to hit those two-day lead times, or its standing with its Prime members wanting that air fryer in 48 hours will take a hit.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDeploying solutions such as this can help alleviate some of [the current issues] by allowing them to ship more goods and less time,\u201d Ehlers explained. \u201cIf your typical efficiency rate is around 85%, and you’re able to get that in the high 90s, and you add that up over a full workday, you’re able to eliminate one truck per day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n A better understanding of inbound and outbound trailer visibility should also mitigate increased demand.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAsset utilization is going to be incredibly important \u2014 knowing where it is, or where it isn’t, whether it’s picking up something or if it\u2019s deadheading bank or bringing back a load from a supplier, all those things need to work in synchronization today,\u201d said Mark Stanton, general manager at PowerFleet for Industrial<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n PowerFleet provides a technology suite to track tractor health and location, trailer assets, and the products within them, along with coordinating the receiver end.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey may have a very, very good inbound scheduling system, but if they don’t have a tracking system as to where the trailer is in the yard and what\u2019s in it, there’s a there’s an opportunity for something to go wrong,\u201d Stanton said.<\/span><\/p>\n Having the distribution center aware of a temperature increase on a refrigerated truck could allow them to expedite offloading to prevent the loss of 1,000 frozen turkeys, Stanton said.<\/span><\/p>\n PowerFleet also provides insights into driver hours of service via electronic logging device (ELD) data, which will alert management to any potential compliance violations.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to make sure that information is available to the back office so that they can try and make some educated decisions,\u201d Stanton said.<\/span><\/p>\n Merchants Fleet<\/a>, one of the top 10 fleet management providers in the U.S., is helping its 3,000 fleet customers meet the increased demand and pressures from COVID-19 by providing mobile fueling and light maintenance to increase uptime. The company, which has grown 30% YOY, will send subcontractors out to the lot at the end of the workday to fill up vehicle tanks and perform fluid changes and tire work. This allows its clients to focus on their customers as opposed to servicing their trucks.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCOVID has pushed e-commerce through the tipping point to cross the chasm,\u201d noted Merchants Fleet CEO Brendan Keegan, who doesn\u2019t think the strain on shippers will end on Christmas Day.<\/span><\/p>\n He said January returns and COVID-19 spikes from holiday gatherings are likely to extend Shipageddon. The long-term impact could be more fleet-building.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe expect in the coming years for a number of retailers and other high-volume shipping companies to go into the fleet space,\u201d Keegan said.<\/span><\/p>\n He believes seasonal rentals and leases, \u201cfleeting up and fleeting down,\u201d may a popular strategy, as \u201ca tremendous amount of [Merchants Fleet] clients\u201d have done just that. The company offers short-term leases for the last mile, short-to-long-term options, and consolidated leaseback programs.<\/span><\/p>\n Using telematics will also be paramount to fleet strategies. \u201cStart to leverage your fleet data, and identify what some analytics drive your decisions for 2021,\u201d Keegan said. One example is using route optimization data to find the highest density areas where the fleet operates, to better allocate drivers, and to potentially erect new distribution centers and hubs.<\/span><\/p>\n Even after the pandemic subsides, e-commerce will keep going strong, Keegan asserted, offering the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: \u201cThe mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Keegan\u2019s teenagers, for instance, have no context for waiting more than 48 hours for a package, and therefore would resist longer lead times. \u201cThe question really starts to become in Q2, Q3, and Q4, when we come out of COVID, how many of those minds have been changed forever?\u201d Keegan pondered.<\/span><\/p>\n Accenture reported three out of four consumers will make online holiday purchases this year, with 43% doing so exclusively. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n by John Hitch<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Source: https:\/\/www.fleetowner.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The audit is a key tool to know the overall status and provide the analysis, the assessment, the advice, the suggestions and the actions to take in order to cut costs and increase the efficiency and efficacy of the fleet. We propose the following fleet management audit.<\/p>\n The pandemic, economic recovery and holiday season have swirled into a perfect shipping storm that is putting more stress on both the shipper and receiver. Earlier this fall, ShipMatrix president Satish Jindel predicted the U.S. would see a shortfall of 7 million packages per day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The media dubbed the deficit \u201cShipageddon.\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[331],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9146,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9144\/revisions\/9146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ecommerce](\"https:\/\/base.imgix.net\/files\/base\/ebm\/fleetowner\/image\/2020\/12\/us_commerce_dept_2011_2020_ecommerce.5fd11582676d2.png?auto=format&fit=max&w=1440\")
Ecommerce sales as percent of total quarterly sales: Q1 2011 through Q3 2020<\/span>Graph: U.S. Department of Commerce<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\nSolutions<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/base.imgix.net\/files\/base\/ebm\/fleetowner\/image\/2020\/12\/zebra_smartpack_trailer_cam.5fd22469baa32.png?auto=format&fit=max&w=1440\")
The Zebra SmartPack Trailer solution uses machine visioning to identify the safest, most efficient way to stack boxes in a trailer.<\/span>Screenshot: Zebra<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\nCUT COTS OF THE FLEET WITH OUR AUDIT PROGRAM<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/04\/nueva-ley-auditoria.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"