I’m sure everyone’s Facebook feed has been jammed with friends and family members (and links to celebrities) taking the ice bucket challenge. For those of you who don’t know what the ice bucket challenge is, I’ll explain. If you are challenged, you have 24 hours to either dump a bucket of ice water on your […]
This Week in Logistics News (August 16 – 22)
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Bridging the Gap in Inbound Transportation Mastery
As businesses look to implement supply chain efficiencies, the ideal of what should be done often conflicts with the reality of what can be done. Nowhere is that conflict experienced more than when businesses attempt to master their inbound transportation. The promise of combining inbound and outbound freight to leverage volume for improved service and […]
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How Can Shippers Deal with the Capacity Crunch?
ARC was briefed by Mike Mulqueen of Manhattan Associates on their transportation management (TMS) product. Mike is a Senior Director for Product Management at Manhattan. What I found most interesting was a short conversation we had about the carrier capacity crunch and the role various supply chain software solutions can play in improving matters for […]
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ROI is Driving TMS Growth
ARC Advisory Group conducts an annual analysis of the global transportation management systems (TMS) market. The research process includes the analysis of large amounts of information and interviews with executives from numerous TMS software companies. The process concludes with the publication of ARC’s TMS Global Market Research Study, which analyzes the market shares across numerous […]
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Creating Transportation Visibility
No, this is not yet another article about capturing network milestones or establishing better carrier connectivity, but rather the more strategic issue of how companies can raise the visibility of transportation within the domain of corporate initiatives. I recently attended the American Shipper Executive Summit in New York City and early in the agenda, Eric […]
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Using a Transportation Management System to Resolve Capacity Issues
MercuryGate’s User Conference 2014 was in New Orleans last week. MercuryGate, of course, is a best of breed provider of transportation management systems (TMS). At a conference sponsored by a TMS supplier, you would expect much of the talk to center on the freight savings that can be achieved with a TMS; and this was […]
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Construction Site Logistics Are Improved Through the Use of Mobile & Routing Solutions
US LBM is a privately held collection of 13 leading building materials distributors, serving in 11 States with more than 70 locations. The company has grown by acquiring regional distributors as well as through organic growth. The regional distributors have a great deal of autonomy and retain their own names. So, for example, in the […]
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Bridging the Gap in Inbound Transportation Mastery
As businesses look to implement supply chain efficiencies, the ideal of what should be done often conflicts with the reality of what can be done. Nowhere is that conflict experienced more than when businesses attempt to master their inbound transportation. The promise of combining inbound and outbound freight to leverage volume for improved service and […]
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The Dissolving Silos – The Convergence of 3PLs, Brokers, Carriers
The logistics service provider (LSP) market landscape is undergoing a titanic shift. The traditional boundaries between brokers, carriers and 3PLs are blurring, particularly in the small- to mid-sized LSP market. Many of these companies are experiencing a blending of the time-honored functions that once separated these distinct service providers. Many of the larger companies, due […]
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Energy Department Forecasts Cheap Diesel in 2015, but Don’t Assume Savings in Your Transportation Budget!
The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast on Wednesday that diesel fuel prices, which averaged $3.92/gal in 2013, are projected to fall to an average of $3.82/gal in 2014 and $3.38/gal in 2015. Unlike most commodities, transportation contracts often have built-in fuel cost indexing, called fuel surcharges, to cover increases and decreases in fuel costs. Those […]
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The Next Generation of TMS Helping More Carriers Become Comprehensive Logistics Service Providers
As shippers and service providers move beyond the now outmoded concept of the “supply chain” (which never really matched the complex realities of surface transportation within North America), they are finding that traditional boundaries between asset and non-asset-based providers are quickly disappearing. Next generation technology solutions are enabling virtually every supply network participant to broaden […]
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When did Supply Chain Solutions Become Mature?
I am not sure exactly when it happened, but one day I woke up and realized that supply chain solutions such as warehouse management systems (WMS) are finally considered “mature” software applications. Being in the logistics Industry for 45 years, this was quite an epiphany for me. I spent my early years working with companies […]
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Combating the Driver Shortage Problem with Transportation Optimization
North America is facing a huge shortage of truck drivers, and the problem is expected to get worse. In order to continue moving product, trucking companies are pushing more and more freight onto the rail system, but that solution is not sustainable as it is also showing signs of being at capacity. Service in both […]
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Sleepy’s Uses Route Planner to Improve Landed Percentage and Customer Satisfaction
Last week, I spoke with Donald Rowley, CIO at Sleepy’s. Headquartered in Hicksville, NY, Sleepy’s is a privately owned mattress retail company with 1,000 stores and 2,900 employees. The company sells mattresses and bedding accessories through its showrooms, website, and call center. Donald and I spoke about route planning and the impact it can have […]
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What Type Of Relationship Do You Have With Your TMS Provider?
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, relationships of all kinds are celebrated (or scrutinized) this month. For us in the transportation technology world, that means examining the importance of network connections and the value of collaborating with all members of the supply chain when it comes to evaluating a transportation solution. More importantly, why is […]
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A TMS Implementation in the Auto Industry
I had the opportunity to speak to Miguel Ramirez, Logistics Cost Implementation Lead, from Sisamex at the Oracle Value Chain Summit. Sisamex has had an interesting journey with the Oracle Transportation Management (OTM) solution. Sisamex, headquartered in Mexico, is a joint venture between Meritor, a Tier 1 supplier of automotive components, and Grupo Quimmco, a Mexican industrial […]
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Survey says: Non-asset sector a leading battleground in search for faster growth, healthier margins
Asset-based transportation firms continue to aggressively diversify their businesses, according to the recently completed 2014 TMW Transportation and Logistics Study. Not surprisingly, many view the brokerage/non-asset category as a promising new growth opportunity. The results of our latest survey also highlight the improved financial performance enjoyed by many transportation service businesses over the preceding year. […]
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The Next Generation of Location Aware Supply Chain Applications
It has long been possible to build a geofence and detect when an inbound carrier was 20 miles out from a warehouse. But warehouse managers, and transportation planners are busy. What good would those notifications do? These managers and planners don’t have time to look at every carrier notification and examine whether that truck will […]
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TMS: Rail vs. Truck Makes a Big Difference
While many in the public are familiar with the sight of big rigs crisscrossing the nation’s highways and pulling in to store parking lots to make deliveries, millions of dollars worth of goods are transported round the clock by rail as well. Rail may be less visible, but it’s critical to the supply chain for […]
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Weakening Euro Impact – Enterprise Software Market Declines in Fourth Quarter 2014
ARC Advisory Group tracks the enterprise software market on a quarterly basis. We track the revenues of fifteen prominent publicly traded enterprise software companies, translate financial results reported in foreign currencies to US dollars using an average exchange rate for the given reporting period. The suppliers’ reporting period for this analysis is the quarter ended December, […]
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