SPIRAL CONVEYING.
STRAIGHT UP.
As the market leader in spiral
conveyors in the logistic industry we
think of solutions for handling cases &
SKU’s. It’s what we do.
At AmbaFlex it’s not just about
building the right equipment, it’s
about developing a special solution
for you. Here’s to spiral conveying.
Spiral elevators for goods-to-man
systems, picking modules and sorting
systems.
BY AMBAFLEX | WWW.AMBAFLEX.COM
38-001_ADV_packaging_AW_MHPN.indd 1 24-01-14 13: 32 48 DC VELOCITY JULY 2017
www.dcvelocity.com
whereas initially when it wasn’t so concentrated or there
wasn’t the volume, you had no choice but to rely on parcel
or even LTL.”
CAPACITY ALLOCATION CHALLENGES
Given the dynamic nature of omnichannel fulfillment,
where orders can be pulled from anywhere, there will be
increasing pressure to execute proper load planning so
carrier capacity can be effectively allocated. “The challenge
for us will be getting good capacity in all the right places,”
said Craig Stoffel, Werner’s vice president of global logistics. Werner’s fleet will focus on the linehaul part of the
move—known as the “middle mile”—before tendering the
goods to a network of last-mile delivery providers. Stoffel
said the company has assembled a network of 200 locations
to support the initiative.
Demands by consumers and businesses for faster delivery
will require greater focus on cross-docking, where goods
dropped off at a dock are quickly reloaded onto another
vehicle without the product’s entering a warehouse or DC.
XPO Logistics Inc., the Greenwich, Conn.-based transportation and logistics service provider that operates what
it says is the industry’s largest last-mile network with 12
million deliveries a year, leverages its cross-dock function
to examine products and make any needed modifications,
said Will O’Shea, senior vice president, sales solutions, for
the company’s Last Mile unit.
XPO is testing the integration of its contract logistics,
LTL, and last-mile operations and is working to compress
delivery times for larger items to one to two days from the
current five- to six-day window. XPO is a top player in
all three segments, which O’Shea said gives it a leg up in
the last-mile space compared with rivals that are just starting out. XPO has said it hopes to roll out the service by
year’s end.
The cross-dock model could be expanded on a collab-
orative basis, with goods being brought in on behalf of
multiple retailers and then placed on so-called straight
trucks, vehicles with standard dimensions and “lift-gate”
devices that raise and lower items between ground level
and the level of the vehicle’s bed. “Why would each one
of those [retailers] have its own discrete method of final
mile?” asked Alex Stark, senior vice president, marketing
for Kane Is Able Inc., a Scranton, Pa.-based LTL carrier and
third-party logistics service provider (3PL). “They should
pool their sales and leverage an enabler to execute to the
consumer.”
Stark also suggested that truckload and LTL carriers
consider tapping into the pool of straight trucks controlled
by rental outfits such as U-Haul that might otherwise sit
unused. “What if truckload and LTL carriers contracted
out with those companies to provide last-mile service
within a geographic region?” he said. “That would be an
excellent example of collaboration and shouldn’t cannibal-
