16 DC VELOCITY JULY 2018 www.dcvelocity.com
newsworthy
go figure …
$2.10
The cost of each “last-mile” urban delivery
that is consumed by labor—or three-fourths
of a typical shipment’s total cost.
SOURCE: BERNSTEIN RESEARCH, A. T. KEARNEY
Canadian logistics software developer Descartes
Systems Group Inc. has bulked up its portfolio of
cross-border e-commerce management tools by
acquiring Velocity Mail, a provider of mail and
parcel scanning and tracking solutions for the air-freight sector.
Waterloo, Ontario-based Descartes paid $25.5
million for Velocity Mail, a Denver company whose
electronic network connects commercial airlines
and their logistics partners with government postal
authorities around the world, the firms said in a
statement.
Global air carriers use Velocity Mail’s network
to leverage mobile devices to track shipments
and deliveries in real time, Descartes said. The
platform automates the shipment process from
route generation to accounting reconciliation, simplifying operational processes for the air carriers,
ground handlers, and postal authorities, according
to Descartes.
Descartes said it plans to merge Velocity Mail with
its Global Air Messaging Gateway. That combination will allow air carriers to use a single platform to
manage the lifecycle of shipments, including e-com-merce-focused mail and parcel shipments as well
as larger freight shipments, according to Descartes.
“The growth of e-commerce has fueled an
increase in the market for Velocity Mail’s solutions,”
Ken Wood, Descartes’ executive vice president of
product management, said in a statement. “Global
air carriers need to have access to timely and reli-
able information about the movement of mail and
parcel shipments to operate efficiently and meet
postal authority service-level agreements.”
“This is right in their sweet spot. They are acquir-
ing a company that helps them grow their net-
work,” said Steve Banker, vice president of supply
chain services at ARC Advisory Group, a Dedham,
Mass., management consulting firm.
Descartes acquires airline mail
tracking firm for $25.5 million
XPO’s new U.K. DC for Nestlé to
double as provider’s automation
test lab
Transportation and logistics provider XPO Logistics Inc. will
partner with Swisslog Logistics Automation to build a warehouse in the U.K. for Swiss food and beverage giant Nestlé S.A.
that will use sorting systems and robotics to handle Nestlé’s
inventory.
Greenwich, Conn.-based XPO plans to use the facility predominantly for Nestlé’s consumer packaged goods business.
However, it will also serve as a “test bed” environment for new
technologies and prototypes before XPO releases them to other
warehouses around the world, the firm said.
Scheduled for completion in 2020, the 638,000-square-foot
distribution center will be located at the SEGRO East Midlands
Gateway Logistics Park in Leicestershire, U.K., near highway,
airport, and rail terminal facilities, XPO said. The company did
not disclose the cost of the project.
The facility will include collaborative robots, indoor drones,
and advanced sortation systems, all of which will be developed
in collaboration with automated warehouse equipment vendor
Swisslog, XPO said.
The project follows XPO’s use of an articulated robotic arm
made by the French automated handling and storage systems
maker Alstef Automation S.A. at a facility in France that XPO
manages for snack-food giant Mars. XPO has also launched a
cloud-based warehouse management system (WMS) platform
called “WMx” that it said will support the quick launch of
robotic DCs.
Midwest supply chain management company SBS Group
has acquired a new 440,000-square-foot distribution center
in the IPT Tacoma Logistics Center at the Seattle/Tacoma
port complex. SBS says the new space will allow it to offer a
dedicated linehaul service from Seattle to Minneapolis and
Chicago beginning this summer. … Retailer Ikea is breaking ground on a new DC in Montréal that will enable it to
compete in the e-commerce market in both the U.S. and
Canada. The company has selected SSI Schaefer to implement an automatic shuttle warehouse design that utilizes
the SSI Schaefer 3D-Matrix Solution, a high-bay warehouse
with 245,000 pallet storage locations, ergonomic multi-or-der-picking workstations, and the supplier’s WAMAS warehouse control software. … Supply chain services provider
WDS has added 100,000 square feet of warehouse and
distribution space at its Savannah, Ga., hub.
ground breakers
