IT’S BEEN A BUSY SPRING IN THE WORLD OF LOGISTICS. SOME
very significant events are afoot that could have profound effects on the
way businesses operate in the not-very-distant future.
Many of those are deliberate efforts by businesses to revamp the way
they deliver products to customers. Others are thrust upon logistics
managers.
Perhaps most significant in the latter category is a development in the
world of trucking: It seems that the driver shortage may be upon us and
that a real capacity crisis is already at hand. Senior Editor Mark Solomon
recently reported on a study by FTR, a consultancy whose monthly index
of trucking conditions shows “unprecedented capacity constraints.” Part
of that was due to bad winter weather, but the firm
expects capacity to remain tight and truckers to have
the upper hand in rate negotiations for the rest of the
year.
The tight capacity is a result of several factors,
including strong demand in a rebounding economy.
Demand will shift over time. But other concerns may
be more ingrained in the industry, the lack of qualified
drivers perhaps most concerning. I’ve been writing
about logistics for more than a quarter of a century,
and the coming driver shortage has been a major topic
at seminars and conferences throughout that period.
But this time, it may be for real. The driver force continues to age. Regulatory changes aimed at keeping
bad drivers off the road—a good thing, of course—
have shrunk the pool of available drivers. In his story, Solomon reported
that even Walmart, which operates an enormous private fleet, is having
a hard time filling its driver slots.
Other news we’ve reported recently suggests logistics operations in
the U.S. are on the cusp of enormous change. Another logistics giant,
Amazon, is reportedly making major shifts in its fulfillment operations—
including the development of a private fleet to serve its top 40 markets,
which comprise about half the U.S. population. That speaks to some
important changes in the way businesses—retailers, in particular—meet
customer demand. Which brings us back to Walmart and its response to
the omnichannel revolution that’s sweeping through the retail industry.
Walmart announced recently that it has shifted responsibility for the
backroom in 3,288 supercenters from store management to its logistics
division. That may evoke a yawn from most of the world, but for those
of us who work in or write about logistics, that is a major development.
The skies may be safe from unmanned drones making deliveries—
that’s still far off. But in the meantime, the ground may be shifting under
our feet right now.
bigpicture
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