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Re. Good Question: What fictional character or historical figure would you put in charge of global vaccine logistics and distribution? bit.ly/ILGoodQuestion_vaccine_lead
MUNCH On This
Strong e-commerce sales combined with recovering business-to-business (B2B) demand is driving more need for delivery services. The situation will likely constrain last-mile capacity further as B2B fully recovers throughout the year. It would not be a surprise to see UPS follow FedEx in
Dagny Taggart from Atlas Shrugged
—Reader Email
Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series
—Kerry L. Lohrman President, Sales Engineering System
raising its peak surcharges soon. To ensure last-mile capacity and on-time delivery, shippers need to
diversify their providers. Besides FedEx, UPS, and the USPS, shippers need to consider regional small-parcel carriers, crowd-sourced platforms, and alternative solutions such as lockers and third-party pickup locations. —John Haber Founder & CEO, Spend Management Experts, on FedEx increasing peak surcharges Version 1.0 of the MassRobotics autonomous mobile robot (AMR) interoperability standards will have a tremendous impact on the industry. The standards enable AMRs from multiple vendors to work together to support safe and efficient operations in factories, warehouses, distribution and fulfillment centers. This improved communication from AMRs to any existing technology will allow greater flexibility in these environments, speeding up the supply chain as a whole to maximize throughput. —Daniel Theobald CEO of Vecna Robotics and co-founder of MassRobotics, on the supply chain implica- tions of new AMR interoperability standards
Lunch bowl with IL ’s April feature, “Supply Chain Technology: The Age of Acceleration.” —Frank Mullens @FrankMullens
Re. Robots and People: Co-Evolving bit.ly/IL_checkingin_0521
ICING ON THE CONTENT CAKE Can online articles be assigned “classic” status? Whatever the answer, we consider this one bit.ly/3PL_Knot from IL way back in 2010 to be essential reading, covering exactly why we make the distinction between fulfillment part- ners and simple service providers. —Capacity LLC
Your May 2021 Checking In makes a point that people need to hear: Automation is not a 100% win. The irrational craze for self-driving trucks is better pursued as technology to help a human driver make decisions. And even in that, some of the “help” issues harsh and startling alerts to drivers, which is not consistent with safe driving. —Danny R. Schnautz Clark Freight Lines
10 Inbound Logistics • June 2021
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