2025 Inbound Logistics Perspectives: 3PL Market Research Report

2025 Inbound Logistics Perspectives: 3PL Market Research Report

Amid policy shifts and uncertainty, geopolitical volatility, and fast-rising new technology solutions, third-party logistics (3PL) providers are adopting and evolving to serve the changing needs of their clients. The 2025 Inbound Logistics 3PL Perspectives report highlights how recent adjustments are shaping 3PL services and operations, while also revealing shifts in the diverse shipper landscape they […]

4PL: Definition, How it Works, and Benefits

4PL: Definition, How it Works, and Benefits

Global supply chains are no longer simple. Businesses now manage hundreds of moving parts across multiple countries, from sourcing to shipping orders, tracking inventory, and handling freight forwarding. Distribution and fulfillment centers serve as strategic hubs in the supply chain, where inventory is stored, managed, and shipped to optimize logistics efficiency. Without the right system, […]

Circular Supply Chain: Definition, Components, and Benefits

Circular Supply Chain: Definition, Components, and Benefits

Linear supply chains no longer meet the needs of today’s global economy. High waste, resource shortages, and frequent supply chain disruptions make it harder for companies to operate efficiently. Businesses need smarter systems that recover value and reduce dependence on finite resources. A circular supply chain offers a better way forward. As part of the […]

NOTED: Supply Chain Highlights

NOTED: Supply Chain Highlights

Stay informed with this month’s top supply chain highlights: from innovative AI‑powered automation and major M&A moves to sustainability milestones and workforce trends shaping logistics today. insights from Inbound Logistics.

Outrun the Bear™: Building a Smarter Response to Supply Chain Disruption

Outrun the Bear™: Building a Smarter Response to Supply Chain Disruption

  Q. What concerns do shippers have in today’s climate of disruption and uncertainty? A. The number one concern today is visibility. Whether it’s cost transparency, shipment tracking, or understanding service performance, companies are asking: “Where’s my freight, what’s it costing me, and is my provider being fair?” This concern is especially urgent in times […]

Adapting Your Supply Chain to Mitigate Risk and Volatility

Adapting Your Supply Chain to Mitigate Risk and Volatility

Q. How are companies adapting their supply chains to current conditions? A. In today’s market, companies are reshaping their supply chains to boost resilience and efficiency amid disruptions like geopolitical tensions, inflation, and shifting demand. A key focus is diversification, with firms reducing reliance on single regions by expanding supplier networks across multiple countries. Many […]

2025 Top 100 3PLs

2025 Top 100 3PLs

Successful supply chains hit a high note when 3PLs lay down the rhythm. These Top 100 third-party logistics providers don’t just move freight and provide warehousing; they’re the drummers of industry, setting the tempo for global commerce and ensuring every beat drops on time.

Walmart Bets Big on Drones

Walmart Bets Big on Drones

Walmart is banking on drone deliveries to continue dominating both the last-mile delivery sector and the broader retail industry. This drone strategy is long-term and based on Walmart’s research showing that younger consumers (ages 18-35) are the most likely to use drone delivery services. Younger consumers, accustomed to organizing their lives around iPhones and apps, […]

Freight Fraud: 5 Ways to Mitigate Risk

Freight Fraud: 5 Ways to Mitigate Risk

Freight fraud is becoming increasingly commonplace across the U.S. supply chain. In fact, 72% of respondents to a 2024 Transportation Intermediaries Association survey experienced at least three different types of fraud—everything from phishing and brokerage scams to cyberattacks, and fraudulent inbound phone calls and text messages.

Unlocking Revenue Growth With AI

Unlocking Revenue Growth With AI

In the modern service economy, businesses face growing pressure to deliver value-driven customer experiences while maximizing profitability. Yet, many organizations remain tethered to outdated tools and manual processes that hinder operational efficiency and scalability.

Rare Earth Elements: What’s the Drill?

Rare Earth Elements: What’s the Drill?

While rare earths are not exactly “rare” (even the rarest of these elements, thulium, is 125 times more common than gold), these critical metals present tricky supply chain challenges and opportunities for companies to mine:

Types of Cargo: Key Factors, How They’re Transported, and Handling Requirements

Types of Cargo: Key Factors, How They’re Transported, and Handling Requirements

Cargo means goods or products moved from one place to another for cargo transportation. In the shipping industry and global trade, understanding different types of cargo helps optimize how goods reach their destination. Businesses rely on shipping companies and logistics companies to handle bulk cargo, liquid bulk cargo, general cargo, and more. Proper transport vehicles […]

Fantasy Farms and Fintech: A Blooming Success

Fantasy Farms and Fintech: A Blooming Success

Each year, Fantasy Farms grows more than 50 million stems of flowers across its own farms and by working with qualified growers in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Mexico. The company regularly supplies 8,000-plus retail locations and 30,000-plus locations during major holidays.

Supply Chain Resilience: What It Is, Common Disruptions, and How to Build

Supply Chain Resilience: What It Is, Common Disruptions, and How to Build

Supply chain resilience refers to a company’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover quickly from unexpected disruptions. Businesses now face constant challenges like natural disasters, geopolitical risks, and the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These events expose weaknesses in even the most efficient supply chain models. Supply chain leaders are under pressure […]

Enter: A Warehouse Robot with Finesse

Enter: A Warehouse Robot with Finesse

“Numb and dumb” no more, the new Vulcan robot from Amazon features a capability that has eluded robotics: a sense of touch. The result? Tangible benefits for order fulfillment.

NOTED: Supply Chain Highlights

NOTED: Supply Chain Highlights

GOOD WORKS: DHL Global Forwarding successfully transported the world’s first mobile heart clinic for children to Burundi. The mobile clinic provides life-saving cardiovascular surgeries for children with congenital heart diseases.

The Best Mapping Software for Location Intelligence

The Best Mapping Software for Location Intelligence

Choosing accurate mapping software is essential for businesses that use location intelligence. This field has seen steady growth. The global market is projected to reach $63.8 billion by 2032, with steady demand from retail, logistics, and urban planning.  Maptive stands out as the best mapping software for location intelligence due to its precision, speed, and […]

Hawaii Logistics: Maintaining the Island Flow

Hawaii Logistics: Maintaining the Island Flow

Keeping cargo movement flowing to and from Hawaii’s multiple locations requires logistics savvy, specialized experience, and inter-island ingenuity. Call it Aloha spirit or pure persistence; these providers go the distance for every shipment.

Vendors vs Suppliers: The Differences and Why It Matters

Vendors vs Suppliers: The Differences and Why It Matters

Vendors and suppliers are both business entities that play different roles in the supply chain. Suppliers provide raw materials, while vendors sell finished products to other businesses or the final customer, operating in distinct capacities depending on the products’ use and sales channels. The key difference lies in what each business entity provides to the […]

How Year-Round Demand Is Reshaping OTC Supply Chains

How Year-Round Demand Is Reshaping OTC Supply Chains

Cold and flu season is no longer confined to the winter months. For manufacturers of over-the-counter (OTC) cold and flu products, this unpredictability is forcing a fundamental shift in how, and where, supply chains are built and maintained.

Digital Marketplaces Transform Special Equipment and Commercial Vehicle Procurement for Optimized Logistics Operations

Digital Marketplaces Transform Special Equipment and Commercial Vehicle Procurement for Optimized Logistics Operations

In contemporary logistics, where every element of the supply chain demands maximum efficiency, the management of specialized equipment and commercial vehicle fleets is critically important. From ensuring timely raw material deliveries to efficient distribution of finished goods, the availability of appropriate and readily accessible equipment defines the continuity of business processes. Nevertheless, traditional approaches to […]

Rural Retailer Reroutes the Final Mile

Rural Retailer Reroutes the Final Mile

Customer service has always been a top priority for Blain’s Farm & Fleet, a family-owned, modern general store rooted in the traditions and culture of the Midwest. When the outcome of a decision to offer same-day delivery for online holiday shopping exceeded all expectations, the retailer decided to offer the option year-round.

Operational Risk Management: Core Principles and Practices

Operational Risk Management: Core Principles and Practices

Modern business operations face rising complexity from cyber threats, supply chain issues, and failed internal processes. Each mistake or delay increases risk exposure and disrupts performance. Without a structured system, risks multiply fast and often without warning.

Global Supply Chain: What It Is, Importance, and Challenges

Global Supply Chain: What It Is, Importance, and Challenges

Studying the global supply chain reveals how products move from raw materials to finished goods across multiple countries. It connects manufacturing operations, distribution, and customer demand in a vast worldwide system. Many global supply chains involve complex steps and working relationships with foreign suppliers to meet the needs of international customers. Breaking down how global […]

What is Linehaul: Definition, How it Works, and Importance

What is Linehaul: Definition, How it Works, and Importance

What is a line haul? It refers to the transport of goods between two points, such as cities, ports, or even warehouses. Line haul transportation covers the long-distance part of the shipping process. It moves freight between hubs like sorting facilities or distribution centers, with the final destination being the endpoint of the shipping process, […]

UPC Meaning: What It Is, Types, and How to Get

UPC Meaning: What It Is, Types, and How to Get

Running a business today means staying organized, especially when selling products globally or across online marketplaces. Mismanaging items leads to errors, confusion, and lost sales. That’s where understanding UPC meaning becomes essential. A UPC—short for Universal Product Code—is a unique number and a type of bar code used for product identification. The barcode symbol, which […]

Beyond Reshoring to Regionalization

Beyond Reshoring to Regionalization

Recent and ongoing tariff discussions have some supply chain leaders rethinking their global supply strategy. While this has led many manufacturers to consider reshoring, an alternate strategy is growing around regionalization and rightshoring.

IN BRIEF: New Services and Solutions

IN BRIEF: New Services and Solutions

Providing air capacity on key trade lanes, CEVA Logistics launched a trans-Pacific charter program connecting Wuxi, China, to Chicago. Offering three flights per week, the Wuxi-Chicago charter is designed to accommodate a range of cargo types, including industrial equipment, electronics, oversized cargo, ecommerce goods, and apparel.

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: Drones

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: Drones

From conducting inventory counts with accuracy to completing last-mile deliveries with precision, these drones take flight in the supply chain space.

TMS: Time to Ditch the Spreadsheets

TMS: Time to Ditch the Spreadsheets

Outdated tools can’t keep up with today’s global supply chain demands. A modern transportation management system (TMS) turns complexity into clarity, cuts costs, improves service, and transforms shipping from a manual chore into a strategic advantage.

How to Manage Lead Time With Machine Learning

How to Manage Lead Time With Machine Learning

The impact of lead time variability on supply chain management is a critical factor impacting operational efficiency, cost management and service delivery. Lead time involves decisions that determine optimal inventory levels, when to place orders and how much to order, stocking policy, available-to-premise calculations, supplier performance and supplier selection.

Create Efficiencies for B2B and D2C Fulfillment with Unified Warehousing

Create Efficiencies for B2B and D2C Fulfillment with Unified Warehousing

Q. What is unified warehousing? A. A unified warehousing network seamlessly handles both your B2B and D2C orders under one roof. Consolidating your inventory into one location eliminates the need for redundant stock across separate warehouses. This reduction in overall stock levels translates directly into lower inventory carrying costs. With all products housed in one […]

Supply Chain Pocket Change?

Supply Chain Pocket Change?

As a company’s supply chain network evolves over time, information needed for adaptive efficiency becomes isolated in hard-to-find data pockets. In those instances, data required to drive modern efficient operations is isolated and not instantly accessible—usually housed on old world siloed spreadsheets. Do you have supply chain data points in hidden pockets? Modernized business operations […]

What is Supply Chain Forecasting? Best Methods, Benefits, and Challenges

What is Supply Chain Forecasting? Best Methods, Benefits, and Challenges

Uncertainty hurts business. When companies don’t know what’s coming next, they overstock, underdeliver, and miss sales targets. Poor planning can wreck supply chain operations, increase costs, and frustrate customers. Supply chain forecasting refers to the process of predicting demand, supply, or pricing for products within an industry, using data from suppliers to anticipate stock availability […]

What is LIFO? Definition, Benefits, and Real World Use of Last In, First Out

What is LIFO? Definition, Benefits, and Real World Use of Last In, First Out

Inventory valuation shapes how businesses report profits and manage taxes. The LIFO method—Last In, First Out—assigns the cost of the most recent purchases to the cost of goods sold, often reducing taxable income when prices rise. LIFO is one of several cost flow assumptions used in inventory accounting to determine how inventory costs are allocated […]

How to Modernize Your Warehouse Without Starting Over

How to Modernize Your Warehouse Without Starting Over

Q. If I want to improve my warehouse performance, do I really need a brand-new facility or a full retrofit? A. Not at all. That’s one of the biggest misconceptions out there. Companies often think they need to spend heavily on a new facility to upgrade with automation or increase capacity—but that’s usually because they’re […]

How to Make Floor Loading An Efficient Shipping Option

How to Make Floor Loading An Efficient Shipping Option

Few things are more costly than having empty space in your shipments. Floor-loading can help make each load more efficient compared to pallet loads, deflating the amount of air in each trailer. The majority of container imports are floor-loaded to maximize each expensive shipment. While palletized loads are more common in domestic shipments, floor loading […]

Warehouse Success: Speed Up, Spend Less

Warehouse Success: Speed Up, Spend Less

When managing today’s warehouses, velocity and value are non-negotiable. From predictive AI to flexible robotics, warehouses are cutting costs and accelerating fulfillment without breaking the bank—or the back. Here’s how smart strategies and lean tech help companies gain ground by moving faster and spending smarter.

NOTED: Supply Chain Highlights

NOTED: Supply Chain Highlights

GOOD WORKS: The CMA CGM Foundation will produce and deploy 10 PharmaBox units, which enhance access to medicines and healthcare in numerous humanitarian crisis zones across Africa. The units will be installed in Chad, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, and Mozambique, with deployment to be adjusted as humanitarian needs evolve.

Improving Visibility for Automotive Rail Shippers

Improving Visibility for Automotive Rail Shippers

Advanced technologies powered by AI and machine learning are being applied to the location, condition, and status data generated by some 1.6 million railcars moving across the North American network every day. Here’s how automotive shippers can now turn rail logistics into a competitive advantage.

AI-Driven Planning Connects StarTech.com to Supply Chain Clarity

AI-Driven Planning Connects StarTech.com to Supply Chain Clarity

StarTech.com, which offers hardware that helps information technology professionals solve connectivity and business challenges, has grown during all but two of the 40 years it has been in business. “We’re optimistic about the future,” says Ted Wenger, the company’s vice president, operations.

75 Green Supply Chain Partners

75 Green Supply Chain Partners

From the highway to the warehouse, from the skies to the docks, these 75 standout companies don’t just provide supply chain solutions—they’re moving the needle on sustainability.

Will More U.S. Companies Turn to Nearshoring to Diversify Supply Chains in the Next Five Years?

Will More U.S. Companies Turn to Nearshoring to Diversify Supply Chains in the Next Five Years?

Nearshoring will accelerate as companies respond to climate risks, economic uncertainty, and shifting trade policies. Tariffs and global disruptions are pushing businesses to reassess supply chains for greater resilience and efficiency. In today’s fast-moving environment, nearshoring strikes the right balance between speed, risk mitigation, and cost. –Mita Gupta Executive Vice President and Global Business Unit […]

Inventory Planning: What It Is, Importance, and Challenges

Inventory Planning: What It Is, Importance, and Challenges

Running out of stock or holding too much inventory can ruin profit margins, cause customer dissatisfaction, and throw operations off balance. Businesses that ignore planning often face lost sales, cash issues, and wasted storage space. Whether managing a retail store, manufacturing line, or online shop, one thing is clear: inventory planning is not optional. Smart […]

Top 20 Essential Fleet Management Strategies for Maximum Efficiency and Safety

Top 20 Essential Fleet Management Strategies for Maximum Efficiency and Safety

  Managing a fleet without a clear plan often leads to chaos—higher fuel costs, increased vehicle downtime, and frustrated fleet managers. Strong fleet management strategies act as the foundation for smarter, safer, and more cost-effective fleet operations. These strategies cover everything from vehicle maintenance and driver behavior to fuel efficiency and operational efficiency. With the […]

Inventory Forecasting: Formulas, Methods, Benefits and How to Implement

Inventory Forecasting: Formulas, Methods, Benefits and How to Implement

Running out of stock during peak demand or wasting money on unsold goods can hurt both profits and customer trust. Many businesses face this challenge because they don’t forecast their inventory needs correctly. That’s where inventory forecasting steps in. Companies use different methods like EOQ and ROP to enhance their inventory management, incorporating both quantitative […]

Logistics Risk Management: What It Is, Types, and Implementation

Logistics Risk Management: What It Is, Types, and Implementation

Unexpected events can derail even the most efficient logistics network, making risk management in logistics essential. From natural disasters to supplier delays, risks pop up without warning. That’s why logistics risk management is no longer optional—it’s essential. Companies today face supply chain disruptions that can impact everything from raw materials to customer satisfaction. Identifying potential […]

Retail Stores as Fulfillment Hubs; Logistics Trends to Watch; Women Thrive in Manufacturing; other Supply Chain and Logistics News

Retail Stores as Fulfillment Hubs; Logistics Trends to Watch; Women Thrive in Manufacturing; other Supply Chain and Logistics News

Retail’s Big Shift It’s official: Retailers are no longer just merchants; they’re experts at building logistics networks. Leading retailers are transforming stores into fulfillment hubs, cutting costs while speeding delivery. That’s the consensus from Manhattan Associates’ 2025 Unified Commerce Benchmark for Specialty Retail—an analysis of 220 retailers across seven industry segments, evaluating 300+ customer experience […]

Generation AI?

Generation AI?

Generative AI, or Gen AI, refers to a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content. But I am hijacking the term. In the way that Gen Z, Gen X, and Gen Y refer to different generations of Americans, I’m redefining Gen AI as the generation who are conversant in artificial intelligence and applying […]

IN BRIEF: New Services and Solutions

IN BRIEF: New Services and Solutions

Hyster expanded its lineup of configurable, high-capacity electric forklifts. The Hyster J230-400XD series offers load capacities from 23,000 to 40,000 pounds and 24-, 36-, or 48-inch load centers.

Urban Warehousing: What It Is, Characteristics, and Benefits

Urban Warehousing: What It Is, Characteristics, and Benefits

Last-mile delivery has become a serious challenge for many businesses. Online shopping is growing fast, but getting products from warehouses to customers in urban areas is harder than ever. Roads are packed, customer expectations are high, and delays lead to lost sales. As cities grow and e-commerce booms, the demand for effective urban warehousing solutions […]

What Is a Consignee in Shipping?

What Is a Consignee in Shipping?

In every international shipping process, someone must take ownership of the goods once they arrive. That person or business is known as the consignee, who must be present to accept the shipment. The consignee’s address must be accurately mentioned on shipping documents to ensure smooth transactions and deliveries. So, what is a consignee? A consignee […]

Supply Chain Disruptions: How They Happen, Industries Affected, and How to Manage

Supply Chain Disruptions: How They Happen, Industries Affected, and How to Manage

Empty shelves. Factory delays. Missed delivery windows. Supply chain disruptions have become more than just industry talk—they’re now everyday realities with direct consequences for businesses, customers, and the global economy. When supply chains break down, the ripple effect reaches every part of operations, from raw materials stuck at borders to finished goods delayed at ports. […]

Consignee vs. Consignor: Their Key Shipping Differences

Consignee vs. Consignor: Their Key Shipping Differences

In every freight shipment, two key roles drive the process: consignor and consignee. Without them, no shipment would reach its final destination, and no freight carrier could move cargo efficiently. A consignor is the party sending the goods. Ownership of the goods remains with the consignor until payment is made. The consignee does not own […]