It wasn’t that long ago that simply having a sophisticated warehouse management system (WMS) was a major selling point for third-party logistics (3PL) providers. Over time, however, this technology has become commonplace, with just about all 3PLs having their own WMS bells and whistles to advertise.
But, while having a full-featured WMS may no longer be a differentiator for 3PLs, the way a 3PL uses the system certainly can be.
For consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies, efficiency is the name of the game. Your online customers expect faster delivery, while your retailer KPIs continue to multiply and grow in importance. Understandably, many CPG companies struggle to keep up with these increasing demands. In this article, we’ll examine where many companies are falling short, and show you how third-party logistics providers (3PLs) can be invaluable allies in overcoming CPG supply chain inefficiencies.
Warehouse labor is hard to come by. With national unemployment the lowest it’s been in 50 years, there are simply more jobs than there are people to fill those jobs. There is no easy remedy for attracting and retaining warehouse talent in this economy, but there are ways to adapt. Following are some important ways that your warehousing operation can navigate this ‘full employment’ economy.
When there’s not enough supply of a product to meet demand in the marketplace, consumers of that product are negatively impacted until the product is available again. But, what happens when the ‘supply’ refers to the very people responsible for moving products through the country’s supply chain?
As the economy continues to thrive, there simply aren’t enough warehouse workers to fill the number of warehousing jobs available. In this article, we’ll examine the current challenges associated with warehouse recruitment and give you insight into the way some third-party logistics (3PL) providers are handling the situation.
If you’ve been following operations at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in recent years, the trend looks something like this: the Ports continually break new volume records, truck turn times remain high, and officials vow to speed things up. The calls for speed reached a fever pitch in Q1 of this year as freight piled up at the Ports in the wake of U.S.-China tariff announcements. Fortunately for shippers, enhancements are in place to speed container drayage in Los Angeles and Long Beach now and in the future.
For companies of a certain size, there’s an age-old debate over how to best handle transportation services. Is it best to go-it-alone and handle your own transportation through a private fleet? Or, it is better to partner with a third-party logistics (3PL) provider that offers dedicated transportation services? We’ll take a fresh look at these two options in this article while adding a new wrinkle: the option of partnering with dedicated providers that can also offer on-demand transportation.
With the state supreme court’s Dynamex decision, followed by its Senate Bill 1402 (SB 1402), California’s position on the hiring of independent owner-operators by drayage carriers is now firmly established. In short, the state asserts that many of these contractors are not independent after all – and those that claim to be acting as employees of the hiring companies have solid legal ground to sue for wages and benefits.
Many beneficial cargo owners (BCOs) have seen the writing on the wall and are protecting themselves from possible legal and financial penalties by turning away from drayage carriers who engage contractors. Others are not yet reacting, while still others may not even be aware of recent legal precedents. In this article, we’ll get you up to speed on these developments and help you determine whether your prospective carrier’s drivers in California are actually considered to be on that carrier’s payroll or are sub-contractors.
Weber Logistics has been named a 2019 Top 3PL Provider by the editors of Inbound Logistics Magazine.
Drayage is technically just another transportation service. A driver picks up a load and then delivers it.
With port drayage, however, this simple process becomes much more complex. Navigating seaport terminals is a tricky business on a good day and can become extremely difficult as rules change from terminal-to-terminal, or even hour-to-hour. To navigate the ports effectively – and avoid wasting time and money – shippers need to ensure the drayage carriers they work with have a roster of experienced drayage drivers.
If you’re selling online, chances are you’re selling on Amazon. And, if you’re selling on Amazon, you want to be Prime-certified to reach Amazon’s 100+ million Prime customers. These ‘frequent flyers’ spend an average of 1,400 per year[i] on the site.
To become Prime-certified, many sellers go straight to the source and let Amazon handle fulfillment through their Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program. But there is another Prime-friendly option available to you: Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP). In this article, we’ll take a closer look at this Amazon seller fulfillment program and the ways in which it differs from FBA.
