When a disaster strikes such as the current COVID-19 outbreak, it’s a time when your business will truly need the support of its supply chain partners. Many 3PLs are showing that they will go to great lengths to ensure the continuity of customers’ operations. In this article, we’ll look at some of the ways your 3PL can keep your products flowing during this crisis – and what you can do to help.
If your company produces or markets food and beverage products, the safety and integrity of those products mean everything to your business. It’s ill-advised then to entrust key components of your supply chain to just any 3PL. With product safety and integrity in mind, we examined 5 things to look for in a food warehousing provider in our previous blog post. In this article, we’re going to move things out of the warehouse, onto the loading dock and into the trailer as we examine 5 things you should be looking for in a food-grade carrier.
When you entrust your food and confectionery products to a food warehousing provider, you’re relying on that company to be much more than a provider of space. You’re really relying on them to be a partner that will work to protect the integrity of your products through every step of the supply chain. And, while every 3PL warehousing company will promise to be just that, you must find one that truly “walks the walk.” In this article, we identify 5 things that you should look for in a warehousing provider before entrusting them with your food or confectionery products.
Carriers are having a rough go of it as of late. The truck driver shortage has left them scrambling to find new drivers to fill seats vacated by those retiring, leaving the industry, or switching jobs. There just aren’t enough new drivers to fill the void.
In most parts of the country, carriers can augment their company driver force with independent truck drivers (“owner-operators”) to fill in service gaps. When it comes to logistics in California, however, this has become difficult due to regulations and landmark court decisions that alter the way drivers are classified in the state. In this article, we’ll examine some of these and explain why the ramifications ultimately affect shippers just as much as carriers.
Chemical Logistics 3PLs in California: Telling the Experts From the Imposters
The three states that border the Pacific Ocean are home to 48 million people, with the states just slightly inland adding millions more to the population of the “Western U.S.” With such a sizable chunk of the U.S. population residing in these Western states, West region distribution is a vital part of the supply chains of companies whose products originate in the Central and Eastern U.S.
In recent years, however, multiple factors – the truck driver shortage chief among them – have made long-haul truck runs to the West Coast increasingly unreliable and inefficient. The response of many companies has been to focus less on shipping West and, instead, store products in a West Coast distribution center operated by a third-party logistics provider (3PL).
We’re coming to the end of 2018 and preparing for 2019 – and you know what that means: year-end “best of” lists. And, while our list may not be as entertaining as the “top 10 movies of 2018” rankings you’ll see in your social media feeds, we hope that you find it valuable. Here, we present the three Weber Logistics blog posts that were most popular among our readers in 2018.
Growing from 100 orders per month to 15,000 per month. For most companies, that’s a dream come true. But if you have the wrong solution in place for eCommerce order fulfillment, that’s a dream that may never materialize. Here at Weber, this type of quick growth spurt can, and has, happened with eCommerce order fulfillment clients. The only way to handle it is to have an operation that can seamlessly scale to meet the uptick in demand.
When considering all the costs involved in getting your containerized goods from port to market, it’s easy to think of all the “big” things that drive up your spend. These big-ticket items include your ocean carrier, drayage, and warehousing costs.
As your container makes its way through your supply chain, however, there’s a smaller – but cumulatively significant – cost that is likely eating away at your margins: the chassis rental fee. In this article, we’ll examine key ways to reduce this fee and improve the profitability of your operation.
I just finished reading the results of the latest annual Warehouse and Distribution Center Operations Survey (Peerless Research Group). One of the clear takeaways was that companies need to take cost out of operations, but they are carrying out warehouse efficiency initiatives that don’t involve major investments in systems and equipment.
How can you preserve your capital while still driving costs out. Consider a “back to basics" approach to warehouse operations, whether you are a shipper or third-party fulfillment company.
