Datex Blog 

Sales of Plant-Based Meat Alternatives Soar During COVID-19 Pandemic Although many meatpacking plants are up and running, thousands of workers have tested positive for coronavirus and some have died.  Although meatpackers have invested more in worker safety to reduce...

Amazon Announces $4 Billion in Spending to Ensure Worker Safety In response to employee complaints and concerns about COVID-19 infecting its workforce, Amazon recently imposed over 150 industry-wide safety protocols and changes to its facilities and warehousess to...

With the advent of the COVID-19 outbreak, the world has had to re-engineer daily life, developing new processes for meeting everyday needs, working from home environments and outlasting a virus that continues to befuddle researchers, scientists and medical...

USDA to Launch Farmers to Family Food Box Program to Feed the Hungry Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has initiated a part of the federal response to those suffering from COVID-19 outbreak food challenges.  The new $3 billion plan named “Farmers to Family Food Box...

COVID-19 Meat Processing Woes Lead to Increased Demand for Meatless Meat With the recent COVID-19 outbreak impacting meat processing plants across the nation, American consumers seem to be developing a taste for plant-based food products.  Beyond the meat shortages,...

Macy’s Anticipates Reopening All Its Stores within 6 Weeks Anxious to get back to business, Macy’s announced that it would reopen 58 of its retail stores on Monday, May 4th in states that have eased stay at home restrictions.  This includes Georgia and South...

Leveraging Its Logistics, Amazon Opens PPE Store to Healthcare Workers, First Responders and Governments Without much fanfare, Amazon opened a nonprofit store to provide personal protection equipment and needed medical supplies for the fight against COVID-19.  Known...

First, consumers and professionals in the pharmaceutical industry feared that the trade wars would cause supply chain disruptions.  Now, a more insidious risk has emerged, one more challenging to conquer.  In this challenging time of the COVID-19 outbreak, many...

New Tech Tools Ease Shortage of Overnight Rest Areas for Truck Drivers Two companies, Trucker Tools and TruckPark announced that they have formed an alliance to aid truck drivers in finding safe parking facilities for overnight stays.  Trucker Tools is a technology...

SOLVED:  The Great Pandemic Toilet Paper Mystery According to companies that produce toilet paper including Proctor & Gamble and Georgia Pacific, there is no actual shortage of toilet paper, even though demand currently exceeds supply.  Although paper goods are...

Chinese Tariffs Continue on Medical Equipment Recently 160 businesses and organizations wrote a letter to the White House to request a suspension in tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of goods imported from China.  Analysts and industry associations are concerned...

Coronavirus Disrupting Supply Chains According to a new survey by the Institute of Supply Chain Management, nearly 75% of companies are reporting supply chain disruptions due to coronavirus-related transportation restrictions. The survey also reported that over 80% of...

What is a 4PL? A 4PL is an outsourced service provider that manages the warehousing, inventory, fulfillment, transportation and logistics on behalf of its clients, often the entire supply chain from the production line to the point of final distribution.  4PLs, also...

Cost and Complexity Still Plague Retail Industry Retail logistics is mired by inefficiencies and unnecessary costs.  Today, ground transportation, fulfillment and retail logistics are all being reconfigured to better serve the retail industry.  Last mile delivery...

Cargo Thieves Continue to Target Trucks in Transit A recent report by international transport and logistics insurer TT club and supply chain intelligence firm BSI indicates that 87% of cargo thefts involved trucks in 2019.  This is up by 3% over the previous year and...

Blue Collar Worker Shortage Turns Severe  The younger generation is eschewing trade school and apprenticeship opportunities, turning instead to college for white collar jobs.  The agriculture, mining, manufacturing, construction, transportation and supply chain...

As of February 13th, 60 million people in China have been quarantined to prevent the spread of the dreaded coronavirus.  For those of you keeping a close eye on the situation to make informed decisions, here is a real time coronavirus COVID-19 global case tracker by...

How Macy’s Plans to Change Its Old, Siloed Supply Chain Model Before the advent of ecommerce, Macy’s viewed the supply chain as transactional.  This meant that its primary focus was in moving goods from point to point while optimizing costs at each point along the...

The highly complex pharma life sciences industry seems to be constantly changing.  To keep up with the pace of change, ensure regulatory compliance and meet the needs of patients and drug manufacturers, pharma manufacturers have ramped up outsourcing to 3PLs and other...

Recall of Contaminated Surgical Gowns Results in Cancelled Surgeries Industry giant Cardinal Health recently announced two voluntary recalls for surgical gowns.  In January, Cardinal Health advised healthcare providers to cease utilization of some specific types of...