The Friday Report July 6, 2018
Quick wrap up of a few hot topic newsworthy stories in the supply chain logistics industryDigital Freight Brokerage, Drones and Last Mile Delivery
According to a report by analysts at Frost & Sullivan, the rising costs of last mile delivery and changing consumer demands will move the market towards use of mobile freight brokerage-type solutions. This will place more emphasis on enabling on-demand deliveries using autonomous technologies including delivery bots and drones.Keeping costs under control is a major priority for retailers. E-commerce retailers are continually looking for more solutions and are working on evolving solutions to fit more scenarios including locker boxes, click-and-collect, autonomous delivery solutions and more.
Digital freight brokerage platforms are reducing empty miles by up to 10%. To help lower costs, fleet operators have tried to develop urban distribution centers to increase the efficiency of their last mile delivery efforts to population centers. For their part, retailers are developing compact retail stores. This reduces the amount of the capital expenditures and moves the goods closer to the target population for faster, less costly delivery .
Consumers Sour on Milk under LED Lighting
In their zest to reduce operational cost, many grocery stores have shifted dairy case lighting from fluorescent to LED lighting. According to research by Cornell University reported in the Journal of Dairy Science in January 2018, fresh flavor properties of milk were impaired more frequently by LED lighting than by fluorescent lighting.