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Q: How is technology changing the scope of services 3PLs offer their clients?

Q: How is technology changing the scope of services 3PLs offer their clients?

A: As a third party logistics (3PL) provider, our job is to provide our customers with the solutions necessary to bring their products to market and, in the process, manage their customer experience. Mobile technology is changing the way in which we operate and now demands us to be quicker and more responsive. No longer is this an 8-5 industry, instead the introduction of e-commerce is transforming our operations and demanding around the clock transparency. It is now equally important to quickly fulfill orders, creating a positive experience for the end customer.

Where our service offerings used to be to only fulfill shipments, now technology allows us to choose the best transportation option to fulfill omnichannel orders, optimizing freight spend for our customers and ensuring the end customer receives their order in a timely manner. Information technology is also driving supply chain visibility from the point of origin all the way through to consumption. Internet of Things challenges us to have later cutoffs and lockouts because there is a greater emphasis placed on the ability to respond quicker to order fulfillment.

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Roofing shingles

We are currently mid way through Hurricane season which the Carolinas know only too well after Hurricane Florence came ashore over their communities.

With that in mind, our parking lot and all available yard space is completely full of Owens Corning Roofing shingles as overflow for OC in anticipation of Hurricane season.  Currently, we have around 6900 pallets on hand and load/unload approximately 20 flatbed trailers each day.

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Increase in our Bonded space

We also offer customs bonded space, which seems to be an increasing demand as goods received from other countries can delay duty (taxes) until the goods are actually sold.

What is a Customs bonded warehouse?

A Customs bonded warehouse is a building or other secured area in which imported dutiable merchandise may be stored, manipulated, or undergo manufacturing operations without payment of duty for up to 5 years from the date of importation.

Upon entry of goods into the warehouse, the warehouse proprietor incurs a liability for the merchandise under a warehouse bond. This liability is generally cancelled when the merchandise is:

  • Exported
  • Withdrawn for supplies to a vessel or aircraft
  • Destroyed under CBP supervisions; or
  • Withdrawn for consumption within the United States after payment of duty.
 

Advantages of Using a Bonded Warehouse

Duty is not collected until the merchandise is withdrawn for consumption. An importer, therefore, has control over use of his money until the duty is paid upon withdrawal of the merchandise. If no domestic buyer is found for the imported articles, the importer can sell merchandise for exportation, thereby eliminating his obligation to pay duty.

Many items subject to restrictions may or may be stored in a bonded warehouse. Check with the nearest CBP office before assuming that such merchandise may be placed in a bonded warehouse.

Duties owed on articles that have been manipulated are determined at the time of withdrawal from the bonded warehouse.

 

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Increase in our LTL business

The LTL business for Laney & Duke Logistics is increasing as more customers are catching on to the process and realize the savings we can offer them through volume discounts.

LESS-THAN-TRUCKLOAD (LTL) is the primary mode of transportation utilized by businesses that ship 1 – 7 pallets of freight to one location Nationwide or Worldwide.By combining logistical services large savings can be made.

For a quotation follow this link: https://www.laneyduke.com/less-load-quote/

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Laney Duke approaching the Holiday Season

At Laney Duke we are heading into the holiday season, which means more volume and more deliveries to Amazon beginning the first week of October though the end of January. 

Several customers increase their inventory levels within our facilities in anticipation of increased sales.  This requires routine meetings to discuss ways to creatively maximize our space to accommodate current customers and address new business as well.

Laney & Duke work with Amazon to store and fulfil orders. We also fulfil orders and offer pick n pack services to businesses just like yours.

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Millennials Upset E-Commerce Assumptions

The common assumption that millennials only shop online and avoid brick-and-mortar merchants just doesn’t fit their behavior patterns, according to a survey from a Texas A&M Transportation Institute researcher.

The purchasing behavior of millennials — who now account for about 25% of the population — impacts freight policy, trade, economic trends and infrastructure, said Sarah Overmyer, assistant transportation researcher at TTI, who presented her results at the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting here.

She disputed the notions that millennials are glued to their smartphones, rent a place in a city and need immediate delivery of their online purchases, and pointed to delivery trends to make her case.

“If this were true, cities would be more congested. And if [millennials] made all their purchases online, it would disrupt freight patterns,” Overmyer said. “If they did demand ASAP delivery, then trucks would be performing gymnastics to respond.”

And the growth of e-commerce has a direct bearing on the trucking industry. In the third quarter of 2017, retail e-commerce sales in the United States came in at $115.3 billion, a rise of 15.5% from the same period in 2016, according to the Census Bureau. E-commerce sales in the third quarter accounted for 9.1% of all retail sales. To better understand millennial e-commerce purchasing, Overmyer conducted a panel survey of 1,310 18- to 34 year-old Texans, gathering demographic data and questioning them on their shopping preferences and online behavior.

Online shopping was part of their everyday lives as 68% of those surveyed said they had received an online package in the past week. However, 75% of those packages had arrived three days or more after ordering.

That shoots down the assumption on immediate delivery, Overmyer said. Further, only 45% of those surveyed were members of the Amazon Prime service that promises two-day delivery on certain purchases.

And most millennials, 75%, made purchases both online and in-store; just 14% were online only shoppers, while 7% were exclusively in-store shoppers. About three-quarters of respondents bought clothing online and in-store, while 74% preferred to buy personal hygiene products in-store, and 91% bought food in a grocery store.

Census Bureau data from 2015 shows that about 29% of Texas millennials live with their parents or another relative, but that doesn’t mean that they cluster in cities.

Overmyer found that about 66% live in the suburbs. And they want to put down roots; nearly half plan to buy a home in five years, with 50% wanting to be in the suburbs, 26% in an urban area and 23% in a rural area.

“The survey shows that millennials may not be as different as we thought,” Overmyer said. “They live in the suburbs, they shop in stores, and they don’t require two-day delivery.” She added, “Still, two-thirds got an online delivery in the last week.”

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Amazon Rival JD.com Built the Equivalent of Monaco in Warehouse Space in Three Months

JD.com Inc. added so much warehouse space in three months that the new construction could cover just about every inch of Monaco, a pace of expansion that rivals growth at Amazon.com Inc.

China’s second-largest e-commerce service added 2 million square meters (21.5 million square feet) of warehouse space from July to September, about equal to the span of the city-state famed as a getaway for the rich. It ran 405 warehouses encompassing 9 million square meters at the end of September — adding about a warehouse every one to two days. December-quarter data won’t be available till JD reports results, which aren’t expected till at least next month.

JD builds and runs its own nationwide logistics chain, a costly approach that’s weighing on profitability but that it believes is crucial to competing against larger arch-foe Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

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Winter Deep Freeze Will Affect the US Economy

A winter storm sweeping the U.S. East Coast after a week of very low temperatures is probably boosting demand for boots and mittens — and thanks in part to its timing, it shouldn’t chill economic data more broadly.

Home sales and spending at restaurants could see a short-term dip, but against a backdrop of steady demand and a solid economy, that should amount to little more than a blip. And other businesses, such as utility providers and food-delivery companies, will benefit.

The winter storm and chill are hitting before the Department of Labor’s reference week for employment data, so the effects probably will have little impact on jobs figures. And because the weather disruption comes just after the winter holidays, the freeze isn’t choking off in-store shopping during a crucial season.

Still, unusual temperatures and storms can cause major disruptions if protracted, so all bets are off if the cold snap and snowy weather persist for longer than currently forecast. And even if the deep freeze is short-lived, it could become a convenient scapegoat for any first-quarter economic weakness, which has been chalked up to seasonal-adjustment issues or bad weather in recent years.

“Within a quarter or two, any weakness in the first quarter data will be blamed on this week,” said Michael Hanson, chief U.S. macro strategist at TD Securities in New York. “I am not a big believer in these weather stories, but they’re extremely popular in the markets.”

Cozy Up

Americans’ demand for cold-weather products has probably spiked in first week of January

Winter storm warnings covered parts of 13 eastern states on Jan. 4, while blizzard warnings applied to the U.S. coast from North Carolina to Maine, including New Jersey, Long Island and Boston. Governors in several states had declared emergencies. Many in Virginia had lost power, and thousands of flights were grounded.

While temperatures well below freezing are expected in the Northeast through the weekend, by Jan. 8 things should warm up — just in time for the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ reference week, which is always the calendar week or pay period containing the 12th. Survey data covering that particular period form the basis for the January employment report, due Feb. 2.

“I suspect it probably won’t have too much of a lingering impact,” said Omair Sharif, senior U.S. economist at Societe Generale in New York. He said housing starts could be softer, but only temporarily. Retail sales data could take a small hit, but that should get made up quickly, he said.

Timing is on the side of retailers.

“It’s a huge difference that this is happening now, versus last week or the week just before Christmas,” said Evan Gold, executive vice president of global services at Planalytics, a Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based company that traces weather-related business trends.

Planalytics expects restaurant traffic in the Northeast to be down 10% from the usual level in the first week of January, but spending on things like hats, boots and heaters will be up in the North and the nation as a whole.

“The losers would be anything that’s discretionary that would require people to go out of their house,” Gold said. Still, even those businesses suffering a hit will only have to put up with short-lived pain.

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UPS Touts Record Number of Package Returns This Holiday Season

Some 1.4 million packages are expected to be sent back to retailers on Jan. 3, according to UPS Inc., which has dubbed the massive return-to-sender day “National Returns Day.” The anti-climactic Internet retail holiday tops a record December of package returns, as consumers shipped backed more than 1 million packages per day during the month.

UPS ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest North American for-hire carriers.

“While the day after Christmas used to be reserved for long return lines at department stores, the growth of e-commerce has changed when and how consumers return gifts,” UPS Chief Commercial Officer Alan Gershenhorn said in a statement.

RELATED: UPS and FedEx handle record holiday surge with minimal delays

People are also becoming increasingly familiar with the online order-return process, as 75% of consumers have sent back a package to a retailer this year, according to the company.

Estimates vary, but digital analytics firm eMarketer is forecasting e-commerce sales for November and December to fall just shy of $107 billion, climbing 16% over last year’s total and representing 11.5% of all holiday sales.

As far as returns go, this season’s National Returns Day will also grow measurably, jumping 8% over last year, according to UPS’ calculations.

While not welcome news for retailers looking to cash in on a strong holiday season, the annual package return extravaganza means even more business for UPS. Including returns, UPS is projecting it will deliver 750 million packages between Thanksgiving and New Year Eve, which is up 40 million packages from last year.

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Full Speed Ahead for Trucking in 2018

Trucking firms are revved up for 2018, with predictions of tight capacity and strong demand for freight hauling setting the stage for an anticipated big year ahead for the industry, and indicators pointing to a potentially sustained period of business expansion in the United States and around the globe.

That confidence is boosted by the expectation that Congress’ efforts on tax reform will lead to a friendlier regulatory environment for trucking, with uncertainty regarding health care reform and trade negotiations doing little to tamp down enthusiasm.

Congress and the Trump administration also have indicated they will finally begin consideration of a long-awaited infrastructure funding proposal in January.

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