While for many people the name Louisville, KY conjures images of horse racing and mint juleps, the city also boasts a less widely recognized reputation – that of a critical shipping and transportation hub for companies across the country and around the world.

While the global supply chain disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic shined a bright light on the need for companies to bring their manufacturing back to North America, interest in nearshoring and reshoring has been growing steadily for several years.

We’ve all heard the adage that "you get what you pay for." Well, it's just as true in the world of logistics as it is in any other aspect of life. While there can be countless reasons for disparities in cost between different transportation providers – from network size to technology and more – the reliability and service most shippers rightly expect will typically come at some type of premium.

In late 2022, nearly 1,800 shippers participated in the 8th annual State of the North American Supply Chain Survey. Respondents were asked a series of questions to gauge the challenges they encountered last year. Additionally, we asked the group what they foresee as their biggest challenges and opportunities in the months ahead.

While there’s still no telling if or when global trade will return to what we considered “normal” before the pandemic, things did continue to improve in 2022.

In most people’s minds, Memphis is associated with three main things: delicious barbecue, soulful blues, and of course, Elvis’ beloved Graceland. But what’s less widely known is that the city also represents the single most significant shipping hub in the Western Hemisphere.

Supply chain issues have been a daily struggle since early 2020 when the pandemic altered both manufacturing and shopping patterns around the world.

For decades, shoppers have descended on brick-and-mortar retailers the day after Thanksgiving, eager to scoop up some of the year's best deals. In more recent years, Cyber Monday was added to lengthen the shopping window. Then came Amazon's Prime Day. Then came other online sales days from retailers like Target and Walmart.

On October 24th, the Digital LTL Council of the National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) announced that it had established a new application programming interface (API) standard for electronic bills of lading (eBOL). This marks the first time in the industry’s history that less-than-truckload has had a standard format for electronically sharing these vital and ubiquitous documents.