The person driving your product from point A to point B provides more than safe, reliable transportation. For every hour they are associated with your logo and brand, they represent your business to drivers on the road, people at restaurants and truck stops, and ultimately, to your customer. Drivers are an often-overlooked piece of the customer experience puzzle, but they present a valuable opportunity to represent your company well.

One of the biggest challenges of running a retail supply chain is inventory replenishment. For many operations, high volume products need to be replenished on short notice during demand surges. Also referred to as just-in-time inventory replenishment, such surges can occur during predictable periods (i.e., holidays and peak seasons) or on a regular basis for a company that steadily moves a product. 

Partnering for Measurable Supply Chain Improvements

Reducing Tons Of Supply Chain Waste

SalonCentric, a nationwide wholesale salon and beauty supply distributor, wanted to find a way to reduce its impact on the environment while also minimizing its supply chain costs.

One area of its supply chain that SalonCentric saw an opportunity to make a difference with was the company's use of traditional cardboard boxes for shipping. Corrugate boxes, a staple of most retail supply chains, are great for transportation. However, such containers have a short shelf life and quickly find themselves in landfills.

To address the problem, SalonCentric invested in reusable plastic tote bins. The use of the bins had an astounding positive impact on the company's environmental footprint. 

One of the many challenges that shippers and freight managers face in their supply chain are accessorial charges. Also referred to as "value-added services," these charges are the additional costs that are applied to a shipment that requires extra services from the carrier beyond standard pickup and delivery.

The term expedited transportation is often considered the definition of a "double-edged sword." It is a necessity for urgent shipments, but it can also be a costly method of transportation. While there's generally no easy way to avoid using expedited transportation when you're up against tight deadlines, there are options you may not have considered that could actually save you on both time and cost.

It's a variation on a classic children's math problem: "If a freight train travelling 50 mph and a truck travelling 65 mph leave at the same time, where will your freight be tomorrow morning?"

It's hard to believe how long it's been since the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team took the Barcelona games by storm in 1992. Nicknamed the "Dream Team," this group of athletic superstars, which featured the likes of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Scottie Pippen and Charles Barkley, crushed their competitors by an average of 44 points.

Do you ship to or from Canada? If so, you know there’s no shortage of paperwork and shipping rules involved when shipping across the U.S-Canada border. In fact, it can be easy to miss something - and many cross-border shippers do, inevitably causing delays and service failures. How can you avoid common cross-border shipping mistakes when moving goods to and from Canada? Here are five tips to get you started: