On January 9, Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx announced that after years of controversy and debate, Mexican truckers would be allowed to operate on U.S. highways. Up until now, most have been limited to the commercial zones along the U.S. – Mexican border. To understand the real significance of this, one must look back to […]

On January 12, Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx outlined plans for the issuance of a 30 – year blueprint for the overhaul of the country’s transportation systems. The object of the study will be to develop a comprehensive national transportation system, rather than the collection of individual systems based primarily on the wants and needs […]

According to Chinese astrology, on February 19, 2015, we will welcome the Year of the Sheep, sometimes referred to as the year of the Ram or Goat. As we enter this New Year, many supply chain managers will find themselves in a much better position than they were this time last year. The soon to […]

 Last week President Obama signed into law the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015. One of the last pieces of legislation passed by the 113th Congress, this 1700 plus page bill allocated $1.1 trillion to keep the federal government open for business until September of 2015. Except for those of us working in, […]

As 2014 draws to a close, supply chain managers still find themselves plagued with some of the obstacles to maintaining a satisfactory level of customer service at a reasonable cost to their firms and their customers. Such things as fewer internal resources, driver shortages, infrastructure issues, and government regulations continue to have a negative impact […]

The grand opening the global shipping community has been waiting for ten years will remain closed for another year. The completion of the $5.3 billion expansion of the Panama Canal scheduled for right about now has been delayed until late 2015, with the ribbon-cutting in early 2016. Actually, that is not too bad, considering the […]

For several years, one of the major concerns of supply chain managers and much of the general public has been the deteriorating transportation infrastructure in the country. The major problem has been not so much the recognition of the road and bridge issue but the fact that Congress has consistently failed to provide a satisfactory […]

As the Christmas season approaches, both retailers and their customers are getting a little nervous about the ability of retail distribution systems and package carriers to handle the holiday volume. Many of us will remember that last year, approximately 2 million packages did not make it to their destinations by Christmas morning, resulting in disappointed […]

Twenty years ago this year, President Clinton signed into law the landmark North American Free Trade Agreement. The primary objective of this treaty was to “eliminate barriers to trade in, and facilitate the cross-border movement of goods and services between the territories of the Parties.” In the case, the “parties “were Canada, Mexico, and the […]

Several years ago, I developed what I felt were ten sound principles for the outsourcing of logistics services. I certainly was not the first to do so, nor have I been the last. Recently however, some of the suggestions I have read seem to place more responsibility on the providers than on the outsourcers themselves. […]