Two recent trends in transportation and logistics management are the rise of e-commerce and the impacts it has for TLM, as well as increases in driver wages and dissatisfaction.
The rise of e-commerce is presenting a challenge for transportation and logistics, as the expectations of online shoppers is different from the traditional expectations of retail distribution (PwC, 2016). This type of shipping is more complicated, as instead of volume shipment individual goods going to individual households must be independently tracked across many different networks, with information available to the customer. Further, major online retailers are using new methods to disrupt established logistics companies, such as crowdsourcing their delivery networks and bypassing those companies that have been in business for decades (PwC, 2016). Digital technology is required in order to keep up with these new demands, and even in the case where there is some implementation of such methods they often need to be amended in order to accommodate the new needs which are arising from the rise of the delivery requirements of online shoppers (PwC, 2016).
An increase in drivers’ wages is another trend which is posing challenges for transportation in particular (McDowell, 2016). Not only is it predicted, in fact stated that it is inevitable, that driver wages will rise, another challenge is the unhappiness of drivers with current wages resulting in strikes and other similar delays (McDowell, 2016). While many aspects of transportation and logistics have been automated and streamlined in recent years, the movement of goods in America is dependent on drivers, particularly those in the trucking industry (McDowell, 2016). One aspect of the increase in wages is due to increases in minimum wage (McDowell, 2016). Drivers see the need for a rise in pay as related to a number of other issues for their position in the industry, including driver fatigue (McDowell, 2016). The likely impact is a rise in supply chain costs and lowered profitability.
- McDowell, J. (2016). Trends. Inbound Logistics. Retrieved from: http://www.inboundlogistics.com/cms/article-type/news/trends/
- PwC. (2016). 2016 Commercial Transportation Trends. Strategy &. Retrieved from: http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/perspectives/2016-commercial-transportation-trends
