Month: December 2021

Business-to-consumer retailers — brick-and-mortar and eCommerce sellers alike — rely on the holiday season to bookend their sales year with a positive outcome. The economy can be unpredictable, so ending the year strong as shoppers plan their holiday gifts is crucial. Retailers expect to see a significant bump in sales during the holiday season. Just as likely is a post-holiday decline in sales

Consumer demand in the United States has been robust this year, and it’s just getting stronger as the holidays approach.

Because of supply-chain uncertainty, transportation delays, and the unknown influence of the Omicron variety of Covid-19 on customer behavior, the stakes for retailers during the important fourth quarter, when sales and earnings normally peak, are high this year.

Record backups of container ships in the U.S. and logjams at other distribution chokepoints suggest big volumes of goods are still tied up in supply chains. That leaves many businesses in limbo as Christmas approaches and facing a possible flood of out-of-season merchandise in the New Year.

As many of your competitors slow down, the post-holiday season is the perfect occasion to pick up new campaigns and find new, creative ways to market.

Some experts speculated that persistent shipping difficulties may force some stores to redirect entire late-arriving containers to discounters before the item enters the company’s own supply chain.

Growth + Change = Opportunity!

Trucking company Central Freight Lines Inc. will shut down in the coming weeks after failing to end years of losses despite strong demand in freight markets during the pandemic.

After 96 years in business, Waco, Texas-based less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier Central Freight Lines is closing its doors.

Central Freight announced that it is winding down its operations and as of Dec. 13 has ceased picking up new shipments. The carrier expects to deliver substantially all freight in its system by Dec. 20.

The company owns approximately 1,200 trucks and is a large LTL operator, a slice of the trucking industry in which carriers move shipments of multiple customers on a single trailer. Most operators in this industry have thrived over the past two years thanks to strong demand from retailers and manufacturers and the boom in online shopping spurred by the pandemic.

According to data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the carrier employs 1,325 drivers and has 1,602 power units.

Despite its efforts, Central Freight was unable to gain commitments to fund ongoing operations, find a buyer of the entire business, or fund a Chapter 11 reorganization.

Central Freight Lines was founded in 1925 when W.W. “Woody” Callan Sr. bought a Model T and drove from Waco to Dallas to pick up some goods for a Waco merchant, thus starting Central Forwarding and Warehouse company.

Delivery transportation continues to be a vital part of the American economy, ensuring businesses and customers have a broader reach to sell and purchase goods and products. A trucking dispatcher have the critical job of helping truck drivers to concentrate on routes and roadways and to safely deliver their cargoes. Without strong dispatchers, projects fall apart.

Dispatchers who are looking to improve their game can sidestep many of the difficulties by following a few key guidelines.

1. Know your market

Local knowledge is one of the biggest assets you can have as a dispatcher. This includes knowing the best routes and shortcuts, as well as having a firm memory of current pricing.

2. Get to Know your Drivers

As a trucking dispatcher, it’s important to make an effort to get to know drivers on a personal level.

Not only will this improve the day-to-day working relationship, but it also shows the driver that you value them as a person instead of just another asset to move cargo.

3. Plan ahead

Planning ahead minimizes last-minute changes and improves general workflow and productivity. A lot of time can be saved by setting up geo zones, adding subcontractors, and creating templates when you receive the job frees up a ton of your time on the day of the project

4. Manage the chaos

Dispatching trucks is hectic work. Your desk is always flooded with paperwork. Job changes will come in at a moment’s notice. And it will be up to you to coordinate between multiple schedules to accommodate a project’s timeline.

5. Be a great communicator

The remote nature of your work makes it especially important to flex your communication skills. Whether you are working from a pickup truck, the dispatch office, or at home – you need to be sure that everyone knows where they are supposed to be and when they need to be there.

Growth + Change = Opportunity!

The private companies that operate port facilities from Washington state to Southern California will begin negotiation on a multiyear agreement with the union representing 22,400 dockworkers to replace the contract that expires in July 2022. The union already rejected an offer by port terminal operators to delay negotiations until 2023.

Major issues during negotiations usually include automation and benefits. In recent years, the terminals gained authority to expand the use of technology, while the union won increases in wages and pension benefits.

The ILWU contract covers about 15,400 full-time and 7,000 part-time dockworkers at ports stretching from Bellingham, Wash., to San Diego. Most workers aren’t directly employed by the terminals. The facilities order unionized workers for shifts each day or night based on needs.

ILWU International President Willie Adams said in a statement that everyone should welcome the prospect of collective bargaining “as fundamental to the wellbeing of our ports rather than prognosticating disaster.”

The average dockworker with more than five years’ full-time experience in 2019 earned almost $190,000. Several supervisors that year earned $500,000 or more. Benefit costs for most full-time dockworkers during the decade through 2019 increased to about $110,000 per worker from $82,500, according to PMA data.

Growth + Change = Opportunity!