How to Manage UPS and FedEx Rate Increases
The pandemic is winding down—at least in the United States—but not parcel carrier shipping rates.
Paccurate Blog
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Cost-aware cartonization
Even if you've taken steps to bring an algorithmic approach to your packing process (good job!), you need to ensure your cartonization engine is smart enough to consider all cost factors related to shipping. Here's a few key requirements for cartonization that's smart enough for real-world cost-optimization:
The best way of automating box selection
Cartonization is the method of determining which box you should pack an item or series of items in. If you're new to fulfillment technology, or are thinking about optimizing your packing process, there are some key things to understand about modern cartonization.
Introducing Paccurate Manager
We're thrilled to announce the launch of Paccurate Manager, the dashboard that lets you manage and monitor your cartonization activity. There are quite a few features, but here are the highlights:
International drop shipping was already going to get hurt
As the economy reels from COVID-19, international drop shipping is particularly vulnerable to the uncertainty in the supply chain and the disruption of production in China. The truth is, even before the pandemic, it was already primed for a major disruption due to some fairly under-reported news: The likely death of ePacket.
Parcel Costs were already rising in 2020. Now what?
At the beginning of 2020, FedEx and UPS raised their rates by an average 4.9% across all service types, which isn’t an unusually large hike across the board. Since the pandemic began disrupting the supply chain however, the carriers have added additional surcharges for shipments originating in China, and suspended their respective service guarantees. While normal rate hikes cause a bit of a stir among the companies that rely on tight margins, the added surcharges mean shippers have to tighten their belts even further.
A new delivery-centric economy means an inexperienced workforce
There’s been a lot of speculation about what the consumer economy will look like after it recovers over the coming months and years. While nobody knows exactly what the world will look like by this time next year, consensus gives us a hint: local shopping will take years to recover, if it ever does, and ecommerce delivery will stay hot. It stands to reason that the labor market will reflect this reality. That means more and more new workers in the fulfillment and delivery space, and the challenges that an inexperienced workforce presents.
Smarter mode planning, Part 1
Most companies have a transportation planning function of some kind, whether it’s a Transportation Management System like Oracle OTM, or a more manual process. A critical choice is made during this planning phase that determines how costly the shipment will be: whether to use a Parcel Carrier or an LTL Carrier. If you’re just getting started with mode planning or think you’ve got it down to a science, smart cartonization might give you an unexpected edge.
Direct to Consumer Brand, Now a Redundant Phrase
One of the benefits of working on and helping businesses set up Paccurate is that we get a front-row seat to rapidly changing trends in the logistics and fulfillment spaces, which then go on to have transformative effects on the economy at large. With that in mind, believe us when we tell you we have never seen such a lurch in consumer trends like the one unfolding now: direct to consumer is the new normal.