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Compliance Gaps Revealed in Global Dangerous Goods Confidence Outlook

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Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

Compliance Gaps Revealed in Global Dangerous Goods Confidence Outlook

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Dangerous Goods industry players reveal surprising outlooks when it comes down to achieving transport compliance, according to statistics reported in the fourth annual 2019 Global Dangerous Goods Confidence Outlook survey. The results were shared this week during the Dangerous Goods Symposium 2019 event in Chicago and prove that although many are actively a part of the dangerous goods sector, not all are convinced their supply chains are enough to maintain a competitive advantage.

“The growth of ecommerce and the evolution of supply chain has made moving dangerous goods in a safe and compliant manner more important than ever,” said Robert Finn, vice president, Labelmaster. “Unfortunately, several key gaps exist within organizations’ processes and infrastructure that make maintaining a compliant and reliable hazmat supply chain challenging.”

Some of the most telling numbers revealed in the survey point to several factors from infrastructure gaps and leadership risk awareness to technology, budget factors, and communications with supply chain partners. Among the responses, a reported 55 percent confirmed a manual process is still in place for dangerous goods shipping, while a whopping 71 percent expressed the desire for partners matching compliance efforts.

“Companies view DG management and compliance differently, which directly impacts their level of investment and, ultimately, their ability to ensure compliance across their entire organization and adapt to changing operational needs,” Finn said. “As a result, many organizations lack the resources needed to meet their current supply chain needs, and few have the budget and infrastructure necessary to support future requirements.”

Another 42 percent of responses turned attention to the problems in business spurred from the “careless” manner in which some carriers handle dangerous goods while 55 percent struggle with obtaining accurate data from supply chain partners.

Additional results reveal that 67 percent agree their reverse logistics are enough to address current needs with only 20 percent expressing confidence in supporting future dangerous goods operations.

“In order to successfully navigate an increasingly complex and dynamic hazmat supply chain landscape, organizations need to think of compliance beyond simply a mandate and the threat of a fine, and recognize how it can be a competitive advantage that drives revenue, improves supply chain performance, reduces risk and enables better customer service,” Finn concluded.

To read the full report sponsored by Labelmaster, International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Hazardous Cargo Bulletin, please visit: labelmaster.com

Archives, Global Trade Daily, Special Reports

BREAKING BAD TRADE: FENTANYL FROM CHINA

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The Real Poison Pill in U.S.-China Trade

Following a historic dinner between President Trump and President Xi last December in Argentina on the margins of the G20 Summit, many of us awaited news on tariffs. We were surprised when, as part of a trade announcement, President Trump hailed a commitment from China to step up its regulatory oversight of fentanyl, the opioid that the Centers for Disease Control says has caused a “third wave” of drug-related overdose deaths in the United States.

It seems the seedy underbelly of e-commerce involves a steady stream of online purchases of deadly variants of the drug fentanyl, made in China and shipped to American doorsteps through the U.S. postal service.

Deadly Parcels from China

Fatal drug overdoses have doubled over the last decade, rising from 36,010 in 2007 to 70,237 in 2017. Synthetic opioids other than methadone – mainly fentanyl – now account for 40 percent of all drug overdose deaths and 60 percent of opioid overdose deaths.

China is the primary source of illicit fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and fentanyl precursor chemicals in the United States. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, almost 80 percent of fentanyl seized in 2017 was interdicted at U.S. Postal Service and express consignment carrier facilities, having been shipped in small quantities from China.

Fentanyl precursors are also shipped from China to Mexico, and to a lesser degree Canada, before being synthesized, often mixed with heroin or cocaine, repackaged, and then trafficked over U.S. land borders in the southwest.

Fentanyl third wave of overdoses

STOP

Last March, the White House stepped up its campaign against opioid abuse, seeking to address factors driving both demand and supply. The Initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse (referred to as STOP) includes education programs, measures to curb over-prescription, expanded access to treatment and recovery, and – a focus on cutting off the flow of illicit drugs from China.

According to Homeland Security, more fentanyl in larger volumes is seized at land crossings, but the fentanyl seized from mail and express consignment carrier facilities is far more potent with purities of over 90 percent versus Mexico-sourced fentanyl that is often diluted to less than 10 percent.

The president’s initiative would require the postal service to provide advance electronic data for 90 percent of all international mail shipments within the next two years, offering data that will help law enforcement identify and seize illegal substances shipped through mail. Private shippers such as UPS and FedEx routinely require such electronic data.

The administration is also scaling up the Department of Justice’s “darknet” enforcement efforts. Fentanyl in its various forms is relatively cheap and easy to buy from China online paying with cryptocurrencies, or even credit cards or money transfers.

fentanyl shipments from China

Over One Million Pills a Day – In One Factory in China

China has grown to become the largest mass producer of generic drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients in the world with over 5,000 pharmaceutical manufacturers. Upwards of 90 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients used in U.S. production of finished dosage forms of medical pharmaceuticals is imported from just two countries: India and China.

In addition, China has over 160,000 chemical producers and hundreds of thousands of pharmaceutical and chemicals distributors. The explosion in volume and number of producers has far outstripped China’s FDA (CFDA) from adequately regulating and monitoring them.

Faster Than Can Be Regulated

Unlike opioids derived from the poppy plant, fentanyl is a synthetic painkiller produced in a laboratory. It is 50 times more potent than heroine and 50-100 times more potent than morphine. Inhaling just two milligrams of pure fentanyl can be lethal.

In the United States, most fentanyl products are classified either as Schedule I chemicals, those that have no accepted medical use and high potential for abuse, or as Schedule II chemicals, those with medical use but only available through a non-refillable prescription.

Fentanyl’s molecular structure can be easily modified to create new derivatives, putting regulators constantly behind in evaluating and classifying each new variant one-by-one. From furanyl fentanyl, acetyl fentanyl, acryl fentanyl, to carfentanil — to name just a few — fentanyl has hundreds of analogues that differ slightly from the original, enabling criminal producers to operate in a gray territory while regulators struggle to ban the new substances. Legislation passed in 2017 now allows U.S. FDA to schedule fentanyl analogues immediately on a temporary basis while the agency conducts its investigations.

President Trump has urged President Xi to implement a similar approach. China currently controls around 25 types of fentanyl-related products. President Trump wants China to establish fentanyl as its own class of controlled substances, restricting all fentanyl analogues, including future fentanyl-like substances. Doing so would be a start.

Busting Drug Trade

Such a commitment by China is not, however, likely to put a dent in its fentanyl exports to the United States absent real enforcement. In recent years, CFDA has imposed stricter licensing requirements for pharmaceutical and chemical producers, but diversion, adulteration, and clandestine production remain significant problems.

“Chinese chemical manufacturers export a range of fentanyl products to the United States, including raw fentanyl, fentanyl precursors, fentanyl analogues, fentanyl-laced counterfeit prescription drugs like oxycodone, and pill presses and other machinery necessary for fentanyl production.” — U.S China Economic and Security Review Commission Staff Research Report

CFDA has undergone several reorganizations in the last few years. In the most recent, some of its regulatory responsibilities have devolved to provinces and counties with little accountability. Pre-marketing approvals will be managed separately from post-market inspections and surveillance. With just a little over 2,000 inspectors, authorities have little hope of effectively overseeing legal compliance, let alone spotting even a fraction of criminal activity.

The central government has assisted U.S. drug and law enforcement agencies, sharing information and intelligence that helps U.S. agencies target Chinese nationals trafficking illicit drugs in the United States. To alleviate the free flow of fentanyl from China, the Chinese government should also prosecute transnational criminals operating in China in high-profile cases with severe penalties.

Soybeans, Tech Transfer, and Fentanyl

Trade talks over soybeans and intellectual property protections for American technologies seem an unlikely setting for addressing illicit trade in deadly fentanyl.

There are some in the United States who are frustrated with this administration’s willingness to toss out the traditional trade policy playbook, but this is one case where it can welcomed by everyone.

 

 

Interested to read about fentanyl trade in more detail?

See two key reports produced by U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission analyst Sean O’Connor: Fentanyl: China’s Deadly Export to the United States, February 2017 and Fentanyl Flows from China: An Update, November 2018

Andrea Durkin is the Editor-in-Chief of TradeVistas and Founder of Sparkplug, LLC. Ms. Durkin previously served as a U.S. Government trade negotiator and has proudly taught international trade policy and negotiations for the last fourteen years as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s Master of Science in Foreign Service program.

This article originally appeared on TradeVistas.org. Republished with permission.

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, News

UPS & CVS Pharmacy Collaborate for Customer Convenience

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CVS customers now have the added convenience of utilizing recently expanded in-store UPS package pick-up and delivery options. UPS confirmed earlier this week that more than 6,000 CVS Pharmacy stores around the country will offer the service which was confirmed to roll out immediately.

“This deal offers additional convenience to consumers in the e-commerce era,” said Kevin Warren, UPS’s chief marketing officer. “Working with CVS Pharmacy demonstrates our commitment to increased customer choice and control with our global UPS My Choice® network.”

The collaboration directly impacts both companies, as it not only brings added traffic to nationwide CVS Pharmacy locations, but also provide the added option of trip consolidation for UPS customers seeking an all-in-one shopping experience.

“We will continue to bring our customers new omni channel services and experiences that redefine convenience and make it easier to meet the demands of their increasingly busy lives,” said Kevin Hourican, Executive Vice President, CVS Health and President, CVS Pharmacy. “Adding UPS Access Point locations at CVS Pharmacy locations offers added convenience in local communities throughout the country for shipping and safely receiving packages.”

By adding more locations for customers seeking convenient shipping options, UPS also adds to the UPS Access Point locations, which currently boasts more than 40,000 and 38,000 drop-boxes globally. Additionally, the collaboration impacts over 60 million UPS My Choice Program members currently customizing shipping needs. These members have direct access to the extended UPS network to for estimated arrival and progress alerts, sign for a package in advance, set vacation holds, and more.

“Until now, the UPS Access Point locations have largely been local businesses and The UPS Store® locations. With this announcement, UPS broadens our services to offer an enviable network of secure choices to busy shoppers,” Warren said. “Consumers now have access to a vast and robust suite of options that include the CVS locations, neighborhood businesses, lockers and The UPS Store centers.”

Archives, Global Trade Daily, News

Asendia to Utilize Tigers Logistics for Oceania Launch

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As expansion takes shape for Asendia, Tigers will maintain local logistics for the soon-to-be launched Asendia Oceania subsidiary throughout Australia. The international shipping and distribution company released information this week confirming Tigers is the provider of choice and will utilize its robust warehousing network to support efforts in B2C and omnichannel fulfillment.

“E-commerce fulfillment and international cross-border products continue to be a major focus for Tigers across the Asia-Pacific region, and builds on our cooperation across the USA into Europe, Russia, and Asia,” said Andrew Jillings, Chief Executive Officer, Tigers.

“Partnering with Asendia as it launches Asendia Oceania across Australia and New Zealand is an exciting moment that reflects Tigers’ ongoing global growth, and our support for the logistics and supply chain industry as it evolves through digitization and e-commerce.”

The companies announced the collaborative efforts will ultimately support increasing demand within the B2C cross-border e-commerce market, while focusing on strategies in supply chain optimizations in the near future. The Oceania launch is representative of Asendia’s global expansion plan and how the company will meet demand while offering fresh digital, logistics, and delivery services.

“The launch of Asendia Oceania is an exciting new milestone for Asendia in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Lionel Berthe, Head of Asia-Pacific, Asendia.

“It’s another sign of our commitment to growth in the region, and partnering with a global logistics player with strong capacities and experience in Australia such as Tigers is a key differentiator for cross border end-to-end services.“

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, Special Reports

In the Push for Faster Ecommerce Deliveries, How Can Logistics Stay Agile?

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Today’s consumer isn’t used to waiting. They expect to get whatever product they want, wherever they want it, as soon as possible.  Perhaps nowhere is this more true than in the world of ecommerce. Customers look forward to their online purchases arriving faster than ever – sometimes on the same day that they click “purchase.” And with drone doorstop delivery on the horizon, compressed delivery timelines show no sign of stopping anytime soon.

Faster ecommerce delivery has created revolutionary convenience for consumers, but it’s also generated major transportation hurdles for companies to overcome. As a result, companies that want to deliver ecommerce shipments at the speeds that customers expect need to consider how to adapt all elements of their supply chains.

Managing more intricate logistics

Some companies that raced in to capture an early share of ecommerce market struggled to keep up while also keeping costs down. But that’s to be expected with a more complex distribution model.

Instead of shipping mostly to stores, companies now must determine if their supply chains can quickly move orders to many consumers in many locations. To do this, they must be able to proactively coordinate shipments whether they’re on the ground, on the ocean or in the air. 

Companies can help manage this complexity by taking a more hands-on logistics approach. They should draw on a variety of services and resources, while remaining efficient and visible. 

Many shippers, for example, choose to work with a third-party logistics provider to help facilitate the intricate details of shipments, provide visibility, and help freight arrive in a timely manner. 

Fixed or Flexible?

One of the biggest decisions a company in the ecommerce market will make is how they balance their supply chain. 

For example, a supply chain that’s more focused on fixed infrastructure than the fluid movement of goods can lower a company’s costs in the long run but also make them less agile. While a service-heavy, asset-light supply chain can make a company more flexible but also raise their costs.

Some companies are drawing a line in the sand. Some online businesses, for example, are rejecting ecommerce’s expectation of immediacy. Instead, they’re building supply chains that prioritize volume over speed. 

This has pushed ecommerce sellers to start providing more shipping time options. But it’s still unclear whether having more choices will lead to consumers changing their delivery expectations.

In any case, ecommerce fulfillment encompasses several, often-contradictory considerations of time, cost, and transportation mode. To bring these factors together through informed decision making is a challenging undertaking. But it’s essential for any company that wants to compete as ecommerce continues to grow and its barrier to entry continues to fall. 

Taking the first steps

Data goes hand in hand with ecommerce, so it can be a good area for a company to make its first key investment. 

Specifically, advanced business intelligence and predictive data modeling help companies better understand and forecast consumer demand, and they can then adjust their supply chains accordingly. Through access to this data and integration with service information from their shippers, companies can better identify their priorities and decide where to invest resources. 

Those that don’t know where to start should also know they don’t have to make these big decisions on their own. Industry experts like C.H. Robinson can offer a clear perspective—based on their scale and local experts in offices around the globe—and will understand their specific ecommerce business needs and translate them into productive logistics solutions. 

 

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, International Trade

SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED GLOBAL TRADERS ARE BANKING ON BLOCKCHAIN

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This is the second in a three-part series by Christine McDaniel for TradeVistas on how blockchain technologies will play an increasing role in international trade.

Give Me Some Credit

Every business requires capital to operate. To sell products to customers overseas, many companies also need trade financing and insurance from third-party lenders. About 80 percent of all global trade is transacted through third-party lenders and cargo insurers, but the process is complex, can be costly and many banks find it too risky to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Blockchain has the potential to increase transparency, speed and accuracy in assessing risk across the trade finance process, which in turn could expand the supply of credit available for international trade transactions – good news especially for SMEs that face significant hurdles accessing credit. Here’s how.

Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later

Buyers who import goods from sellers in other countries generally want to pay upon receiving the merchandise so they can verify its physical integrity on arrival. Exporters, on the other hand, generally prefer to be paid as soon as they ship the goods. Trade finance can bridge this gap.

Exporters and importers engage third-party lenders and insurers who will guarantee payments on the basis of collateral and indemnify the exporter, importer and related parties in the event that the merchandise is damaged, stolen or lost while in transit. In this way, trade finance provides the credit, payment guarantee and insurance needed to facilitate an international trade transaction on terms that will satisfy all parties.

80% of trade relies on finance

Steps on the Trade Journey

Intermediaries such as freight forwarders typically manage the physical journey of merchandise, from the original producer to the border, across the border (maybe several borders), and to the final buyer.

Each step must be verified: when was the merchandise transported from the factory or farm to a warehouse, when was it moved from the warehouse to a container, when was the container loaded onto a ship, when did the ship get underway, when was the container unloaded from the ship at port, and when was the merchandise transported from the port to the end consumer.

Different trade finance instruments, such as lending, letters of credit, factoring and cargo insurance cover legs of the journey. A letter of credit is a guarantee from a bank that a buyer’s payment will be received and be on time or else the bank will take responsibility for the payment. Factoring is accounts receivable financing to accelerate cash flow. Cargo insurance insures the merchandise while en route.

Without Finance, Trade Would Sink

The World Trade Organization estimates that 80 percent of global trade relies on trade finance or credit insurance. The global trade finance sector (i.e., the global volume of letters of credit) is worth roughly $2.8 trillion. Demand for trade financing exceeds availability, resulting in the underutilization of existing capital. According to the Asian Development Bank, the global trade finance gap — the difference between the demand for and supply of trade finance — has reached $1.6 trillion.

SMEs Face a 50 Percent Rejection Rate

The shortfall in supply reflects the complex and risky nature of trade finance which often involves multiple parties. Before banks will issue letters of credit in trade finance, they require potential customers to present a solid credit history and a strong balance sheet, conditions that tend to favor larger institutions.

SMEs typically experience more difficulty navigating the trade finance process and dealing with the cost and complexity of banking regulations than larger companies. In 2014, SMEs had trade finance requests before financial institutions rejected at a rate of over 50 percent. In comparison, the rejection rate for multinational corporations was only seven percent.

Links in the Trade Finance Chain

According to the United Nations, there are typically eight major steps required to obtain a letter of credit, although in practice the Credit Research Foundation lists more than twenty. Each step of the process is dependent on the previous steps, and some steps involve sending the same document back and forth for verification purposes. The administrative burden is greater for SMEs than for large firms.

A survey of 2,350 SMEs and 850 large firms conducted by the U.S. International Trade Commission in 2010 showed that lack of access to credit is the major constraint for SME manufacturing firms seeking to export or expand into new markets and it is one of the top three constraints for SME services firms.

rate of rejection for trade finance

How Blockchain Can Help Ease Trade Finance

Requirements to authenticate each transaction in the trade finance and insurance process can engender large amounts of paperwork and cause delays at each step. Every handoff must be approved and verified.

Instead, blockchain uses digital tokens that are issued by each participant in the supply chain to authenticate the movement of goods. Every time the item changes hands, the token moves in lockstep. The real-world chain of custody is mirrored by a chain of transactions recorded in the blockchain.

The token acts as a virtual “certificate of authenticity” that is much harder to steal, forge or hack than a piece of paper, barcode or digital file. The records can be trusted and greatly improve the information available to assure supply-chain quality.

Using blockchain as a digital ledger for these handoffs would allow involved parties to instantly track and receive secure information about the traded goods. Parties can monitor the entire shipping process and verify the completion of each step in real time. This increased transparency and ease of monitoring reduces the risk that a borrower presents to a potential lender or insurer.

Banking on Blockchain

A number of financial institutions are piloting the use of blockchain-enabled trade finance platforms.

Bank of America, HSBC, and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore collaborated in 2016 to develop a trade finance application designed “to streamline the manual processing of import/export documentation, improve security by reducing errors, increase convenience for all parties through mobile interaction, and make companies’ working capital more predictable.” Using the application, each action in the workflow is captured in a distributed ledger and all parties (the exporter, the importer, and their respective banks) can visualize data in real time, offering transparency to authorized participants while ensuring confidential data is protected through encryption.

Barclays used blockchain in 2017 to issue letter of credit that reportedly guaranteed the export of $100,000 worth of agricultural products from Irish cooperative Ornua to the Seychelles Trading Company, noting the parties were able to execute a deal in four hours that would usually take up to 10 days to complete.

A group of European banks launched a trade finance blockchain platform in July 2018, initially focused on facilitating small and medium-sized businesses trading within Europe. In September 2018, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced plans to launch a trade finance blockchain platform. Twenty-one banks are participating in the platform, including large institutions such as HSBC and Standard Chartered. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is also reportedly working with its counterpart in Singapore to develop a blockchain-based trade finance network to settle cross-border transactions.

Lessons for Trade Policymakers

As the trade finance industry begins to utilize blockchain technology, there are some potential implications worthy of policymakers’ attention.

First, the large number of intermediaries and corresponding administrative costs in trade finance tend to fall particularly hard on SMEs and the relatively higher cost of each transaction makes SME financing less attractive to banks. If blockchain can reduce the costs of trade finance, more small and medium-sized businesses could trade globally.

Second, although blockchain technology does not alter the fundamental credit risk of borrowers, the increased transparency and access to information it delivers could improve the accuracy of banks’ risk assessments. If perceived risk is greater than actual risk, a nontrivial number of loan applications may be denied even though those loans have the potential to be successful. If blockchain brings greater confidence and issuance of good loans — that is, those that are paid back — the transactions they support would bring value to the economy.

In these important ways, blockchain can increase transparency across the trade finance process and decrease risk for all parties, in turn expanding the supply of credit available for international trade transactions.

ChristineMcDaniel

 

Christine McDaniel a former senior economist with the White House Council of Economic Advisers and deputy assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy, is a senior research fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

This article originally appeared on TradeVistas.org. Republished with permission.

Air Cargo, Archives, Global Trade Daily

Uncertainty in Today’s Air Market: What it Means for You

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Reoccurring annual events, like the holiday season, typically bring predictability to air shipping. But lately, out of the ordinary events have disrupted the seasonality we typically expect. The best way to deal with the ever-changing peaks and valleys in air capacity throughout the year is to know both the historical patterns and potential air market disruptors.

The cyclical nature of air freight

Air freight service predictably follows the law of supply and demand. When shipping volumes spike, space on airlines becomes harder to secure and prices go up. And the opposite is true, too. If shipping volumes diminish, space on airlines becomes readily available and the prices go down.

As you might expect, the holiday peak season is one of the busiest shipping periods of the year around the world—including for air. But there are other seasonal surges to be aware of as well. The graphic below visually represents the seasonality of the air market in years’ past.

New disruptors to the air freight market

We’re just over halfway through 2019, and already it’s quite a different market than we’ve seen in the past. Several disruptors are causing a great deal of uncertainty.

Tariffs on Chinese goods

The ongoing trade war is one of the biggest disruptors to air shipping this year. Earlier tariff changes did not make a huge impact on air shipping. But demand for air freight shifted significantly when enough shippers preemptively repositioned inventory prior to the June 1, 2019, deadline. On May 31, 2019, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced the deadline would be extended to June 15, 2019.

Ecommerce and high-tech goods

With the growth of ecommerce and high-tech products flooding our markets, air freight is quickly becoming the go-to mode of transportation for many shippers—any time of year. Combined with the promise of two-day shipping, it’s often the only way to meet customer demands.

Adjust your air freight strategy based on the market

With air freight volumes lower than we’ve seen since the 2008 recession, now may be the ideal time to update your air freight shipping strategy.

Choosing air freight can be a strategic way to lower inventory levels in the United States. Finding a balance between inventory costs without sacrificing customer delivery expectations often requires expertise. The air experts at C.H. Robinson are available in offices around the globe to help manage your air freight and ensure any problems are resolved in real-time.

You may even consider that if air freight rates dip low enough, you could make up the difference (at least in part) of the added tariffs on Chinese goods.

The air freight market is a complex ecosystem that will likely remain uncertain for some time. While this uncertainty lasts, you may want to switch to a quarterly planning strategy to avoid a long-term commitment when you don’t know what’s coming.

What’s going to happen?

While inventories in the United States remain high, it’s likely that air shipping volumes will remain low. The best way to insulate your company and your relationships from today’s air market is to stay flexible. Adapt quickly to ensure you can take advantage of soft markets while still buying appropriately during peak seasons.

Archives, Global Trade Daily, News

Truman’s Eliminates Plastic Waste with Direct-to-Consumer Business Model

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If there’s one thing on which everybody can agree, it’s that we need to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the world. We launched Truman’s earlier this year not because we’re obsessed with cleaning, though we kind of are, but because we wanted to make a dent in the global plastic problem and found the perfect opportunity.

We saw a giant industry — household cleaning — that still relied on single-use plastic containers for its ever-increasing, unnecessarily cluttered array of products. At the same time, we saw an industry in no hurry to upset its status quo of shipping 5 billion pounds of single-use plastic each year, despite its adverse impact on the world. To us, this was an open invitation to engage in some environmentally friendly disruption.

The result? A simplified line of safe, multi-purpose household cleaners that not only generate far less plastic waste than traditional cleaning products but utilize fewer resources getting them from the point of manufacture into customers’ hands. Thanks to our slim, lighter packaging and a direct-to-consumer business model, we’ve streamlined delivery and eliminated several links in the supply chain.

Refill ’er up

For decades, home cleaners have come in ready-to-spray, use-it-then-lose-it bottles that contain 98% water. That may have seemed fine back when “throwaway living” was celebrated as the carefree wave of the future, but these days, shipping bulky, water-filled bottles is recognized to be incredibly wasteful.

Commercial establishments have been wise to this fact for years. You don’t see your favorite corner coffee shop or drugstore purchasing bottle after bottle of spray cleaner; they rely instead on concentrates and tap water, and refill the same bottle, over and over again. If this routine works for businesses, we thought, why shouldn’t it work for everyone? We set to work creating a fun, family-friendly, no-mess product line that would inspire people to change virtually everything about the way they clean.

Truman’s four simple, non-toxic household cleaners come in small concentrate cartridges. Users fill and refill the same bottles with tap water and additional cartridges; the cartridges’ auto-dispensing mechanism eliminates hand-mixing, so there’s never any mess. By shipping tiny cartridges instead of pre-filled bottles, we’re able to dramatically reduce plastic waste.

To give a sense of the environmental savings, it takes 30 semi-trucks to ship the equivalent number of ready-to-use cleaning bottles as it does one semi-truck of Truman’s refill cartridges.

Taking a Direct Approach

When we started planning Truman’s, we knew we wanted to avoid the overcrowded retail shelf and its rental fees. Instead, we adopted a subscription e-commerce model similar to those successfully used to sell everything from razors to meals. This both keeps costs down and gives us direct and immediate contact with customers, which is essential when you’re trying to change lifelong habits. (“Big Cleaning,” by contrast, has been slow to take advantage of e-commerce, partly as a result of its bulky, waterlogged ways.)

After a customer orders a Truman’s Starter Kit of four cleaners, they then sign up for regular refill kits — never fewer than four cartridges at a time — which are sent to their house at their convenience. By being mindful of packaging and the number of shipments we make, a Truman’s subscription results not just in significantly less plastic waste but less overall environmental impact because we bypass the traditional retail supply-chain. Truman’s cleaners are easier on the environment than traditional home cleaners from the moment of manufacture to the day they arrive at consumers’ doorsteps.

Break the Chain

Products sold at traditional retail outlets follow essentially the same route to get there: After assembly, they’re put in boxes, which are loaded onto pallets or into crates, which are then transferred onto trucks by a forklift. The pallets or crates are then driven to a distribution center/warehouse, where they’re unloaded and moved into their assigned position. There they sit, consuming overhead costs, until they’re put onto another truck to travel to the retail store. At the store, they’re unloaded in the stocking area, where some of them wait, while a few are plucked from their boxes and put on the shelf. Depending on how much their manufacturers have paid, some get front-row seating while others are assigned the nosebleed sections. And there they remain, consuming overhead costs, until they’re plucked from the shelf by a consumer who has probably driven miles to shop, most likely in their pickup or SUV.

Truman’s, by contrast, follows a totally different “demand chain” route that uses less packaging, involves fewer overhead costs, and results in lower overall energy consumption and carbon-dioxide emissions. Thanks to our direct contact with customers, we’re able to keep close tabs on demand. We manufacture and ship only the number of products that have been ordered, and we deliver them straight to the door, carefully packaged to minimize waste. A six-month supply of four refill cartridges easily fits in a standard mailbox.

An added benefit? Customers are spared having to enter the heavily scented cleaning products aisle and spared the ordeal of deciding among the mind-boggling number of wastefully packaged products.

Change Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

The growth of e-commerce has dramatically changed the retail landscape in the last decade. However, the cleaning industry, burdened by fear of change, has been slow to adapt. At Truman’s, we’re proving that people can change their habits and forgo single-use plastics in favor of concentrates. By making the customer experience as easy as possible, we can slowly but surely change the way people clean, and, more importantly, reduce the amount of plastic piling up in our landfills and oceans.

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, Warehousing

Not Just the Warehouse: How Smart Inventory Management Improves Your Ecommerce Overall

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Once you start using Smart Inventory Management (SIM) in your ecommerce, you’ll notice lots of benefits mostly surrounding inventory control and workflows. But it can improve some other aspects of your business as well, like marketing, margins, and accounting.

It’s all about data, and this moves far beyond the limitations of preventing out-of-stocks by reordering goods faster. While there are software opportunities, such as using SIM to integrate your warehouse and ecommerce platform to allow customers to see what’s available and shipping times 24/7, we’re looking at bigger business processes that can have an impact on company culture, leadership, and communication.

These are some of the biggest bangs for your buck because they help you keep the business healthy.

Saving money from inexperienced purchasing decisions

One benefit of SIM technology is that you will have up-to-date access to current inventory information. This will prevent the purchase of unnecessary amounts of additional inventory. You will save money by only making purchases you will need.

You are also able to save money by being smarter about how inventory is stored. Locating goods at the proper places within your warehouses or strategically around the country in partner fulfillment locations can save you significantly on the time it takes to ship an order and the cost a shipment takes to reach your average customer.

In the warehouse, SIM helps you move inventory to shelves that reduce walking and movement, making your team faster at getting orders out the door. For partners, SIM can help you track the data you need to get a better understanding of where your customers live and how they shop. So, you’ll be able to select warehouse or fulfillment partners located near to them and provide these locations with the right mix of goods so that they can continually fulfill orders without any risk of running out of stock.

Financial Reporting

Accurately knowing your inventory, storage costs, and more data make it easier for your ecommerce store to understand its overall health. You get a complete snapshot at the expense of goods over their lifetime in your care, especially if you link up SIM with your marketing data.

You get a 360-degree view on each item, including sourcing and production, shipment to your warehouse, storage, delivery to customers, and any returns. You may be surprised to learn what the total margins on your goods are, helping you understand what to promote and sell as well as what products it might be time to phase out of your offers.

Plus, it is in these reports that many companies first acknowledge and get a complete picture of their dead-stock: what never gets sold and just slowly eats away at your overall income.

Give leadership and your accountants the ability to understand the costs of your business entirely and discover what you can best manage and change to maintain a healthy ecommerce offering.

Developing New Sales Opportunities

One reason we really like SIM tools is that they make it easier to track your overall sales and look for patterns. Plus, you can test upsell and cross-sell efforts more easily with all this new data.

Combining your products, through efforts like kitting, allows you to leverage your products for the best return both in the immediate and the long-term. You can sell multiple items together, reduce inventory levels (and related storage costs), and even get rid of things that are sitting on shelves for too long.

Customers like it because it’s convenient for them when the products work together. If you add the right set of products, kits can make your offers more useful, less costly, or start a need to reorder from you. This is common in most industries, and one of the best examples are razors that come packaged with a series of disposable heads. The customer gets the handle and heads together and then has to go back to you to get the next set.

Returns and More

Another area to consider for your smart inventory management system heads back to the warehouse but touches on many of the other elements we’ve discussed: returned goods.

Returns present a significant problem for most ecommerce businesses. You have to figure out how to approve and process the customer’s request, handle the items themselves as they come back to you, potentially repackage and resell these, and eat much of the sale cost even if you’re charging a restocking fee.

Customers returning goods tend to be unhappy and want you to automate as much of this process as possible, and they expect an email from you to include things like a shipping label.

SIM tools can integrate with your order system to generate the information the customer needs automatically. Giving your own shipping labels within an SMI also helps you out by updating your team with package tracking data, so they know what to expect and when. You’re able to manage customer expectations and prep your warehouse, minimizing the disruption.

The same system can also record information from customers about the nature of a return, giving you a feedback loop into product development and sales, helping you adjust based on price, materials, or other information.

We’re seeing a rise SIMs on their own as well as integrated with tools like ERPs because being smarter about your inventory cuts down on costs, keeps your warehouses efficient, and makes it easier to manage your business. It’s time for every ecommerce store to start considering a smarter tech stack that includes inventory controls.

Improve Customer Service

It all comes down to customer service, one of the core differentiators in the world of ecommerce. With so many drop-shipping companies, Amazon sellers, small shops, and global partners, it can be challenging to stand out on product selection alone.

So, one way companies are building a competitive advantage is by developing best-in-class customer service. Inventory management is a core part of this even though it doesn’t seem like it. Inventory management allows you to keep filling orders and even get ahead of spikes in orders that are new or seasonal by giving you smarter business analytics.

When you’re ready to ship immediately, instead of having to wait for a new restock, customers are happier. They also like it when your returns policy and other policies are clear and easy to understand. Greater knowledge of your inventory makes it easier to control those types of concerns, allowing you to simplify any steps your customers have to take.

Run a smoother business and have happier customers just by developing better control of your inventory.

Jake Rheude is the Director of Marketing for Red Stag Fulfillment, an ecommerce fulfillment warehouse that was born out of ecommerce. He has years of experience in ecommerce and business development. In his free time, Jake enjoys reading about business and sharing his own experience with others.

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Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

Smart Logistics: Catalysts Changing the Logistics Sector

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The logistics industry is watching closely as United States and China negotiate to resolve their trade war amidst the threat of higher tariffs starting March 1. At stake is $635 billion in annual trade – China exports $505 billion and imports $130 billion with the US[i]. These negotiations have repercussions for the global economy well beyond the US and China. Many industries engage vast trade networks that span myriad countries leaving few markets or nations exempt from these talks. For the US alone, which imports $2.3 trillion and exports $1.5 trillion annually[ii], its entire trade regime is now in play.

Countries are not alone in broiling trade disputes. This month XPO issued a profit warning citing the expected loss of $600M[iii], or 3.5%, of revenue from an unnamed customer. Amazon, widely believed to be XPO’s unidentified customer, is expanding its own logistics capacity. The expansion of e-commerce has been a boon for the logistics industry and bane for traditional retailers. Now as Amazon develops its own distribution capability, logistics providers and retailers alike are threatened. 

Global Logistics – an Industry in Transition

Ecommerce has been a key growth driver for the global logistics industry, which is expected to grow 7.5% annually from $8.1 trillion in 2015 to $15.5 trillion in 2023[iv]. The logistics of delivering directly to consumers is far more intensive than distributing in bulk to big box retailers. Long haul full truckload remains the largest market segment in logistics with a 70% share, yet less than truckload, parcel and intermodal – which together comprise 15% share of the logistics market – are fastest growing. 

The politics of logistics extends beyond trade disputes. US freight employs over three million truck drivers. As the graph below indicates, trucking is the largest employer in 29 of 50 states across the US. The American Trucking Association estimates a need for an additional 900,000 truckers[v] over the next ten years to keep up with demand. The industry already faces a shortage of over 50,000 drivers[vi]amidst the need to replace an aging workforce: 57% of US truckers are over 45 years old and 37% are over 55[vii]. Given the backlash over Amazon’s recent pullback of a second headquarters in New York City for 25,000 jobs[viii], one might imagine the political stakes involved with four million truck drivers across the US in the coming decade. 

Logistics – a Magnet for Venture Capital Investment

Venture capital has poured into the logistics sector in recent years. In 2018, global venture investment in logistics reached nearly $14 billion, more than the three previous years combined. Funding for supply chain, logistics and shipping businesses continues to grow in 2019. In February alone, investors have committed over $5 billion to the logistics sector. Major financings include a $1 billion investment in Flexport for intermodal logistics, $940 million in Nuro for its self-driving delivery vans, $700 million in Rivian for electric delivery vehicles, $400 million in DoorDash for local food delivery, and $300 million in Hong Kong-based Lalamove for last mile delivery. 

Five catalysts are driving innovation and investment in the logistics sector:

Ecommerce: Online retail continues to cannibalize physical retail. Ecommerce in the US reached 9.8% of total US retail in 2018, nearly triple the share of retail ten years earlier[ix]. Ecommerce is growing even faster in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Traditional retailers are embracing omnichannel marketing as ecommerce extends to more retailing categories. The physical landscape will change dramatically in the decade as ecommerce players build more warehousing capacity replacing stores due to overcapacity in the traditional retail sector.

Crowdsourcing: Much as Uber, Lyft and Didi among others have disrupted the taxi industry through crowdsourced drivers, the gig economy is infiltrating the logistics sector enabling new services. Consumers are the biggest beneficiary through the rise of the concierge economy. Crowdsourcing has lowered delivery costs making home deliveries available for a broader range of items. Food delivery has received most funding with the rise of Uber Eats globally, Doordash and Postmates in the US, Just Eat and Deliveroo in Europe, Swiggy in India, and Meituan in China.  

Intelligent Automation: The securities brokerage industry has gone digital in the past two decades. The logistics brokerage industry still runs on phone calls and fax machines with limited price transparency and inefficiencies borne by limited supply chain visibility. Digital brokerage is now coming to the logistics sector through the confluence of sensors, cloud and intelligent automation. ELD and camera technology now monitor drivers reducing wait times, reducing accident risk, and helping to adjudicate cases when accidents occur. Venture backed companies that have raised $100 million or more in the US alone include Convoy, Flexport, Nauto, Next Trucking and Transfix, amongst others.

Electric Vehicles: The prospect of replacing diesel trucks is as welcome as replacing gas vehicles in the consumer sector. Tesla is now tackling the challenges of transporting large trucking payloads. Others are as well including the recently funded Rivian Automotive and Thor Trucks.

Autonomous Technology: End-to-end autonomous trucking may still be decades away yet the use of autonomous technology in logistics is already live in the warehouse with pilots underway for first and last mile as well as interstate long-haul deliveries. Autonomous delivery startups announced over $1.5 billion in February alone, including Endeavor Robotics, Ike and Nuro in the US and AutoAI, Mogu Zhixing and TuSimple in China. 

Logistics is a vast sector ripe for innovation across the supply chain.  Entrepreneurs and investors have flocked to logistics seeking to disrupt an industry representing over 5% of the US economy. While investment in logistics has increased substantially, funding has focused on major sectors. We believe many opportunities remain for further innovation across the supply chain as new technologies such as robotics, autonomous vehicles and machine learning develop for the logistics sector.    

[i] Stifel analyst report

[ii] Stifel analyst report

[iii] https://www.thestreet.com/investing/xpo-plummets-on-earnings-miss-and-warning-about-2019-14868169

[iv] https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-logistics-market-to-reach-us155-trillion-by-2023-research-report-published-by-transparency-market-research-597595561.html. 

[v] May 2018 Techcrunch article

[vi] May 2018 Techcrunch article

[vii] Stifel analyst report

[viii] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/opinion/amazon-new-york.html

[ix] https://ycharts.com/indicators/ecommerce_sales_as_percent_retail_sales