Warehouse managers have a lot on their plate. Maintaining safety requirements with warehouse efficiency adds up to a delicate balance of numbers, products, and the people that make the warehouse more than just a building. Key performance indicators (KPIs) keep track of the effectiveness of the multiple moving parts within each warehouse. KPI tracking provides companies with actionable analytics to guide future expansion, minimize costs and give employees a goal to reach company-wide. 

Every day countless industries and individuals depend on 18-wheelers to provide for almost every need. Yet, it took a pandemic for the supply chain to finally get its five minutes of fame. Although many articles and news segments discussed the pandemic’s effect on the supply chain, transportation and logistics experts have watched the industry’s weak spots, such as the container chassis shortage, develop over the last few decades. The chassis is the wheeled trailer component that connects to the truck and carries the container itself. 

As many industries and people shed off the strategies and relationships required through the pandemic, drayage logistics management continues to be defined as “It’s Complicated.” Atypical weather patterns, pandemic shockwaves, and stuck cargo vessels have changed what is required when planning drayage services. As a result, dray teams need to be resilient, efficient and have supply chain visibility because they never know when the next wave of issues will hit. Yet, 2022 shipping has continued to be marked by an overwhelmed market with inadequate carrier capacity to move containers to and from ports.

Port truck turn time should ideally be a cut-and-dry process. A container is picked up at a truck port, delivered, and returned to the port. 

Shipping and transportation industry services concerning port drayage are constantly changing and adapting to current market trends and customer demands. Of all the services involved with efficient shipping,  drayage shipping services are among the most critical. According to a Supply Chain 24/7 article, “The truck driver shortfall hit 80,000 drivers in 2021 and is expected to grow to 160,000 by 2030.” Those statistics demonstrate how important drayage container shipping and transportation remains. 

The supply chain and freight management industry, in general, have experienced unprecedented levels of change and upheaval over the past few years for those specializing in import management and logistics. In times like these, with ongoing market instability and volatility in nearly every niche, the importance of 3PLs cannot be overstated. Freight management services remain in high demand, even as growth and recovery from supply chain failures and disruptions continue. Navigating the complicated waters of shipping in 2022 requires industry partnerships and expert guidance.

Many things impact the day-to-day operations of your local trucking company, but the most impactful often are the most mundane seeming of them all. Load management and capacity procurement inefficiencies remain the highest issues many transportation companies face. Therefore, knowing today's top trends impacting the trucking industry and in-demand shipping services is critical for ongoing growth and recovery.

“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.” For Port City Logistics, one of the largest third-party logistics service providers in the Southeastern United States, those words are as true today as they were when noted novelist Robert Louis Stevenson first said them nearly 150 years ago. Coming off its best year yet, Port City continues to plant the seeds that will drive the company’s projected double-digit growth (67%) for 2022 and beyond.

In 2019 many in the supply chain saw a lagging ability to compete as the industry maintained its reputation for being slow to adapt to technology. The following year, COVID-19 wreaked havoc in a process that was already more complicated than local freight shipping from Point A to Point B. As shippers continue to rebound from the pandemic, many are looking for ways to utilize strategy and technology to promote business resiliency. Supply Chain 24/7 noted that “In today’s highly competitive warehouse logistics market, leading 3PL warehouses to recognize the need to keep operational costs low in order to maintain their margins and effectively serve their customers.”

There are many questions to ponder in logistics, including what is a 3PL and how it can help my business thrive? The answers rest in both consolidated freight shippers’ services and outsourced expertise. Freight rates will likely continue to rise through the remainder of 2022, according to Business Insider. “The Freightos Baltic Index — a measure of global shipping prices — sat at $9,488 on March 18, meaning it cost nearly $10,000 on average to ship a 40-foot freight container. That’s almost seven times higher than the March 2020 reading of $1,400. While that’s down from the highs seen in the fall of 2021, it’s still holding at extremely elevated levels.”