Market volatility and a fast-paced technology environment are converging to create opportunities in transportation markets, freight leaders told attendees at a less-than-truckload (LTL) industry conference taking place in Florida this week.

These are “exciting times for everyone in this room,” FedEx Freight President and CEO John Smith told attendees at SMC3 Connections, which runs through Wednesday, July 1, at The Breakers Palm Beach. Roughly 400 people turned out for the event, representing LTL carriers, freight brokers, technology companies, and logistics service providers.

In a one-on-one interview with Elisabeth Barna of EAB Strategies, Smith talked about industry conditions and market opportunities in LTL in light of FedEx Freight’s recent spin-off from FedEx Corp., which was completed June 1. The move created an independent, publicly traded company in the North American LTL industry.

Smith discussed FedEx Freight’s “tremendous journey” over the past year, describing the need to unbundle the organization from its parent company—which required investments in people and technology. Those investments included hiring 500 LTL-focused salespeople and adding nearly 900 to its IT group, according to Smith.

Those and other efforts will help the company achieve its goal to penetrate new markets—including small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), healthcare companies, data centers, and the food and beverage industry—as well as expand its already vast coverage across North America. This spin-off makes FedEx Freight the largest pure-play LTL carrier in North America, with 26,000 dock doors throughout the region.

Smith and others pointed to the extended downturn in freight markets over the past few years as a catalyst for the changes taking place in the industry as well—and as a driver of resiliency on a larger scale, noting that he expects a slow recovery from the longest down market in recent history.

The shifting market conditions have opened the door to new entrants in LTL as well, most notably Amazon Freight, which earlier this month expanded its inbound-to-Amazon lanes to reach any type of destination, including third-party warehouses, distribution centers, and retail partners. The move continues a steady expansion of the e-commerce giant’s logistics operations, which began with an in-house fleet and has expanded to serve its sellers’ LTL needs and now offers those services to the broader marketplace, according to Morgan Roberts, principal and supply chain manager at Amazon Freight.

“Our progression has been intentional,” Roberts told SMC³ Connections attendees, also in a one-on-one interview.

Operating under Amazon Supply Chain Services, Amazon Freight adds LTL service with a fleet of more than 80,000 trailers and 24,000 intermodal containers.

With California’s Individual Source Reduction Plan deadline of August 1 fast approaching, brands selling packaged products in California are under pressure to model, document, and submit defensible plans to reduce pollution, industry experts say.

To reach that goal, those plans must follow options in five approved source reduction pathways: Material Switching, Lightweighting, PCR Content, Elimination, and Reuse/Refill, according to rePurpose Global, a firm that provides a packaging compliance and sustainability platform.

The California rule is one of a growing number of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, which generally mean that producers are now financially responsible for the collection and processing of their product packaging. Other states with similar laws being debated in courts or statehouses include Maryland and Oregon.

New York-based rePurpose says its “Packaging Simulator” product offers a solution, providing a tool that gives consumer brands real-time impact modeling across every packaging decision, replacing months of manual spreadsheet analysis with one-click scenario comparisons. “California’s SB 54 is the most significant packaging regulation the U.S. consumer industry has faced this century, and most brands are still trying to navigate it with tools that weren’t built for it,” Manika Doshi, CEO of rePurpose Global, said in a release.

However, a different kind of solution may come from the courts, since last week the industry group National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) said it had joined 17 attorneys general in a federal legal challenge to the California EPR Law. The coalition led by Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers opposes California's “Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act,” known as SB 54.

Along with Nebraska, the attorneys general of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia joined the action. The coalition is asking the court to block enforcement of California's EPR law while the case proceeds.

According to that group, California's “vast and complex law” requires businesses to register with and pay fees to the Circular Action Alliance (CAA), a private DC-based entity appointed by the state and authorized to both set and collect fees on everything from glass and aluminum to paper, cardboard, and plastic packaging.

"No state should limit interstate commerce, let alone delegate the power to set and collect taxes to a third party outside of the scope of public scrutiny," said Eric Hoplin, President and CEO of NAW. "A federal court blocked enforcement of a similar law in Oregon earlier this year, and we are asking the court to do the same in California.”

Truck fleets around the world report that driver recruitment difficulties are worsening, with that shortage topping operators’ concerns across most surveyed markets, according to a global driver shortage report from world road transport organization group IRU.

IRU researchers found that the driver shortage is the most pressing concern for 65% of operators in Europe. And even as that challenge lingers, fleets will soon begin to lose may of their most experienced employees, since around 20% of Europe’s driver workforce and 24% of Australia’s are expected to retire within five years.

Counting nations across different regions, IRU’s 2025 driver shortage survey found that around 2.9 million truck driver positions, equivalent to 11% of the workforce, remain unfilled across 18 markets. Europe has one of the highest shortage rates, at 13%, representing around 502,000 unfilled truck driver positions. But in almost every market surveyed, the 2025 shortage rate was higher than the 2021 baseline.

That shortage is no longer closely linked to short-term economic cycles. Instead, four dominant factors are: ageing workforces, barriers to entry, a lack of adequate infrastructure, and changing expectations about work. Specifically, changing workforce expectations are making long-haul driving less attractive to younger generations.

Reasons for the trend also vary by geography. In Europe and Australia, demographics are the main pressure. In Mexico and Brazil, structural labor constraints and underdeveloped training pathways keep shortage rates high. And in Uzbekistan and China, freight demand is growing faster than the supply of available drivers.

The pressure is particularly severe for long-haul operators and smaller companies. Operators with fewer than 50 employees reported shortage rates 6 percentage points higher than those of large companies. One reason for that: Small operators with fewer than ten employees, which account for 98% of EU road freight enterprises and 79% of the workforce, often have fewer resources to invest in recruitment, training and international hiring.

The report also listed possible solutions.

• Women and younger people remain heavily underrepresented. So removing barriers to training, improving facilities, and modernizing the image of the profession could open access to a much wider pool of potential drivers.
• Pay remains important, but operators increasingly describe a “wage wall”. Higher wages alone are no longer enough to attract or retain drivers. Rather, increasingly decisive variables include: cab and trailer conditions, secure parking, time at home, predictable schedules, and work-life balance.
• Isolated company-level action is unlikely to be enough. The report points to examples from Finland, the Netherlands, and Türkiye where cooperation between operators, associations, and public authorities has helped create more effective recruitment pipelines.

“IRU is calling for coordinated action from governments and industry. The shortage cannot be solved by recruitment campaigns alone,” IRU Secretary General Umberto de Pretto said. “The sector must improve the quality of the job and make professional driving a career that people can enter, build and remain in.”

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) tech are enabling chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) to drive business value, strengthen resilience, and reimagine operating models, according to a report from analyst firm Gartner about the top supply chain technology trends for 2026.

That shift is being shaped by three overarching themes: autonomy and agency, specialization and intelligence, and trust and governance. In Gartner’s view, those themes reflect a shift toward intelligent, self-directed and accountable systems that operate seamlessly across digital and physical environments.

“This year’s trends highlight the growing role of AI as the foundation for more autonomous, intelligent and adaptive supply chains,” said Christian Titze, VP Analyst and Chief of Research in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice. “As organizations move toward hyperconnected, AI-driven environments, leaders must focus not only on deploying advanced technologies, but also on ensuring they work together to deliver measurable value and long-term resilience.”

Among those three overarching themes, the eight top trends in supply chain technology for 2026 are:

Autonomy and Agency Theme

1. Polyfunctional Robots

Advances in AI, machine learning and robotics engineering are enabling robots to take on multiple tasks beyond their original design. These flexible systems offer a new workforce model, particularly in environments facing labor shortages, though widespread adoption will evolve over time.

2. Physical AI

Bringing AI into physical operations, this technology combines AI models with IoT sensors, robotics and automation systems to enable real-time sensing, analysis and execution across supply chain environments. It enhances operational efficiency, safety and adaptability across manufacturing, warehousing and transportation.

3. Agentic AI

A class of AI systems is emerging that introduces a virtual workforce of agents that move beyond insights to execution, capable of planning, acting and adapting to achieve goals in complex environments. As adoption expands, organizations must establish guardrails to ensure explainability, accountability and responsible use.

4. Collaborative Multiagent Systems (MAS)

Extending the capabilities of individual AI agents, these systems enable multiple agents to work together across workflows and environments, each specializing in a specific task or domain. By coordinating these agents, organizations can automate complex, multistep processes and improve scalability and adaptability, while requiring strong governance to manage emerging risks.

Specialization and Intelligence Theme

5. Intelligent Simulation

Enhancing traditional modeling approaches, intelligent simulation integrates AI, machine learning and advanced analytics into simulation models to improve predictive capabilities and decision making. It enables more dynamic planning across logistics, transportation and warehouse operations, supporting a shift toward proactive and adaptive supply chain management.

6. Domain-Specific Language Models

Designed for targeted business needs, these models are trained or fine-tuned for specialized supply chain use cases, delivering greater accuracy, reliability and compliance than general-purpose AI models. They enable improved performance in areas such as knowledge management, compliance, workflow automation and decision support.

Trust and Governance Theme

7. Product Provenance

Growing demand for transparency and regulatory compliance is driving the need to trace and verify the origin and journey of products across the supply chain. Technologies such as AI, blockchain and knowledge graphs are advancing the ability to scale provenance across complex supply networks.

8. Decision Governance

As AI adoption scales, organizations are implementing frameworks and guardrails to govern AI-enabled decision making, ensuring transparency, accountability and compliance. This approach is essential to building trust and enabling high-quality, auditable decisions across complex supply chain processes.

As shifting tariffs and soaring fuel prices continue to hamstring global container volumes, South Carolina Ports says it will temporarily close operations at its Leatherman Terminal starting August 1.

In a statement on June 25, SC Ports said it “plans to pause operations at Leatherman Terminal as of Aug. 1 as the industry faces numerous headwinds, an uncertain trade forecast and tempered volumes.”

According to SC Ports, the decision aligns with the port’s continued focus on cost competitiveness to ensure the business is well-positioned for growth. “We are working with our maritime partners to make this business decision to achieve long-term, sustainable growth,” SC Ports President and CEO Micah Mallace said. “We all want to retain current business and attract new business to Charleston.”

When Leatherman Terminal comes offline, the port will consolidate container operations to its Wando and North Charleston terminals, which it said offer ample port capacity to customers needing access to the Southeast market.

Global container flows have been whiplashed in recent months by swiftly changing tariff rates, violent conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, and fuel prices driven to high points by the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran. In response to those impacts, peak shipping season has begun earlier than usual, container shipping rates have climbed higher, and the Port of Los Angeles has forecasted a 7% slowdown in container traffic for the coming year.

The international IFOY competition for innovative material handling products has named the winners of its 2026 awards, the group said Friday.

This year’s 14^th annual version of the International Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) Award attracted a total of 49 products and solutions as entrants. From that pool, 17 products and solutions qualified for the finals and underwent the multi-stage IFOY Audit in April.

Jungheinrich claimed victory in the premier IFOY category, Integrated Customer Solutions, in a photo-finish decision. The Hamburg-based intralogistics specialist impressed the jury with an AI-powered warehouse management solution developed for Liebherr’s new central spare parts distribution center in Ehingen, Germany.

“Artificial intelligence is the defining technology of our time, and it was the dominant theme of this year’s IFOY AWARD competition. During the audit process, the finalists demonstrated impressively what can already be achieved in real-world operations using AI. The final decision was a nail-biter, full of surprises, in an exceptionally strong field of competitors,” said Anita Würmser, executive chairperson of the IFOY Jury.

The award ceremony, attended by around 150 guests from industry, academia, politics, and the media, was hosted by IFOY event partner AEB at its corporate headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

In other results, a first in the competition’s history occurred in the Robot Warehouse System category, where a tie in the jury voting resulted in a shared victory for Libiao Robotics and Nomagic. Additional awards were presented to Idealworks, The Mobile Robot Company, and Wiltsche Fördersysteme. And Germany-based Pyck was named IFOY Start-up of the Year 2026.

In the latest sign of recovery from a three-year recession in the over-the-road freight sector, truck freight rates rose considerably in April and May, according to the latest quarterly U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index – Rates Edition, which is produced in collaboration with DAT Freight & Analytics.

By the numbers, the data revealed that spot rates were up 31.29% in May compared with a year earlier, reflecting a significant acceleration over the past several months. Contract rates increased 9% year over year.

Measured on a mileage basis, spot rates increased from $1.89 per mile in March to $1.95 in April and climbed further to $2.14 in May. Contract rates, meanwhile, moved from $2.09 in March to $2.14 in April and $2.18 in May.

At the same time, shipment activity declined throughout the quarter. Spot volumes fell from approximately 1.36 million in March to 1.11 million in May, while contract volumes dropped from roughly 852,000 to 739,000 (-13.3%), indicating that rate increases occurred alongside softer demand conditions.

“For shippers, the key takeaway is how quickly spot rates have ramped up over the past few months. Even with lower volumes, costs are rising as capacity tightens,” said Jeff Pape, Head of Transportation for U.S. Bank Corporate Payment Systems.

“The figures holding steady point to a lasting shift, rather than a temporary anomaly. Shippers who track the data can adjust their budgets around these higher baselines, while those who don't may risk planning on outdated cost assumptions," said Patrick Pretorius, GM, Shipper at DAT Freight & Analytics.

Freight broker C.H. Robinson has acquired DeSpir Logistics, an Illinois-based provider of secure transportation solutions and cargo escort services for mission-critical, high-value freight across North America.

According to Minnesota-based C.H. Robinson, the June 22 acquisition strengthens its capabilities in premium, defensible services where security, compliance, and execution excellence are key decision drivers. That builds on the company’s ability to deliver tailored solutions for highly sensitive, regulated shipments across industries such as healthcare, life sciences, data centers, aerospace, and high-value retail — where precision, pre-planning, and real-time visibility are critical.

Demand for these services is accelerating as supply chains become more complex and cargo theft grows more sophisticated, the firm said. “With DeSpir, we’re strengthening how we help customers move freight that requires an extra layer of protection. This is the kind of cargo where the stakes are incredibly high, like life-saving pharmaceuticals that must stay within strict temperature ranges, or critical data center equipment that is frequently targeted for theft,” said Adam McDonough, vice president of committed assets.

Global jewelry brand Pandora is transforming its warehouse operations, one corner of the world at a time.

The company has embarked on a modernization project spanning enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, warehouse management systems (WMS), transportation management systems (TMS), and global visibility platforms to support rapid growth, sustainability goals, and an increasingly digital retail ecosystem. With a complex global footprint that includes manufacturing facilities and distribution centers (DCs) in Thailand, Europe, and North America, alongside an extensive third-party logistics (3PL) network, the company needed a scalable, flexible foundation capable of orchestrating operations across regions and channels.

Company leaders turned to supply chain technology company Hardis Supply Chain and its flexible WMS for that foundation, beginning in Europe and Thailand, where the system has been installed and is now up and running, with plans for implementation in North America this summer.

​THE CHALLENGE

Pandora manufactures most of its products in-house and operates three company-owned distribution centers: in Hamburg, Germany; Baltimore; and Bangkok. As the company continued to scale globally, it identified the need to modernize warehouse execution as part of a broader transformation of its supply chain technology landscape. The business needed a WMS that could keep pace with growth, support its unique operational requirements, and deliver a better experience for DC teams.Key challenges included:

• Growth at scale: Pandora’s existing WMS could not support the volume and complexity of millions of pieces moving in and out of the DCs.
• Constraints on allocation logic: The previous solution could not support the more complex allocation scenarios the business required.
• Limited visibility: Pandora needed better inventory visibility to support global allocation and fulfillment decisions.
• Usability for DC teams: The system was not intuitive for operators, making everyday work harder than it needed to be.

​THE SOLUTION

The Hardis WMS provides key elements for Pandora’s transformation, including:

• Support for complex, multiflow distribution: The WMS enables concurrent flows from manufacturing into distribution centers and from distribution centers to company-owned stores, franchises, wholesalers, and B-to-B partners, supporting continuous optimization across the network.
• Real-time visibility and flexible reporting: Configurable dashboards and role-based reporting provide end-to-end insight into inventory, throughput, and performance, enabling faster, data-driven decision-making.
• Customization aligned to Pandora’s operating model:} Tailored allocation and prioritization logic allows Pandora to dynamically respond to demand signals, margin considerations, and partner commitments, reducing idle inventory and improving service levels.
• Tight integration with enterprise systems: The WMS rollout aligns closely with Pandora’s migration to SAP S/4Hana and a new TMS, supporting stability during peak seasons while improving orchestration across the supply chain.
• A collaborative “one team” execution model: Hardis Supply Chain worked closely with Pandora teams throughout design, testing, and deployment, translating business requirements into solutions that perform in real-world operations.

​THE RESULTS

Despite going live shortly before peak season, the system delivered strong performance improvements early on. These included the following:

• Reduced operational disruptions: High-severity system incidents decreased by approximately 50% compared to previous benchmarks.
• Improved system stability: The company has reported faster incident containment and stronger adherence to service-level agreements.
• Enhanced inventory visibility: Real-time transparency has supported more accurate allocation and fulfillment decisions.
• High-volume scalability: The platform supports daily throughput of approximately 187,000 units, scaling up to 666,000 during peak periods.
• Stronger fulfillment execution: The jeweler has seen improved reliability in meeting partner commitments and customer demand.

The WMS rollout to North America this summer will further standardize operations across regions and support continued growth in the U.S. market, according to the companies.

The number of shipping containers lost at sea more than doubled in 2025, driven by some major maritime accidents and severe weather, according to the World Shipping Council, which released its 2026 Containers Lost at Sea Report Thursday.

An estimated 1,478 containers were lost at sea last year, up from 576 in 2024 and above the recent three-year average. Despite the increase, container losses remain rare, according to WSC: The nearly 1,500 lost were out of approximately 280 million containers transported globally last year, which is equivalent to 0.0005% of container movement around the world.

One vessel loss alone accounted 43% of all containers lost during the year: The Liberia-flagged MSC ELSA 3 sank off the cost of Kochi, India, in May 2025, losing 640 containers.

Challenging weather and ocean conditions, particularly in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, were key contributors to container losses as well, according to the report.

WSC also reported that 128 containers were recovered in 2025—the highest recovery figure recorded since the organization began gathering recovery data in 2023.

The report, which is available for download, also highlights ongoing work to improve container and cargo safety.

Today’s warehouses are becoming showplaces for modern technology as companies seek to create more flexible, safe, and efficient workflows within their facilities. Warehouses buzzing with autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) or featuring high-density grid-based automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) are becoming increasingly common across the logistics landscape—and they require considerable care and attention when companies go to design and implement the best solutions for the job.

Workstations are essential components of those systems, providing places where associates interact with robotics and automated equipment to perform vital tasks—picking and placing items at a port connected to the AS/RS, for example, or packing items delivered to a station by an AMR. Although they are one small part of the larger system, workstations deserve the same scrutiny during planning and implementation, automation design experts say.

We asked Dan Cahalan, sales director at warehouse automation technology specialist Swisslog, and Ben Ferrell, senior director of product management for high-density case and tote storage solutions at automated material handling solutions provider Dematic, for their insights on what goes into designing the best workstations for today’s modern warehouses. Here are excerpts from our conversation.

DC Velocity: Let’s talk about the best approaches to take when designing warehouse workstations. What are the first steps you take with customers?

Ben Ferrell: The first step in recommending a workstation design is to fully understand the customer’s operation. This means mapping the process the workstation will support, identifying pain points, and having a clear definition of what success looks like.

Early conversations should focus on where the operation is losing time, space, labor efficiency, accuracy, or safety with very specific goals attached. Keeping ROI [return on investment] in mind as early as possible is key when designing a brand-new workstation.

A critical part of this early discovery involves both operations leadership and front-line operators. While leadership provides strategic priorities and performance targets, operators often surface practical, day-to-day insights that don’t appear in standard KPIs [key performance indicators] but can significantly impact the effectiveness of the solution.

Dan Cahalan: Typically, what we start with is understanding the business requirement for the system and the business requirement for an individual at a workstation. So if you’re at a picking port, what is this individual going to be responsible for? Are they going to be responsible for picking an item, scanning it, tagging it, applying a label, putting it in a box, [and/or] building the box? Describing the user process is always the first step. Then, we use that process to determine the approximate user rate [the speed at which an associate will work at a given workstation], and that’s how we determine the total number of workstations needed.

DC Velocity: How do ergonomics come into play, and what are best practices in that regard?

Ferrell: Ergonomics should be built into workstation design from the beginning, not only to protect worker safety but also because strong ergonomic design directly impacts throughput, quality, and employee retention, especially in labor-constrained markets. It also plays a key role in managing fatigue across shifts, helping sustain consistent performance over time. Best practices include minimizing bending, twisting, reaching, lifting, and repetitive motion; keeping products, tools, screens, and scanners within the operator’s optimal work zone; and using adjustable platforms or station features for different worker heights.

Our team uses the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) [ergonomic survey tool] to help ensure workstation solutions achieve a low-risk ergonomic score. Fortunately, implementing strategic robotic picking automation solutions reduces manual activities that cause repetitive stress injuries, and these solutions only continue to improve by the day.

Cahalan: Most equipment providers will have “standard” workstations that are designed to cover a wide range of applications—and designed to be widely ergonomically acceptable according to some industry standards—so you can generally trust that a workstation being implemented meets some level of physical ergonomic standards.

The less-frequently considered component of workstation ergonomics is noise. It’s something not every customer considers, but the ones that do take it very seriously. For example, some customers require that the noise level at a workstation be less than 75 decibels.

DC Velocity: How does customer input factor into ergonomics?

Cahalan: Customer input is arguably the largest factor. I previously mentioned standard workstation ergonomics, but a step further is to have a customer that takes ergonomics seriously and demands ergonomic advancement beyond the standard. As an example, I have a customer that takes safety extremely seriously, devoting a considerable amount of engineering effort to ergonomics. That customer has a robust ergonomic standard and challenged us to redesign a standard workstation in such a way that it accommodates all of its ergonomic standards. It is often a matter of how high the customer’s standards are for workstation design in terms of how ergonomically “thoughtful” the workstation will be.

DC Velocity: What are some common mistakes warehouses make when implementing workstations?

Ferrell: The most common mistake we see is treating workstations as an isolated piece of equipment instead of part of a larger fulfillment system. Even a well-designed station can underperform if the two are not aligned.

Another frequent issue we see is underestimating training and change management. No matter how well designed a workstation is, operations will struggle if operators aren’t brought along in the transition.

Other common mistakes include designing for average volume instead of accounting for peak demand; prioritizing speed while overlooking ergonomic risk; failing to account for product variability and SKU [stock-keeping unit] proliferation; and not planning for lifecycle support or future upgrades.

Cahalan: I think some mistakes that people make are projecting their own body into a workspace. Oftentimes, people project themselves into these workspaces without taking the extra effort of using an ergonomic chart or using a human-factors resource of some sort—failing to consider bodies (height, weight, reach) different from theirs. The other thing that happens often is that people will cut small, “penny” corners to save money that could have a massive impact on the ergonomics and on the sustained user rate.

Another mistake people make is forcing the user at a workstation to make too many decisions. Whatever you can do to make it so that the user can stay present with their hands and not have to move around to read a screen—that’s important. A user should only have to go to a screen if something is wrong.

DC Velocity: How do you plan and design for future growth?

Ferrell: Today’s workstations should be designed to be modular, scalable, and flexible. In many cases, systems can operate for 15 to 30 years. Because of these long lifespans, maintaining support and modernization while investing in upgrades if needed is extremely important to the long-term success of the workstation.

SKU proliferation, labor availability, and service expectation changes can all make for a more varied supply chain. Workstations must be designed to reflect this. Some options include:

• Leaving room for additional stations;
• Allowing for future robotic integration at the station;
• Designing layouts that can flex with changing volume;
• Using modular subsystems;
• Building in capacity for peak periods;
• Ensuring software and controls can support new workflows over time.The best workstations don’t just support today’s operation; they also evolve with it. When productivity, ergonomics, scalability, and lifecycle considerations complement each other, it sets operations up for success in the near term while preparing for the future.

Cahalan: I would say, build your system with expansion in mind.

Home delivery is more challenging than ever for retailers, as a survey from consulting firm AlixPartners shows that consumers now expect free delivery in under three days, 52% will boycott a retailer after just 1–2 botched deliveries, and 64% of executives say home delivery is not yet profitable.

Those numbers show that home delivery has become the decisive battleground for customer loyalty, yet the economics of fulfillment continue to deteriorate for most retailers. The figures come from 14th annual Home Delivery Survey of U.S. consumers and supply chain executives.

According to the firm, the most striking finding in this year's survey is the accelerating compression of consumer delivery expectations. Free shipping is now a near-universal demand. 94% of consumers say free shipping impacts their purchase decisions, with nearly 70% saying it has a 'great impact.' Two in three shoppers abandon their cart entirely when shipping fees exceed approximately $10, and more than 25% expect $0 shipping as a baseline.

Yet at the same time, speed expectations have tightened in parallel. Consumers now expect free delivery in an average of 2.7 days — down from 3.5+ days in prior years — with expectations varying sharply by category, from 0.9 days for grocery and food to 3.2 days for large general merchandise. More than 20% of demand is estimated to be at risk when these timing expectations are not met.

“The speed and free shipping expectations consumers hold today were once reserved for Amazon Prime members. They are now the floor — not the ceiling — for every category of retail,” said Marc Iampieri, Global Co-Leader of Logistics & Transportation and Partner & Managing Director at AlixPartners. “Retailers who treat home delivery as a cost line to minimize, rather than a customer experience to invest in, are quietly surrendering loyalty they may never recover.”

Additional results show that the delivery imperative comes at a painful financial cost to retailers. According to the executive survey:

• 83% of retailers report home delivery costs increased year-over-year (2025-2026)
• 64% say home delivery is not accretive to profitability, compared with in-store transactions
• 56% require a minimum order value for free shipping — half raised that threshold in the past year
• 22% now require both a minimum order AND paid membership to unlock free shipping

In response, retailers are taking a second look at their last-mile service providers. For the first time in the survey's history, reliability has displaced price as the primary criterion for selecting a lead carrier, researchers found.

The UPS-FedEx duopoly is meaningfully eroding: 55% of retailers now use carriers outside of UPS, FedEx, and USPS, and more than a third have actively shifted volume away from traditional incumbents in the past year. FedEx has overtaken UPS as the most-cited primary carrier, used by 38% of retailers, compared with UPS's 35% peak in 2023.

On the consumer side, Amazon leads all carriers in overall delivery preference — topping rankings for timeliness and condition of delivery — while USPS ranks lowest for both timeliness satisfaction and technology investment alignment. Notably, 84% of consumers say their past delivery experiences, including which carrier is used and whether the driver is a gig worker, directly influence where they choose to shop.

“Carrier diversification used to be a cost play. It is now a resilience and brand play,” said Chris Considine, Partner in AlixPartners’ Retail practice. “The retailers gaining ground are those who have built multi-carrier architectures that let them route around service failures in real time — and who understand that for their premium customers, the carrier badge on the box is part of the product.”

The humanoid robot maker Agility Robotics today announced plans to take the company public, saying the move could raise as much as $620 million to accelerate its mission “to build robot partners that augment the human workforce and lead the adoption of humanoids everywhere.”

Agility’s main product is the “Digit” model of humanoid robot, which it defines as a general-purpose, human-centric robot that is currently operating in manufacturing, distribution, and logistics environments to fill chronic physical labor shortages. Existing customers now using Digit to automate repetitive physical tasks include Schaeffler, GXO, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, and Mercado Libre.

According to the firm, humanoid robot deployments today require robots and people to operate in segregated environments. But Agility believes that cooperative safety – the ability for robots to safely work alongside people in dynamic environments – is the critical requirement for broad humanoid adoption.

Salem, Oregon-based Agility plans to make the transition through a merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). After the deal settles, the combined company is expected to operate under the name Agility and trade its stock under the ticker symbol “AGLT.”

Proceeds will support fulfillment of existing customer orders, expansion of commercial deployments, scaling of Digit v5 production, and continued investment in Agility’s integrated platform.

“Agility is at the forefront of a new era where safety-first, AI-powered technology can reliably work alongside people to bridge labor shortages, increase productivity, and strengthen the resilience of our supply chains,” Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics, said in a release.

“We believe humanoids are at a meaningful inflection point in commercial adoption, and we are focused on meeting growing customer demand, expanding deployments, and advancing our roadmap across robotics, physical AI, safety systems, and enterprise software. As adoption accelerates, we believe Agility is positioned to address a market opportunity across manufacturing, distribution, and logistics environments in the United States that is estimated by management to be approximately $1 trillion,” Johnson said.

Healthcare logistics specialist McKesson Corp. will build a highly automated regional distribution center in Oklahoma, saying the $179 million facility will replace an existing distribution center, expanding capacity and modernizing capabilities to support future demand.

The 330,000-square-foot facility will serve as a regional pharmaceutical distribution hub, the company said. Located in Moore, OK, at the North Moore Industrial Park, the site will feature digitally enabled logistics, state of the art automation, precision inventory management, and expanded cold chain capacity.

In addition, the site will increase McKesson’s capacity and throughput, and strengthen operational resilience with 100% standby power to support safe operations in adverse conditions.

“The healthcare supply chain grows more complex, from supporting advanced therapies with specialized handling and storage to navigating modernization, security, and supply constraints. Patients are counting on consistent, reliable access to critical therapies,” said Gene Cavacini, President, U.S. Pharmaceutical Distribution, McKesson. “This investment strengthens our ability to deliver with speed, precision and resilience, while expanding capacity to better serve Oklahoma, Texas, and the surrounding region.”

There’s a trend emerging across the forklift market as more and more equipment users electrify their fleets: The rapid adoption of, and strong preference for, lithium-ion (Li-ion)–powered, battery-electric trucks is spurring forklift manufacturers to bring the production of those advanced power solutions in-house—as a way to both build revenue and provide customers with a one-stop shop on their electrification journey.

One of the latest manufacturers to do so is Hyster-Yale Material Handling, which launched lines of lithium-ion power solutions that are purpose-built for its Hyster and Yale lift trucks this past spring. With that move, Hyster-Yale joins the ranks of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including Big Joe Forklifts and The Raymond Corp., who already provide a single-source for trucks and Li-ion batteries.

Although their approaches vary, the companies’ efforts confirm the industry’s solid shift toward electric power: Recent industry research from Interact Analysis predicts that Li-ion–powered forklifts will make up more than 70% of the global, full-electric forklift market (which includes both Li-ion and lead-acid models) by 2034, for example—up from roughly 32% in 2024. As that market grows, a restructuring of business models is occurring as companies work to provide “full value-chain solutions,” according to the research.

Maya Xiao, research manager at Interact Analysis, explains that the combined design and delivery of forklifts, batteries, charging solutions, and infrastructure support—as Hyster-Yale, Big Joe, Raymond, and others are doing—helps lower barriers to adoption and reduce costs for customers.

And that’s a compelling reason for equipment makers to bring all of those services under one roof.

“For manufacturers, the ability to successfully build integrated service capabilities will be central to establishing a competitive advantage in the post-lithium battery era,” she wrote in the February report.

Ken Schreiber, energy solutions leader for the Yale brand and senior product director for electrical energy solutions for the Hyster brand, agrees.

“Our goal is to give warehouses as frictionless an experience as possible,” Schreiber said in a statement announcing the Yale launch in June. “The unified solution of advanced battery technology, chargers, and lift trucks delivers on that promise, with easy day-to-day usability and performance, backed by the one-stop shop convenience of support from our local dealers.”

As Li-ion power takes the forklift market by storm, those unified solutions are heating up as well.

THE RISE OF LITHIUM

Company leaders at Big Joe Forklifts anticipated the industry’s move to Li-ion power more than a decade ago, says Martin Boyd, the company’s chief marketing officer. He explains that Big Joe “skated to where the puck would be,” betting on lithium’s attributes as a cleaner, lower maintenance, and faster charging solution compared to forklifts powered by internal combustion engines (ICE) and lead-acid batteries. It also bet on the technology becoming more affordable: Ten years ago, Li-ion batteries were about three times as expensive as lead-acid batteries, putting them out of reach for most customers, Boyd explains. But prices have come down considerably, making them a more attractive solution to a broader range of users.

For those reasons and more, Big Joe decided to build on the experience of its parent company, China-based EP Equipment, which had already been developing Li-ion batteries for smaller trucks—pallet jacks and similar Class III “walk behind” forklifts. The result was EP’s launch of a purpose-built, integrated lithium-powered sit-down counterbalanced, or Class I, forklift, introduced in Asia and Europe in 2017. Big Joe launched the line in North America in 2020 and today primarily targets customers transitioning from Class IV and Class V ICE-powered forklifts to Li-ion versions. The integrated solution means that the battery is integrated into the design of the truck; Boyd explains the truck is comparable to an ICE-powered version in form and function.

“We have a distinct leadership position in developing integrated lithium battery solutions that were purposely built with a form factor that makes it easy for an operator to move from Class IV and Class V to Class I [electric counterbalanced trucks],” Boyd explains. “It will only be a matter of time before other OEMs start to develop the solutions Big Joe has, so with this being a window of opportunity, Big Joe is squarely focused on that opportunity while it’s front and center.”

Indeed, others are following suit—developing integrated solutions as well as building individual Li-ion batteries that can be dropped into existing trucks to replace lead-acid batteries. In both cases, the goal is to put the expertise for the truck and its power source in one place.

“I think there’s a clear trend toward forklift manufacturers developing their own [Li-ion] solutions or integrating with third parties,” explains Schreiber, emphasizing the advantages that come from having a single source of expertise about the machine, the power source, and the charging technology being used—not the least of which is having one point of contact when problems arise.

“It’s going to become increasingly important that we do this for our product and to take care of our customers,” Schreiber says, adding that Hyster-Yale offers both integrated and drop-in Li-ion power solutions.

And about those problems: Forklift users can choose from multiple third-party battery vendors when transitioning to Li-ion forklifts, a complexity in itself. The situation gets more complicated when there’s a problem or the truck breaks down: Is the forklift or the battery the issue? Or is it the charging infrastructure? It can take multiple phone calls and tech visits to get to the bottom of the problem.

Schreiber explains that the truck, battery, and charger represent independent systems, each with its own software and controls. When updates are made separately across any one of these components, it can create misalignment that prevents the overall system from functioning properly.

“One thing gets updated and then the whole system doesn’t work,” he says, citing Hyster Tracker telematics as a response to those concerns: The system monitors both truck and battery operation, streamlining troubleshooting by delivering information that may aid in identifying and understanding system issues while improving overall visibility across the system.

A COMPLEX PROBLEM

Jennifer Lupo, vice president of technology solutions for The Raymond Corp. (a brand of Toyota Material Handling North America), agrees that bringing power expertise in-house is a must as the industry transitions to advanced power solutions. She points to the complex nature of Li-ion compared to more traditional power sources as a case in point.

“It’s much less forgiving,” she says of Li-ion technology, noting the tighter requirements for matching the power source to the vehicle’s capacity demands. “You have to be more exact about the amount of power the vehicle needs and the amount of power the energy source can provide the vehicle. And no one knows better than a vehicle manufacturer, like ourselves, what the requirement of the vehicle is and what the requirement of the power source is.”

The Raymond Corp. released its first lithium-powered forklift in 2017—a pallet jack with an integrated lithium-ion battery. Since then, the company has taken an incremental approach to adding advanced power solutions and now offers its own Li-ion drop-in solutions as well as other advanced power sources, such as thin-plate pure-lead (TPPL) batteries, along with charging systems and more. Solutions are developed with partner companies and in-house. Raymond opened an energy solutions facility in Rochester, New York, in 2025 that develops, tests, and produces advanced power solutions, including Li-ion batteries and hydrogen fuel cells, for use in the Raymond and Toyota brands. Lupo says those efforts are part of a broader, more holistic approach to customers’ material handling needs—one that includes the truck, the power source, and even the data integration that helps the equipment maintain optimal uptime and efficiency. It’s all part of building the “future truck” that can power the most sophisticated warehouse operations.

“This is really an expansion beyond who we were in our core,” she explains. “To get to that end game—that future truck end game for those customers that are very sophisticated, that want to be running automated vehicles 24/7/365—and do that without interruption, you must use telemetry and you must use an advanced power source.

“We knew we needed to build this capability.”

And like Boyd and Schreiber, Lupo says she expects the trend to accelerate: “It’s not surprising that there are more [equipment manufacturers] in the material handling industry headed in this direction—because of the benefits.”

She says she also hopes the industry’s successes in developing battery-powered lift trucks will help boost confidence in the technology on a larger scale.

“There is so much in the media about challenges with EVs [electric vehicles] and lithium batteries,” she says, pointing to the consumer vehicle market. “I like to shed light on our industry and the success we have had. We’ve been electric vehicle manufacturers for decades, and we know that batteries can work in the most stringent applications. Commensurate with our brands in the marketplace being well known for quality and reliability, we would not bring any type of technology solution or power source to the market unless we were sure they were going to perform and deliver value.

AI is gaining ground in supply chains, as 40% of retail supply chain leaders report active use of the technology in 2026, up from 24% two years ago.

That’s according to the latest State of Supply Chain Report from AI platform Inspectorio, released Tuesday. The survey of nearly 200 brand and retail professionals details the impact of AI across the supply chain and points out gaps that hinder many brands and retailers from realizing its full potential. The research also reveals challenges and opportunities in traceability, sustainability, product integrity, and compliance.

Among the key findings:

• AI faces organizational hurdles. The primary obstacles to effective AI adoption are insufficient data quality, change management gaps, and lack of cross-functional integration. Organizations are deploying AI onto fragmented data environments and expecting transformative results. The research shows this consistently does not work.
• Managing compliance is increasingly stressful. Regulatory compliance is creating unprecedented organizational stress, with more than half of respondents ranking the strain of executing on compliance requirements as “4” on a 5-point scale. Compounding the issue, compliance budgets have plateaued, even as regulatory requirements continue to grow: Just 50% of survey respondents reported that their 2026 compliance budgets increased, compared to 75% in 2025.
• Sourcing diversification is eroding progress in sustainability. Thirty-seven percent of respondents shifted sourcing to new countries or regions in response to tariffs. The survey also revealed that 37% of respondents added secondary suppliers for critical products and 33% renegotiated supplier pricing or terms. But every time production moves to a new supplier, the sustainability infrastructure built at the prior location is left behind. Organizations are making sourcing decisions based on trade economics without accounting for the compliance cost of starting over in a new geography, with significant negative impact.
• Traceability is seen as a regulatory requirement, not a competitive advantage. Just 21% of organizations have a multi-tier strategy for traceability, and 79% are reactive to regulatory requirements. The majority of respondents allow their traceability strategy to be driven by regional directives, meaning traceability programs are scoped to what is currently required rather than taking a proactive approach with potential supplementary benefits related to supply chain visibility and resilience.

The research, available for download, also offers examples of how some companies are utilizing best-in-class strategies and technology to reap the benefits of AI in product integrity, sustainability, traceability, and compliance, according to Chirag Patel, Inspectorio's CEO.

Even as stratospheric fuel costs have eased slightly this week due to sporadic progress on reopening ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, container shipping rates continue to climb higher in response to hot demand during an early peak season, according to industry analysis.

The early start to peak season has been driven by multiple factors, according to a note from Freightos: frontloading ahead of increased fuel surcharges (known as bunker adjustment factors), coming Section 122 tariff expirations and Section 301 tariff introductions for transpacific shippers, and July manufacturer price hikes.

As evidence, Freightos pointed to statistics like a 19% rise in transpacific rates to the U.S. West Coast (to more than $5,700/FEU) and a 13% rise in transatlantic rates to the U.S. East Coast (to $7,400/FEU). Spot rates have soared even higher, already surpassing last year’s peak season high.

The sharp June rate gains show that even as the global fleet continues to grow, significant increases in demand and shipper urgency are still enough to push spot prices to “very elevated levels,” Freightos said. That shipper urgency has been sparked by variables such as a fuel price-adjusted elevated starting point, Red Sea diversions, and peak season congestion causing delays and likewise effectively reducing capacity.

A similar message came from freight broker C.H. Robinson, which found that ocean shipping conditions have tightened faster than expected, and the outlook is that the market will likely get worse for shippers before it improves.

“We’re seeing booking activity pull forward across Trans-Pacific lanes as shippers position inventory earlier and react to expected cost increases,” C.H. Robinson’s president of global forwarding, Mike Short, said in a release. “Peak season has effectively started early, and it’s shrinking the window to secure preferred departures. Shippers aren’t just competing for space right now, they’re competing for the right sailing.”

Collaborative robot arm manufacturers could soon see rising revenue by supplying their products to humanoid robot developers, according to a study from Interact Analysis.

While the near-term revenues of that new sales channel remain modest, the long-term upside could be huge, potentially adding 10% to 30% to cobot vendors’ revenues by 2030. That growth would come as humanoid robot revenue could reach $15 billion by 2030, the firm says.

The forecast implies that what began as occasional component sales is evolving into a structural trend for the cobot industry, the report said. For cobot vendors, the change would be a logical, low risk extension of their core technology, offering a promising secondary growth avenue without immediately cannibalizing existing cobot business.

According to Interact Analysis, recent months have seen a surge in cobots sold to humanoid makers. These are volume purchases, not small-scale evaluations, indicating that humanoid developers increasingly rely on mature cobot technology to accelerate their roadmaps. That strategy allows humanoid makers to bypass years of internal R&D by purchasing cobot grade actuators, force sensors, and control architecture that are already industrially proven.

Another driver of that trend is that a significant portion of new entrants to the humanoid robot market are AI-focused companies founded by researchers from leading AI labs. They possess strong algorithms but have no prior robotics hardware experience or established manufacturing. And building an in-house supply chain from scratch is prohibitively expensive and time consuming. Therefore, they outsource the necessary hardware; upper bodies such as arms and hands to cobot vendors, and lower bodies such as mobility bases to AGV or AMR suppliers.

However, the biggest impact could be overseas. While both China and the United States have humanoid production capabilities, only China possesses a fully integrated collaborative robot (cobot) manufacturing ecosystem and a mature supply chain. This unique advantage allows Chinese cobot manufacturers to capture demand benefits from the humanoid robotics boom right from the start—whereas the U.S., despite having production, lacks the same end‑to‑end industrial readiness.

Global parcel and logistics provider DHL plans to offer lower-emission shipping solutions on selected transatlantic routes by sending certain shipments in a ship powered by sails instead of an engine, the company said today.

The project comes from a partnership announced between DHL Global Forwarding France, the air and ocean freight specialist of DHL Group, and VELA, the operator of wind-powered cargo trimarans using wind as the primary propulsion when at sea.

This shipping solution will combine DHL Global Forwarding France's expertise in transport organization, pre-carriage, on-carriage, customs, warehousing, and associated logistics services, with the unique sailing maritime solution developed by French boatbuilder VELA.

The service for palletized LCL (Less-than-Container Load) shipments is primarily designed for customers seeking lower-emission shipping options with no compromise on speed, reliability, traceability or security, DHL said. That means it will be tailored to the pharmaceutical, high value & luxury goods, cosmetics, aerospace, and wine & spirits industries between Europe and the United States in both directions.

Each wind-propelled ship will carry 600 EU pallets per transatlantic trip operating as a direct route between strategic secondary ports, such as Caen-Ouistreham and New Haven.

“By partnering with DHL Global Forwarding France, we are making wind-powered freight for transatlantic shipping available to a broader range of customers,” said Michaël Fernandez-Ferri, Managing Director of VELA. “This collaboration aims to provide a lower-emission alternative that is designed to integrate into existing supply chains with standard logistics processes, while maintaining consistent service standards.”

The Dubai, UAE-based ports and logistics operator DP World is planning to develop a container terminal at Texas’ Port of Corpus Christi, in what could lead to a “major investment in U.S. Gulf Coast trade infrastructure.”

Specifically, DP World said June 16 that it has entered into an exclusive negotiation agreement for a long-term lease to develop and operate a container terminal at the port.

According to the company, that agreement marks a step toward expanding containerized cargo capabilities at one of the United States’ busiest ports, positioning Corpus Christi to capture new trade flows and support economic growth, as demand for port capacity across Texas continues to rise.

Under the proposed development, DP World would design, build, and operate a new container terminal, expanding capacity and strengthening supply chain connectivity across the Gulf Coast.

“The U.S. Gulf Coast is one of the nation’s most important trade and economic corridors, and demand for efficient, resilient port infrastructure continues to grow. The Port of Corpus Christi presents a significant opportunity to expand container capacity, strengthen supply chain connectivity, and create new pathways for American businesses to access global markets,” Brian Enright, CEO of DP World in the Americas, said in a release.

DP World already handles around 10% of global container traffic each year through a network of more than 60 ports and terminals worldwide. It operates many of those facilities far from its home nation of the United Arab Emirates.

For example, the company in 2025 announced a $760 million expansion of the Dominican Republic’s Port of Caucedo and its Free Trade Zone (FTZ). And in 2024, it launched an intermodal service to transport finished vehicles by rail from Mexico to the United States and Canada.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been maturing at breathtaking speed in recent months. And as often happens with new technologies, the single, umbrella acronym “AI” has splintered into an array of subcategories along the way. Today it’s common to hear people talk about conversational AI, generative AI, industrial AI, and agentic AI.

And now an additional variant—physical AI—has emerged, and the term is often mentioned in connection with logistics and supply chain operations. So exactly what is physical AI, and do you need it in your distribution center?

To answer that question, it helps to know a little about the older types of AI—or more specifically, their capabilities. Conversational AI, such as basic chatbots, can automatically reply to questions by choosing from a predetermined set of answers. Generative AI can analyze vast amounts of generic information to identify trends and provide unique answers. Industrial AI can combine those two capabilities but restricts its replies to appropriate, sector-specific business knowledge such as blueprints and manuals. And agentic AI can build on all three of those models by not just generating an answer but also instructing another program to digitally follow that advice.

Physical AI is different because it adds a connection to the three-dimensional, physical world.

“We’ve been talking about AI for decades; not so long ago, people might have said an ATM machine was artificially intelligent,” says Teddy Ort, senior vice president, robotics software and AI at the Massachusetts-based robotics and automation technology company Symbotic. “But all those [precursors to physical AI] live only in the informational space; they can’t actually do anything [physical] with their answers. They’re all talk and no action.”

That’s still the case in many parts of the logistics world. Most warehouse operators in recent years have abandoned their pencils and clipboards and adopted warehouse management system (WMS) software, Ort says. “A WMS can figure out which inventory should go to which truck and which store. And it can show that to you in a beautiful dashboard view. But as soon as it wants to do anything, it’s powerless; it has to call someone who can drive a forklift to come and move a pallet.”

According to Ort, the missing link is physical AI, which endows robots and automation with the “intelligence” to accomplish real-world tasks around the warehouse. That’s not to say that the typical autonomous mobile robot (AMR) needs access to the vast cloud-based computational power of commercial AI products like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or Gemini, he says. It just means they need basic problem-solving capabilities. For example, each Symbotic AMR comes equipped with a graphics processing unit (GPU) computer chip with enough smarts to handle relatively simple tasks like confirming the identify of a package or plan a route to move it across the building.

BUILDING A DIGITAL WORLD

Once they’ve decided on a strategy, physical AI platforms can then perform the necessary operations in different ways, navigating the world around them by using various types of sensors, such as radar, scanning, or machine vision.

Although the underlying technology may vary, all of those approaches share a common theme, according to Wiliot, a California-based provider of supply chain visibility technology. “You’re giving physical assets a digital identity and using AI to analyze that data,” says Amir Khoshniyati, vice president at Wiliot. “That means any digital trigger that comes from an asset, so it could be location, temperature, humidity, or light.”

As for what constitutes a “physical asset,” Khoshniyati says the definition varies by industry but notes that in the logistics world, common examples include pallets, crates, cases, and individual items.

Wherever they pull their data from, physical AI applications have gained traction in 2026 not only because of the wider availability of AI computing power but also because of foundational enabling technologies such as GPU chips and IoT (internet of things) tags.

Consulting group BCG says physical AI combines three things that have been around for years but have only recently started to be combined into a single platform: the physical technology of intelligent robots, advanced AI that provides instructions to those robots, and digital-twin environments that allow planners to simulate the intersection of those two things.

As exciting as the prospect of those combined capabilities may be, supply chain managers will have to be careful as they look to apply physical AI to existing workflows, like creating store-ready mixed pallets in a warehouse, cautions Alex Yurek, managing director and partner at BCG. “The idea of a completely dark factory or dark DC is still in the future, but people are now working alongside robotics more than in the past,” he says. “The days of the split between IT doing only digital operations and the operations department getting value out of it are over. They need to cooperate.”

As warehouses set out on their physical AI journey, it’s critical that all parts of the business work together as part of an integrated group—one that includes representatives from the physical hardware layer, the cloud infrastructure, and the operations team.

A.P. Moller - Maersk has launched a dedicated lithium-ion battery transportation solution within its North American ground freight network designed to meet the rapidly growing demand for safe, compliant, and reliable movement of Class 9 batteries across the continent.

The new capability positions the company’s Maersk Ground Freight division to serve a critical and fast-expanding segment of the energy transition supply chain — particularly for automotive, electric vehicle, and advanced manufacturing customers. Demand is growing fast in that area because the electrification of transportation is one of the defining industrial shifts of this decade, Maersk said.

The move extends Maersk's dangerous goods expertise from ocean and air into over-the-road logistics, and builds the “connective tissue” that the North American EV supply chain requires. Specifically, the program is built around strict eligibility and documentation standards, including:

• New batteries only — no damaged, defective, recalled, returned, or waste units accepted
• State of Charge (SOC) maintained between 10%–60% for all outbound shipments
• Full documentation required for every shipment: Safety Data Sheet (SDS), Dangerous Goods Declaration, UN 38.3 Test Summary, SOC declaration, and watt-hour rating
• Hazmat-trained drivers across the network, with no DOT placarding or CDL hazmat endorsement required under U.S. DOT regulations
• Cross-border capability across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, with compliance protocols tailored to each jurisdiction

Parcel and logistics giant UPS Inc. is continuing to grow its footprint in the lucrative niche of cold chain logistics, announcing today that it has invested $48 million in 27 temperature-controlled freight cross-dock facilities around the globe.

UPS said the facilities are optimized for speed and short-term storage between air and ground movements – all while maintaining specific temperature requirements.

The Atlanta-based company said it has made the move as demand grows for medicines requiring strict temperature ranges of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, 15 to 25 degrees Celsius, and frozen. More specifically, the rapidly growing biologics pipeline is increasing complexity across cold-chain logistics.

“Biologics and personalized treatments are driving better, more targeted care for patients,” said John Bolla, President of UPS Healthcare. “These investments reflect our commitment to continue to align our leading end-to-end supply chain to protect innovative treatments and diagnostics, supporting better patient outcomes.”

Meeting that demand requires cold-chain expertise to maintain product quality and safety from manufacturing to patient, UPS said. “We have aligned our investments with our Healthcare customers’ specialized needs. Our global cross-dock facilities strengthen our end-to-end cold-chain capabilities to ensure critical treatments are delivered safely and reliably to patients around the world,” said Kate Gutmann, EVP and President of International, Healthcare and Supply Chain Solutions at UPS.

Warehouse robotics provider Geek+ has invested in J-Elephant, a vendor of vertical pallet robot (VPR) technology, and will fold the two firms’ platforms together, saying the move answers growing demand for high-density pallet storage automation.

According to Geek+, pallets are the foundational unit of factory production lines and warehouse logistics, but tech firms have not yet offered an automated pallet handling system that is infrastructure-light and quick to deploy. Instead, conventional automated high-bay warehouse systems carry prohibitive costs, including substantial capital outlays, extended installation periods, and incompatibility with legacy facilities.

These hurdles have long kept pallet automation out of reach for the majority of warehouses worldwide, the firm says. To fill that gap, Geek+ says it will link its robotics platform with J-Elephant’s vertical pallet robot (VPR) technology. The VPR system supports pallet storage and retrieval at heights of 4 to 11 meters, ultra-narrow-aisle capability, zone-by-zone deployment without production downtime, and low upfront investment.

Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

But Geek+ also said that the new collaboration “marks a strategic shift for China's warehouse automation industry from simply exporting products to exporting an entire ecosystem.” And that change strengthens the global position of Chinese intelligent robotics within the broader logistics supply chain, Geek+ said.

I started covering supply chains as a journalist in 1999. When I told people what I did back then, their response invariably was, “What are supply chains?” Few outside the industry were familiar with the term. I used to tell them that supply chains were what enabled the stuff they used every day to get to them.

Fast forward 20 years and most people on the planet now understand the term. Pandemic-era shortages catapulted supply chains into the headlines, and people began to appreciate just how much their lives depended on the talented professionals in our industry who keep goods moving around the world.

That heightened awareness of the supply chain’s value has not been lost on world leaders (and aspiring leaders), who now see supply chains as a weapon to achieve their political goals.

For more than two years, Houthi rebels in coastal Yemen have attacked cargo ships in the Red Sea to express opposition to the war in Gaza. Backed by Iran, the Houthis are forcing ships to navigate around Southern Africa instead of sailing the much shorter route through the Suez Canal. They have effectively leveraged supply chains to elicit a political response.

Meanwhile, here at home, the U.S. government has pursued an erratic tariff policy designed to reshape sourcing and world manufacturing.

And of course the main supply concern this year has been Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has constricted the supply of the world’s oil, natural gas, and fertilizers. The Iranian government knows it lacks the military power to compete with the United States and Israel, so it turned to supply chains as a weapon. The strait’s closure forced up prices, especially for oil, and has fueled inflation worldwide. This supply chain weapon has been extremely effective.

However, Iran’s leverage may be nothing compared to what might happen if China invades Taiwan. This likely would result in the closure of another critical waterway—the Strait of Taiwan. Nearly half of the world’s cargo ships regularly traverse the Taiwan Strait, including about 80% of the largest ships. By closing off the strait, China would essentially be wielding the biggest supply chain weapon of all.

It is important that supply chain managers recognize this enormous risk and work now to diversify their supply chains. The U.S. should also work politically to shore up the supply chains of friendly nations, especially Mexico and Canada as we renegotiate the USMCA agreement. It is not too late to use the political clout our own nation holds to assure world supply chains are secure. It’s better to be proactive now than be forced to react later.

At a manufacturing facility in Detroit, the latest in drone technology is taking flight—and company leaders have their sights set on the supply chain.

Drone developer and artificial intelligence (AI) platform Birdstop counts airports, municipalities, and public safety departments among its earliest customers but is quickly moving into logistics as trucking companies and warehouse owners seek high-tech answers to their security challenges. Those companies are adopting Birdstop’s drones to monitor warehouses, yards, and truck stops and alert stakeholders and authorities to potential thefts and other hazards.

That work illustrates the growing use of drones beyond the four walls of the distribution center (DC), where inventory management drones tend to get the lion’s share of attention. Amid easing testing and usage regulations and a government push for homegrown drone technology, U.S. manufacturers are making strides across the industry. For example, last December, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned the use of all new foreign-made drones and components over concerns the equipment poses an unacceptable risk to national security—a move that has accelerated demand for domestically made drones, according to Birdstop and others.

Birdstop’s recent partnership with Detroit-based truck parking and lot management company TSPS Inc. provides a glimpse of the industry’s forward momentum.

EYES IN THE SKY

Birdstop was founded in 2018 in the Bay Area but relocated to Detroit last fall to take advantage of local manufacturing expertise and talent. The company builds its drones in a riverfront building that was once home to a department of the United Auto Workers union and counts the auto industry as a key customer: Its growing client base includes some of the large holding lots that house vehicles post-manufacturing. Those lots can span from five to 100 acres and are prime targets for theft, according to Birdstop’s Doug Muhlbauer, a senior software engineer with the company.

Birdstop’s autonomous drones deter theft by first detecting suspicious activity from a perch, or dock, high above the lot, using sensors, cameras, and AI-driven software. When an incident alert sounds, the drone takes off within three seconds, hovers above the incident, and streams live video back to a manned console. Muhlbauer explains that the deterrence is twofold: first by letting thieves know someone is watching and then by capturing up-close video of their activities, which is passed on to authorities.

“If you’re sneaking into a lot to steal a car and a drone flies over you and loiters—that’s a deterrent,” he says, noting that many thieves will abort their mission at the sound of the hovering drone, which travels at about 60 miles per hour and has four large propellers. “But if you are determined and keep going, we can get video of that incident.”

The same equation works in warehouse yards and truck lots, where theft is also a growing problem. Theft led to $725 million in losses in 2025, according to cargo theft prevention network CargoNet—that’s up 60% from 2024—with most instances occurring at truck stops and warehouses or DCs. Because of their size, those locations can be tough to monitor with human patrols, stationary cameras, and even traditional drones that conduct scheduled, periodic flights. Birdstop’s drones are different because they continuously monitor those large spaces from above and respond to incidents immediately.

“[Our drone] sits on a perch or docking station, [and] all of the sensors operate 24/7,” says Muhlbauer, explaining that Birdstop views itself as an AI company whose platform “happens to be on a drone. The drone [goes into action] when we need to get a closer look—[essentially], we take the sensor package to the area.”

Those advantages caught the attention of Detroit-based truck parking and lot management company TSPS Inc., which started using the technology to monitor two of its locations this past spring. The partnership combines drone-based sensing with a real-time parking platform to tackle two big trucking industry problems: truck-parking shortages—which contribute to driver fatigue, inefficiency, and safety risk—and cargo theft from truck lots.

The companies have deployed drone systems at two of TSPS’ Oasis Parking locations in Detroit. Perched atop the truck stop’s roof and on light posts, the systems capture aerial imagery and telemetry data processed using AI and computer vision models to detect trucks and identify available parking spaces. Those insights are integrated into a visualization platform and made available through the TSPS platform, providing real-time info on parking availability.

The “birds” also keep an eye out for suspicious activity.

“We’re not only tracking what trucks are in and out of the stop, what spaces are available, [and the availability] of outlets and electricity,” Muhlbauer says, “but also people sneaking into the lots and any type of curious behavior that they want us to identify.”

Birdstop has also begun working with security companies that monitor warehouses and yards. In one example, a company needed a way to monitor a large warehouse that had limited access points for manned patrols—essentially, it needed a real-time system that could monitor a remote area of the building before a patrolman arrived to make sure that patrolman wouldn’t be ambushed. Muhlbauer says Birdstop’s drones provide those real-time alerts.

AI ADVANCEMENTS FUEL DEMAND

Birdstop’s growing logistics business builds on its early work in another key segment of the transportation industry: airports. Some of the company’s earliest clients use the technology for both theft detection and to prevent another big aerial challenge: bird strikes. Airports across the United States and Europe are using the technology to monitor and secure airspace, including detecting and stopping birds from interfering with air traffic.

“[They are] using onboard AI to track bird flights, [identify] their location, and compare that to the broadcast location of the airplanes,” Muhlbauer explains. “[So they can] alert the tower to potential strikes.”

Global supply chains could be slowed this year by restricted shipping through the Panama Canal, according to forecasts for extended drought in the region triggered by a “Super El Nino” weather shift in the Pacific Ocean, analysts say.

El Nino weather cycles are marked by higher-than-average sea surface temperatures in equatorial Pacific waters, which typically leads to changes in weather patterns around the globe, according to supply chain risk analysis firm Everstream Analytics.

While such cycles alternate regularly with corresponding “La Nina” events of colder-than-usual waters, this year’s trend is more extreme, the firm said in a webcast.

“This is one of the biggest meteorology events we’ve seen many, many decades,” Everstream Analytics' chief meteorologist Jon Davis said in the video webcast. “And it is going to have major ramifications in supply chains as we go through the remainder of this year.”

“We’ve been in an El Nino event for basically a month, and it looks like it will strengthen to a major or a super El Nino event as we move through the summer and through the end of the year,” he said.

If that happens as expected, Everstream Analytics is predicting serious impacts on global supply chains, as occurred during the past three super El Ninos that happened over the past four decades, in the years of 1982, 1997, and 2015.

For the 2026 version, the firm is forecasting increased rainfall across North America and South America, bracketing increased dryness in Central America and Panama. Extended droughts in that region typically draw down the water levels in Lake Gatun, the crucial feeder to the Panama Canal. In the past, that has forced canal authorities to restrict the number of vessel crossings per day and to allow only ships with shallower drafts.

Meanwhile, the event could also lead to drought in India and Southeast Asia, which could harm industrial manufacturing, agriculture, food & beverage products, and transportation networks, the firm said. It could also raise the risk of major storms striking the area, with possible impacts on important industrial centers in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam.

Commercial shipping analysts are giving wary support for the U.S. and Iran’s temporary peace agreement signed this week, but warn that even if it holds, a return to full container shipping volumes remains at least three months away.

Global maritime cargo flows in the region have been backlogged for months, due to Iran’s action to close the crucial waterway in retaliation for the U.S. and Israel launching a war against the nation in February.

The recent U.S.-Iran deal should allow a return of container shipping to the Strait of Hormuz, according to ocean and air freight intelligence platform Xeneta. But the sheer scale of disruption caused by the extended blockade means that even in a best-case scenario, a recovery of ocean supply chain networks wouldn’t occur until mid-September, and spot rates are forecasted to rise for at least another four weeks before the market peaks.

“This agreement should be greeted with realism and extreme caution,” Peter Sand, chief analyst at Xeneta, said in a release. “Even if the ceasefire holds, around 10% of global container shipping capacity is impacted by the blockade and freight rates are spiralling across major trades. This scale of disruption and market volatility cannot be reversed overnight.”

The exact timeline and mechanics of the reopening remain uncertain, according to a statement from Judah Levine, head of research at Frieghtos. Even with a reopening, a full return to normal traffic and an oil market recovery are expected to happen only gradually over the coming months, he said.

One reason for the delay is that vessel operators will be hesitant to rush back into the dangerous waters. To date, the Internation Maritime Organization (IMO) has verified at least 46 attacks against international shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz since the conflict began on February 28.

As well as restoring freedom of navigation through the international passage, the interim peace deal will also provide time for the IMO to advance its plan to evacuate the thousands of seafarers stranded in the area, since many were not allowed to disembark their ships while the embargo held. “The Organization is working in close collaboration with Member States and partners to implement this plan safely and effectively. However, its implementation will require time to ensure that all necessary safety and security guarantees are in place,” IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said.

The World Shipping Council (WSC) said it would follow a similar plan in coming days. “The immediate priority is safe passage for the seafarers and ships still stranded in the area,” WSC President & CEO Joe Kramek said. “That will require coordination between states, the IMO, and industry, backed by the necessary safety and security guarantees. Coordinated risk assessments, mine mitigation operations, and vessel traffic operations should be prioritized as part of these efforts.”

Analyst firm Gartner this week unveiled its annual list of the leading supply chain organizations, finding that Schneider Electric retained its top position in the rankings for the fourth consecutive year, NVIDIA placed second, and Walmart climbed 10 spots to third.

Schneider Electric maintained its leadership position by integrating autonomous workforce capabilities and end-to-end resource orchestration across its operations, Gartner said. The company is prioritizing generative and agentic AI to support human decision-making, enhancing real-time visibility, predictive insights, and coordinated action across the entire supply chain.

“Schneider Electric continues to demonstrate how organizations can balance bold transformation ambitions with disciplined execution,” said Laura Rainier, Senior Director Analyst with the Gartner Supply Chain practice. “Its approach to AI-enabled orchestration, circularity and workforce transformation exemplifies how supply chain leaders are preparing for the autonomous business era.”

Gartner creates its “Global Supply Chain Top 25” by compiling a list of companies from a combination of the Fortune Global 500 and the Forbes Global 2000. It then ranks them with two main components: business performance and community opinion. Business performance in the form of public financial and ESG (environmental, social, governance) data provides a view into how companies have performed, while the community opinion component gives a peer and Gartner expert view to companies’ past performance and future potential with a focus on maturity, leadership and innovation. These two components are combined into a total composite score.

According to Gartner, its 2026 listing revealed three macro trends: autonomous workforce, network-centric strategies, and end-to-end supply orchestration.

“This year, leaders are differentiating themselves by building autonomous workforces, investing in network-centric strategies, and orchestrating supply chains end-to-end across increasingly complex ecosystems,” Rainier said. “Leading supply chains are embracing AI not simply to automate tasks, but to fundamentally redesign how work gets done between people and machines.”

U.S. Imports from Hormuz-affected ports “collapsed” in May as the closure of the key shipping strait hit commodity flows, according to a report from supply chain software provider Descartes Systems Group.

By the numbers, total U.S. imports departing from Hormuz-affected ports¹ fell from 1.5M metric tons in May 2025 to just 100,591 metric tons in May 2026, a decline of 93.2% year over year.

Descartes defines Hormuz-affected ports as those where the country of departure (not country of origin) is reliant on the Strait of Hormuz for shipping activity; a list which includes Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.

For a point of comparison, that decline was far larger than the typical monthly swings observed over the prior 12 months. From May 2025 through February 2026, year-over-year changes ranged from a decline of 27.7% to an increase of 26.2%. March and April showed deeper declines of 33.0% and 34.7%, respectively, suggesting that import flows may have already been weakening before the full impact of the closure appeared in the data.

The category most affected was Mineral Fuels, Mineral Oils and Products of Their Distillation (HS27), the primary trade category under the Harmonized System (HS) for energy-related commodities (including crude oil and refined petroleum products, as well as petroleum gases such as LNG and propane, petroleum coke, bitumen, lubricating oils, and other mineral fuel products).