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Chain by the Numbers |
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- June 27, 2024
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Strike Coming for East and Gulf Coast Dock Workers? Amazon Moves Away from Air Pillows; FedEx Mulls Sale of Giant LTL Unit; Birthday for the UPC |
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| That is how many East and Gulf Coast dock workers belong to the International Longshoremen’s Association ILA), with the union in the news this week as talks on a new agreement have recently come to a halt. The ports and terminals are represented by the US Maritime Alliance in the negotiations. Automation of terminal operations seems to be not surprisingly a key issue for the union. “We call upon the administration to immediately work with both parties to resume contract negotiations and ensure there is no disruption to port operations and cargo fluidity,” said a letter to President Joe Biden on June 25 from more than 150 groups, including the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Retail Federation. |
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That is the price that Jefferies analyst Stephanie Moore pegged for FedEx’s Freight unit if the company was to sell-off or spin out its LTL business, the top by revenue in the LTL sector. The reason for the value estimate? On an analyst call Wednesday, the company said it is weighing whether to sell or spin-off its freight business. Note that FedEx rival UPS sold its freight business to TFI International for $800 million in 2021. Then this week, UPS announced the sale of its Coyote freight brokerage unit that matches carriers with loads to RXO for just over $1 billion - nearly $800,000 less than it paid to buy the business about a decade ago, as UPS and FedEx battle each other – and fast growing Amazon’s own delivery business. |
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| That’s how many years it has been this week, on June 26, 1974, that the first UPC barcode was scanned at point of sale. The event took place at Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, when a cashier named Sharon Buchanan scanned a 10-pack of Wrigley's chewing gum. The choice of chewing gum wasn’t only intentional: some skeptics had questioned whether small packages could be effectively imprinted and scanned at scale. We’ve recounted several times the interesting history of how the UPC code came to be, as invented by the late George Laurer of IBM. Hard to imagine now, but prior to this invention cashiers had to manually punch in items and prices at checkout, leading to long lines and many errors. But big changes are coming, as the UPC is soon to be phased out in favor of a 2D QR code that contains more information and links to still more. |
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That is the amount of plastic air pillows used to cushion goods inside its shipping cartons that Amazon said it has replaced in North America with paper fillers made from 100% recycled content. As stated in a corporate blog post, Amazon says it is its largest plastic-packaging reduction effort ever and will help it remove nearly 15 billion plastic pillows annually. Amazon further says that testing of paper filler showed that it offers the same if not better protection to products than plastic air pillows. The paper filler is also curbside recyclable, making it easier for customers to recycle at home. Last October, Amazon announced its first US automated fulfillment center in Ohio that would eliminate plastic delivery packaging. Amazon says the work in Ohio allowed it to test and learn and then move quickly on transitioning to paper filler for 95% of its shipments across its network in less than a year.
