Fortune -- USPS will offer seven-day delivery this holiday season as it seeks to capitalize on e-commerce’s growth and compete against UPS and FedEx

 

The United States Postal Service said on Thursday it would offer delivery seven days a week in major cities at the height of the holiday season, even on Christmas Day, as it looks to compete with FedEx (FDX) and United Parcel Service (UPS) for its share of the increase in package volume caused by the surge in e-commerce.

Modern Materials Handling -- Materials handling equipment new orders grew 8.8% in 2013 and are forecasted to grow 8.0% to 9.0% for 2014 and 2015, according to the latest Material Handling Equipment Manufacturing Forecast (MHEM) released by MHI.

"We are optimistic about future outcomes and expect economic fundamentals to favorably support MHEM expansion through 2014 and 2015," says Hal Vandiver, MHI executive consultant.

Material Handling & Logistics -- Twenty-three hours is the average amount of time Americans think is acceptable for processing their online order for shipment, according to new data from the Sealed Air 2014 Packaging for e-Commerce Success survey, conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Sealed Air.  What’s more, the ability of that packaging to protect the customer’s merchandise is viewed as an indicator of how much a retailer cares about that customer and the environment.

Fifty-eight percent of those taking this survey indicated that if they receive a damaged or broken product from an online order, they would either consider purchasing from a competitor or would not purchase from that retailer again.

Industry Week -- The U.S. manufacturing industry is in the midst of a comeback. Manufacturers are gladly shifting from securing demand to meeting demand. However, reworking the U.S. transportation infrastructure is essential to the success of this progress.

Today there are more than 4 million miles of road, 600,000 bridges, and 3,000 transit providers in the U.S. that have been impacted from the falling share of GDP dedicated to transportation from federal, state and local levels – while population, congestion, and maintenance backlogs have increased.

EBN -- For the average electronics OEM, the holiday season brings increased sales from holiday shoppers -- and pressure on the supply chain. In some parts of the world, winter weather can bring other supply chain worries, as well.

"Last year, when temperatures in the Northeast United States got cold for long periods of time, we started recognizing that every supply chain we death with was impacted," Randy Swart, COO for A. Duie Pyle, a transporter and logistics company specializing in less-than-truckload services, told us.

Refrigerated & Frozen Foods -- Find out how today’s rail providers, port authorities and boxcar manufacturers are teaming up to provide U.S. cold food processors with the most efficient and sustainable ways to transport goods.

 

Freight railroads keep America moving. From the food on our tables to the cars we drive to the shoes on our children’s feet, freight railroads carry the things America depends on, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR), Washington, D.C.

MHI Blog -- Customers are demanding more sustainable supply chains. This is the key finding from an international survey conducted by DNV GL and the research institute GFK Eurisko on more than 2,160 professionals from businesses in different sectors in Europe, The Americas and Asia.

According to the survey, when choosing a supplier or making buying decisions, 96% of the companies consider sustainability aspects, with low environmental impact as the most important aspect at 56%. Health and safety of workers (51%) and economic aspects (43%) follow. Ethics comes next at 29%.

Transport Topics -- Intermodal rail volume for October rose 4.9% to the highest level on record compared with the same time last year, the Association of American Railroads reported.

Intermodal volume rose to 1.5 million units. The weekly average of 276,350 containers was the highest ever, and October marked the 59th straight month of year-over-year intermodal increases, according to AAR.

Entrepreneur -- Movement across borders is as simple as getting in a car or on a plane. It’s a seamless, simple experience to which most people devote little thought. For both merchants and consumers, however, the path to online and offline purchasing across borders is still a bumpy one.

For online and offline consumers, cross-border retail holds the promise of easy access to a wide selection of attractively-priced merchandise not available in their locality.

Mobile Marketing Daily -- Thanksgiving is almost here, and in addition to inhaling too much turkey and white wine (try some Gewürztraminer!) Americans will be buying mountains of gifts for their loved ones -- and if they’re anything like me, probably themselves too. It’s no secret that in recent years a growing proportion of this business has been conducted online, and in line with broader trends, more of this activity is coming from mobile.

Internet Retailer -- When asked to name their toughest challenge in selling to retailers, the largest group of suppliers, or 42%, cited fulfilling orders to multiple locations for retailers that sell online and in stores.

As expectations rise among consumers to find what they want from retailers online as well as in any store a retailer operates, things are not getting any easier for many merchandise suppliers, a new report says.

Supply Chain Brain -- The proportion of vehicles sold worldwide with some degree of autonomous capability is expected to reach 75 percent by 2035, according to a recent report from Navigant Research.

The first vehicles with some level of self-driving capability are expected to come to market by 2020, with sales volumes for autonomous vehicles likely becoming significant by 2025. Although the legal and regulatory barriers to fully autonomous vehicles are high, the technology has the potential to transform the automobile industry and significantly lower roadway accidents.

Industry Week -- Spend any amount of time working with supply chains, and one thing becomes clear: The traditional environment of the supply chain is mostly one of competition. That’s because, in an effort to earn a customer’s business and meet their demands, suppliers are often pitted one against the other to offer the lowest cost possible. 

But when it comes to overall success of the supplier/client relationship, this short-term competitive approach leaves untapped opportunities in terms of improved quality, cost and lead time, as each along the chain pursues what’s best for themselves as opposed to what’s best for the whole.

Bloomberg -- Pacific Coast dockworkers negotiating a new labor agreement have begun a work slowdown in Seattle and Tacoma, management said yesterday, in the first large job action since their contract expired in July. 

The slowdown by members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union reduced container movement to 10 to 18 per hour from 25 to 35, the Pacific Maritime Association, representing terminal operators and shipping lines, said yesterday in a statement. The two ports handle an estimated 16 percent of containerized cargo on the West Coast, the association said. 

World Trade -- Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to slow down in November 2014 following record levels seen in September and October 2014 as retailers rushed to bring merchandise into the country ahead of a possible shutdown of West Coast ports, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

MHI Blog -- Hungary attempted to introduce an Internet tax law, but decided against it after mass protests. The law would have required a fee of roughly $0.60 per gigabyte of data traffic. Hungarian leadership will revise the drafted law and attempt to reintroduce it later. If a country introduces an Internet tax law, it will not only restrict access to information and make it harder to communicate, it will also affect e-commerce and the way businesses use the Internet.

For companies operating and/or selling in Hungary, this is an important story to monitor. All companies should monitor as similar laws being implemented in other countries will have huge impacts on their operations.