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POPSVirtual Inventory: A Reality for some Retailers.
I spend a lot of time in airline seats. Invariably I wind up looking at the Sky Mall catalog. You know the one. It has hundreds of the coolest items, like spiked sandals for aerating your yard. These are items that are fun to look at but sometimes hard to legitimize for purchase. Nevertheless, people do buy. Sky Mall is a marketing company. If you buy from them the order is processed then transmitted to a vendor for drop shipment to your home or office. The system works well. Two years ago I bought two Christmas presents on Sky Mall. The process worked great. I ordered on-line and the shipment arrived promptly via parcel carrier straight from the vendor. When the item didn’t fit, I processed a return directly through Sky Mall. I was able to return the item with no problem with a credit back to my American Express card. The whole concept of drop shipping or maintenance of a “virtual” inventory was one of the basic ideas behind many dot.coms in the early 20
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POPSBuying Postage Stamps at a Discount! Now heres an extremely clever idea. In order to beat USPS rate hikes, buy old stamps at a discount from Stamp and Coin Dealers! Dan Pritchett at Logos Bible Software found a creative way to make a deal with a local stamp and coin dealer to not only buy old stamps at a discount but get his invoices hand stamped to boot! This idea wouldn't work for large businesses, but if you're an entrepreneur with more modest billing and invoicing needs, this idea has merit.
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POPSDHL Investment in Polar Air Clears Hurdle DHL Express has invested 150 million dollars into Polar Air, an all cargo airline subsidiary of Atlas Air Worldwide. The deal gives DHL extensive extra lift capability into a number of markets. DHL's investment represents a 49% stake in the carrier. DHL is number 1 in market share worldwide in international parcel express with as much as a 40 percent market share in Asia. Polar AIr's B747 fleet will augment DHL's own fleet and charters.
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POPSFedEx Raises LTL Rates The FedEx Freight and FedEx National LTL rate increases announced in March go into effect April 2, 2007. The FedEx entered the LTL market in the US with the acquisition of Watkins Motor Lines in September 2006 and maintains their LTL division as a separate entity under FedEx Freight. The FedEx/Watkins merger along with UPS's acquisition of Overnite Express, is creating a blurring of lines between LTL and parcel industries by offering longer haul, larger shipment sizes with guarantees in service delivery usually reserved for express services. While increasing service levels, both carriers are also likely to try to use increased LTL service reliability as a way to raise rates in what has been a traditionally rate driven market. Both carriers will also continue to try to merge the Express and Parcel markets through bundled contracting and pricing offers.
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POPSUSPS Price Increases Approved The US Postal Service gets a rate increase for mail postage to 41 cents for First Class one-ounce letters. The pricing approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission also allows a new item, called a Forever Stamp as well as "shape based" pricing which reflects the additional handling costs associated with some parcel boxes and envelope sizes. Check out the rest of the article clipped from Parcel Magazine.
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POPSWeather affects Rail Traffic in February Snow and Ice in the mid-west and northeastern United States hampered rail operations in February. No surprise as truck traffic and parcel carrier hubs located in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio were similarly impacted during the winters worst storms.
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POPS2007 Rate Negotiations: Opportunities Exist in Certain Modes As 2007 rate negotiations continue, shippers are finding more flexibility in rate discussions depending on mode of transport. Parcel carrier rate increases seem to be sticking, along with new fee structures based on dimensional weight. Truckload carriers are more rate competitive based on available capacity. Rail rates continue to increase while air carriers continue to be impacted by the price for fuel. Check out the clip below from Logistics Management magazine for more information.
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POPSUSPS: Genius at Work This is news from the Bizarro World. The US Postal Service has decided to fix long waits in line at the local post office by..removing the clocks. The theory is people won't know how long they waited, therefore it won't seem so long. Thats our government at work folks. I guess postal workers haven't heard of watches, or mobile phones or PDA's with chronometers. I wonder what the government did with those 37000 clocks? I bet they gave them to the IRS. Check this clipmark to find out.
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POPSChina is the Market... Investment in Chinese supply chain infrastructure continues rapid expansion with DHL announcing a new multi-million dollar investment and FedEx spending 400 mil to buy out their general agent DTW. Walmart meanwhile buys a China hypermart chain with 89 locations. China is the market..no longer just the export factory location.
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POPSFedEx acquires balance of DTW FedEx acquires the remaining 50% of their general agent in China. This does not add domestic capacity, it only changes the ownership to 100% FedEx. Gives them a controlling interest in the international parcel business from China. DTW retains the intra-China business so far as I know.
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POPSDHL expects 10 million flowers on Valentines DHL expecting bumper crop of flower shipments for Valentines this year. Formerly a FedEx dominated market, DHL has made significant inroads into the shipment and handling of transit sensitive perishable goods like flowers and pharmaceuticals.
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