What’s on our minds

During the pandemic, big box retailers like Target and Walmart relaxed some of their usual policies in regards to time and the tardiness of vendors’ and suppliers’ shipments. It has long been common practice to censure late shipments with fines and loss of shelf space, but with the world, on fire as it was, they ...

Analysts say that e-commerce sales are expected to exceed $5.5 trillion worldwide by the end of 2022. This means that $.22 of every dollar spent is in e-commerce. Research analyst Nia Hudson with Transport Intelligence Ltd. (TI) says, “Customers continue to shop online more, and for a greater number of categories than ever before. As ...

For the first time since 2019, the Global Affinity Alliance Annual Conference (GAA) took place from September 5-8 in Pattaya, Thailand. Representing Argents, Adam Sneed was one of almost a thousand attendees who came together for networking, meetings, a gala event, and an opening day team-building exercise that included dragon boat races by nine randomized ...

A strike on the railroad has become possible as the thirty-day cooling-off ends Friday, and there are still two unions holding out for quality-of-life benefits, including vacation time, sick time, and the attendance policy. Due to the possibility of a work stoppage, many Class 1 railroads are initiating embargoes and service alterations to slowly wind ...

East Coast ports are seeing record numbers of container volume, mostly from shippers looking to avoid the congestion snarls on the West Coast. However, at some East Coast ports we’re seeing the same issues as these ports don’t have the infrastructure to handle the increased activity.  Others, like the Port of Charleston, have been watching ...

In the interest of fairness, Kurt Schenkemeyer should have known what to expect at Argents. His father worked in management at Lufthansa for thirty-one years and Kurt himself was a twenty-three year veteran of the industry – ten years of which he spent in friendly competition with Dagny Chiappetta as they navigated clients, conferences, and ...

In July, Anaheim, California was the site of the Trade Facilitation and Cargo Security Summit held by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Previously, this had been two separate occasions: the CBP Trade Symposium and the CTPAT Conference. They’ve evolved into a combined three day whirlwind affair focusing on the newest policies and thinking coming ...

Before the pandemic, the logistics industry had a finite definition of peak season – late July through early December was the busiest period for shipping worldwide. In the post-pandemic logistical landscape, peak season became a theoretical concept to define an ephemeral spike in supply chain activity during two years of abject chaos.  In fact, the ...