Rethinking The Core Carrier Strategy - Too Many Eggs in One Basket?

There are two sides of a continuum in procurement strategies for transportation.  On one end is full "auction" type purchasing where you put everything out to bid, almost constantly, and let the market adjust the prices.  On the other end is single sourcing where you don't bid anything and you partner with a core company.

Close to sole sourcing is a strategy called "core carrier".  This strategy has you limit your carriers to a "vital few" and then you work with them.  Sounds great however lately I have seen this degenerate to what is virtually a sole source strategy.  So, what is wrong with this and is it time to rethink it?  It appears Amazon thinks so.

As I wrote on Monday, Amazon is teaming up with the United States Postal Service (USPS) to execute Sunday deliveries.  Sounds great and the possibility of this occurring I wrote about back in 2012 but there may be more to this.   In The Wall Street Journal's "Heard on the Street" column (subscription required) they mention how this may actually be a strategic decision to ensure they have options beyond FEDEX and UPS.

In conjunction with their private fleet for grocery deliveries, Amazon appears to be diversifying and growing their options.  A real strategic risk for Amazon is they become so beholden to Fedex and UPS that they are controlled by them.  This strategy appears to be their attempt to counter that risk.

For the average shipper you should be thinking about this strategy as well.  Initially the idea of sole sourcing or core carrier sounds great - low administrative costs, one point of contact, easy to do business with.  Long term, however, you have to ask yourselves if you are turning the keys to the kingdom over to someone who many not have your best interest in mind.  No fault of their own but their interest will always be in the profitability of their company.   So, here are some actions you should be thinking about to protect the long term ability of your company to execute their strategy:

1. Be careful on too much concentration in one carrier - especially intermodal
2. Ensure suppliers know (and it is believable) that you have options in the market place.
3. Be careful of tying systems together which are core to your business.  Beyond EDI, once their are unique systems integrations you are married (sometimes for life).
4. Think about strategically propping some carriers up to ensure they are competitive.  Think about Amazon and the USPS.  Why go with what is essentially a bankrupt carrier?  Amazon wants to keep them in business and is going to help them.  You may have to do that with some smaller carriers yourself. 
5. Keep options open with private fleet.  By running a private fleet you will know as much or more about running a fleet than your suppliers.  Keep that as a competitive advantage. 

As always, there is a lot to learn from Amazon.  

United States Post Office and Amazon - Sunday Delivery in NYC

Sunday delivery was inevitable (USPS and Amazon team up) and I have talked about this a few times.  In an article titled "Home Delivery Lockers at Wal-Mart" I discussed how Amazon might be able to team up with UPS to fight the "Clicks and Mortars" advantage of Wal-Mart.

But buried in that article I said the following:

"Of course, there is still partnering with the Post Office (interestingly UPS has already started doing in the sustainability space) which I think makes a lot of sense."

I also said that the United States Post Office could be the big winner in the fight for immediate home delivery as they already have a 6 day per week infrastructure to make this happen.   I wrote an article over a year ago titled: "Could the Post Office Be The Big Winner in Same Day Delivery?"

It appears they have, at least in NYC, started to win this battle.

"Home Delivery" Lockers at Wal-Mart

In another twist to the race to home delivery and the attempt to de-throne Amazon, Wal-Mart is now testing lockers in their stores.  Along with a beefed up web presence Wal-Mart will try to entice you to order through the web (capture the web based buyer) however avoid the huge costs of the final mile.

This is the dilemma all of the retailers have and ultimately will have to solve:  The logistics costs of the final mile (delivery to your home) are a huge part of the total costs of logistics when you deliver to the home.  In fact, if you just measure the variable cost of sending one unit of something to your home virtually all the cost is in that final mile delivery.

If Wal-Mart is successful they can leverage the huge advantage they have in store delivery logistics while not incurring the costs for that final delivery - or they may be able to appropriately segment in the consumers mind the differential cost of delivery to the store v. delivery to the home.  This is an area Amazon cannot compete in (they have no stores).  As a consumer, because their is no option, when I order from Amazon I will accept a delivery charge.  However if I am presented with a "free" to pick up at store and $6.00 to get to the home I may think twice about the $6.00.

So, what issue do the lockers solve?  This solves the final "three feet" of the purchase experience.  I do not want to interact with a sales person or wait in line to pick up my goods.  Now I will be able to walk into the store, find my locker, get my products and leave.  It is very compelling.

I probably overstated my position above saying Amazon could not compete with this although they would need a partner.  The UPS store seems like the logical partner as it solidifies the use of UPS for the package delivery and there is one on just about every street corner.

Of course, there is still partnering with the Post Office (interestingly UPS has already started doing in the sustainability space) which I think makes a lot of sense.  We shall see how this ever changing landscape is developed.  Stay tuned.

I have two labels you can come back to for reading all the news on both Same Day Delivery and Final Mile Delivery.  If this is your topic, come back early and often for updates to these labels.

Blue and Brown Make Green... Sustainability for The Final Mile

I have written before about the complexity of the final mile in the logistics network.  This includes both the final mile of the delivery and also the first mile of the reverse logistics networks created by final mile deliveries (i.e., Customers tend to order one size too big, one too small knowing they can return.. for example).   What I had not thought about was the unique nature of the sustainability challenges of the final mile network.

Thank goodness there are a lot smarter people than me in this world!

The Post Office (USPS) and United Parcel Service (UPS) have partnered together to share information and build out this carbon information for the final mile in the United States.  This is good news and I look forward to seeing more about this in the coming years.  The sheer volume of vehicles possessed by both of these entities and the fact they are working to reduce carbon gives me hope for continued sustainability initiatives.

More On Same Day "Delivery Wars"

My readers know I have been blogging about this, with thoughts on what will work, for almost a week now.  I started with a post asking whether Amazon awakened the sleeping giant of Wal-Mart and also wrote about the inherent advantages of scale and dispersion that the United States Post Office possesses in this space.

Note: to follow this story on my blog as it develops make sure to click on the tag: Same Day Delivery.

SCdigest has now written about it (I must admit, I love when I "scoop" a professional journal!) and they are calling it the "same day wars".  Not sure I would use the war analogy but it is interesting they see it that way.

My experience has been same day shipping is more a "marketing gimmick" than reality.  How many people really cannot afford a quick trip to Wal-mart (which is open 24 hours a day mostly)?  Will they really pay $10 to avoid that trip?  I think same day shipping ads will draw eyeballs (which is good - creates sales) but when the customer is about to dispense with $10 or $20 extra dollars they will decide a quick car trip could be enjoyable!

Could The Post Office Be The Big Winner in Same Day Delivery?

An interesting development in the "same day delivery wars" which has been brewing as of late with Amazon and Wal-Mart.  The key question is who is going to do this from a delivery standpoint and who can do it at a very low cost?

Already, the USPS gets something to you for about .45 cents which FEDEX may charge you $5.00 or more.  Granted, they get it faster however with just a small amount of pre-planning you can change that $5.00+ charge to .45.  Most of what FEDEX is charging us for is a premium for our inefficiency and lack of planning.

Enter the USPS in the same day shipping.  As we know, the infrastructure costs for same day shipping are massive (advantage Wal-mart over Amazon since Wal-Mart has essentially 4500 distribution centers) and thus usually make it economically impractical. The USPS has some interesting, already in place, advantages:

1. Huge infrastructure - generally an office in every town regardless of size
2. Already mandated to go to just about every house every day in the Country
3. Will pick up as well as delivery and usually without an appointment. 
4. If you are not home, the trip to the USPS is generally very short (FEDEX for example has pulled out of my small town.  If I am not home when a FEDEX shipment comes and I want it I have to drive 1/2 hour to get it.. my post office is less than 1 mile away)

With some sophisticated routing tools, the USPS could, in a town, sweep the town to pick up the deliveries, bring to their "cross dock" then conduct the deliveries at night.  In some cases they can incorporate the delivery into their already established routes and in others they can utilize the equipment which is just sitting anyway.

This should be fun to watch!