Editorial: Logistics in 2016
This Editorial appears in the March 7 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
The release of the Transport Topics Top 50 Logistics Companies publication, included inside this issue, offers a unique look inside a sector that continues to rapidly expand.
Some years, the most interesting developments come from taking a deeper dive into what some of the largest companies on the listing are doing, whether that be making acquisitions or expanding their services.
For 2016, the brain behind the publication, Senior Features Writer Daniel P. Bearth, decided instead to investigate the forces that are actively reshaping demand for local delivery services.
The starting point of this discussion is simple: Amazon.com. The online retailer has spent two decades building a network to support e-commerce and recently has moved to enhance its ability to deliver goods by taking matters into its own hands. From same-day delivery of groceries and purchasing trailers, to pushing the federal government for approval of package delivery drones, the company is a force to be reckoned with by providers of transportation and logistics services.
However, as stories in the Logistics 50 show, Amazon is just the beginning.
New companies, such as Postmates Inc., are offering to deliver almost anything in less than one hour in major metropolitan areas, and other firms are testing new technology, such as robotic delivery carts, to provide faster service and lower cost.
While companies such as UPS Inc. and FedEx Corp. say on-demand delivery has yet to make a significant dent into the established parcel delivery market, they are nonetheless taking steps to respond to increasing demand for residential deliveries by modifying freight networks that have been geared to move cargo over long distances and to make their services more convenient for individual consumers.
This year marks the first time TT is publishing four annual listing periodicals. During the summer, we will issue our traditional Top 100 listings of for-hire carriers and another of private fleets. In September, we will release an expanded Top 50 Global Freight Carriers list.
A listing of the world’s largest freight carriers was first published within the pages of TT in 2015. It was so well-received, we felt it appropriate to expand that listing into its own supplement.
And, who knows? Maybe one day soon each of these publications will be delivered to you by a drone or robot. If you are not convinced that could be a reality, we recommend reading this year’s TT Logistics 50 feature and get a glimpse of a future already in the making.
