The wait is over, and the show is finally here. I’ve mentioned on here a few times how my kids (and my wife and I) have become obsessed with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s masterpiece that is Hamilton. Well, this weekend, we finally get to see it live. And while the touring cast does not feature Miranda, or my personal favorite Daveed Diggs, it does feature Nicholas Christopher who grew up in the town where we live. Either way, the reviews are in, and they are looking good. I’ll have an update next week for you. But for now, let’s move on to this week’s logistics news.
- Ikea sets goal for zero emissions delivery
- Toyota, Kenworth, Shell partner with Port of LA on zero-emission goal
- Top companies come together to fight climate risk in supply chains
- Walmart acquires Cornershop for $225 million
- Deliveroo to allow customers to order from different restaurants on the same order
- DHL E-Commerce launches cash-on-delivery for cross-border orders
- Increased freight costs and driver shortage cramp beer profits
Electric vehicles for deliveries have been a hot topic lately, and Ikea is making a bold move. The company announced this week that it will make home deliveries with zero emissions in five cities by 2020. To meet the zero emissions goal, the company has said it will use mostly electric vehicles for all deliveries in Amsterdam, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, and Shanghai. These five cities are an important part of the long-term plan for Ikea to become more environmentally friendly. In fact, Ikea has pledged that by 2020, all deliveries in these cities that are not done by electric vehicle will be done by other zero emission solutions. This is all part of Ikea’s involvement in an initiative by the Climate Group EV100 to provide access to electric vehicle charging stations at Ikea locations by 2020, make all home deliveries zero emission by 2025, and cut in half emissions from Ikea employees and customers by 2030.
Speaking of zero emissions, Toyota, Kenworth, and Shell have partnered with the Port of Los Angeles on a zero-emission goal. The Port of Los Angeles has received $41 million from the California Air Resources Board to help the port move toward its goal of becoming a near-zero emissions facility. Port partners Toyota, Kenworth, and Shell have announced that they will provide another $41.5 million in funding for the zero emissions project. Toyota has been testing hydrogen-electric-powered Kenworth T680 at LA-area ports since last summer, and it unveiled the second iteration of the hydrogen-electric tractor this summer. Shell will develop two large capacity hydrogen fueling stations in Wilmington, California, and Ontario, California. The two new stations will join three existing hydrogen fueling stations located around Los Angeles at Toyota facilities.
Climate risk is becoming an important of business as companies examine their supply chains. As a result, major companies came together to strengthen their supply chain practices to combat climate risk. Coca-Cola and Mars, Inc. are among the first to join the Climate-Resilient Value Chains Leaders Platform. As the name implies, the new digital platform is intended to help companies build more resilient supply chains by identifying and mitigating climate risk. This is not the first time Mars has taken a major environmental stance, as is evident by its take on the vanilla crisis and palm oil traceability. Participating companies committed to “develop shared tools and methods that help them prioritize climate resilience including investigating physical climate risks in their supply chains and helping vulnerable supplier communities cope.”
As the food delivery battle continues to heat up, Walmart is stepping up its game. This week, the company announced the acquisition of Latin American food delivery service Cornershop for $225 million. The move is designed to ramp up its online grocery business in Mexico and Chile. Not surprisingly, this deal mirrors some of Amazon’s latest moves towards increasing grocery delivery in these markets. While Walmart continues to partner with crowdsourced delivery partner Instacart in the US and Canada, in Mexico, the market for grocery delivery is much smaller. By acquiring a local company, it puts Walmart in the thick of things. Walmart said it expects the Cornershop deal to close by year’s end.
The online restaurant delivery market is exploding thanks to third party crowd-sourced delivery options. However, one of the main drawbacks, for customers at least, has been trying to please large groups. Well, Deliveroo is trying to change that. The company is rolling out a new feature that will enable users to order dishes from different restaurants on the same single order. The food delivery app has announced the launch of what it calls Food Market, which will be available in the UK by the end of September and uses a single “super kitchen” filled with multiple restaurants preparing food for group orders.
Cross border e-commerce continues to be a major problem for lots of companies. While there are shipping restrictions and tariffs to be navigated, there are also currency discrepancies and banking issues that arise. One area where this is especially true is in Southeast Asia, where cash is still king. DHL eCommerce, a division of Deutsche Post DHL Group, has launched its Cross-Border Cash-on-Delivery (COD) service to allow consumers to pay for their international purchases in cash and only upon delivery. While credit adoption is rising, DHL indicates that 73 percent of the Southeast Asia population is still unbanked. And while internet access continues to grow, this becomes an issue. It will certainly be interesting to see if cross-border COD grows from here.
And finally, increased freight costs and the driver shortage are beginning to take a toll on the beer industry. According to the National Beer Wholesalers Association, beer companies shipped 2.9 billion cases of beer last year, but due to surging freight costs, a shortage of long-haul truck drivers, and new laws restricting the number of hours that drivers can be on the road, profits are down. The beer industry is feeling these increased costs more than other industries as the majority of beer sold domestically is shipped.
That’s all for this week. Enjoy the weekend and the song of the week, my son’s favorite from Hamilton, Wait for It.
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