I may be in the minority here, but I’m just going to come out and say it. I do not like glitter. I dislike glitter so much that some of my friends have (jokingly) threatened to send me a glitter bomb package. I’m the only one in my family that feels so strongly about it. In fact, my daughters love it, and as a result, they always seem to end up with birthday, Valentine’s Day, and any other holiday cards that you can imagine covered in glitter. They see sparkles and fun; I see vacuuming. Lots of vacuuming. So, I have now become a big fan of major British retailers Morrisons, John Lewis and Waitrose, as all three companies have said they would not be using glitter in their holiday products this year. According to a statement by Morrisons, “glitter is made from tiny particles of plastic and is an ecological hazard if it becomes dispersed on land, rivers, and oceans, where it takes hundreds of years to degrade.” Maybe I can leverage the fact that glitter is actually bad for the environment to bring the rest of my family over to my side of the argument. Then I just have to convince the grandparents. And now on to this week’s logistics news.

• Holiday crunch starts early with more packages than means to deliver
• Drone rules on final approach
• FedEx gets into returns with Happy Returns partnership
• CVS to hire thousands of pharmacy techs as it prepares for more COVID-19 cases
• Amazon launches one-hour grocery pickup at all U.S. Whole Foods stores
• Albertsons testing out self-service pick-up lockers
• Nordstrom expands online order pickup to Rack stores
• Tesla to export China-made Model 3 vehicles to Europe
• China adds new export restrictions in latest trade-dispute move

Ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, one important holiday item is apparently sold out: shipping capacity. I wrote about this challenge earlier this week as I explored the 2020 holiday season. A full five weeks before Thanksgiving, UPS and FedEx have already told most of their largest shippers that most of their shipping capacity has already been sold. The result could be up to 7 million packages delayed per day. That’s not exactly something that consumers want to hear. With this news, opportunities have opened for smaller carriers as retailers and shippers look to find additional capacity for what will surely be a busy season. Unfortunately, the majority of small shippers booked their capacity months earlier than usual and will not be accepting new customers until 2021. This leaves the USPS as the safety valve for these shippers. However, the Postal Service is already expecting a record number of letters and packages to be delivered, so it will be interesting to see if the agency can handle the additional demand. The best advice for consumers is to ship early this year.

Drones have continued to demonstrate use cases as some regulations have been relaxed and more pilot programs have been approved. However, in order for drones to become a viable delivery mechanism for retailers, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) needs to pass final regulations laying out how drones can operate. We are now a step closer in the process. The FAA has submitted for final review two proposed regulations to the president’s Office of Management and Budget. These proposals are for remote identification of unmanned aircraft and operation of small unmanned aircraft over people. The White House budget office has 90 days to review the new regulations, meaning they could be published before the end of the year. If this happens, it will bring a close to a multi-year process for drone delivery regulations.

FedEx is looking to expand its drop-off program for e-commerce returns heading into the holiday season, with the returns rush ready to kick off in January. FedEx is partnering with Happy Returns to accept items from 150 participating retailers at 2,000 FedEx Office locations. The partnership will begin at the end of October and offers instant refunds at drop off without the need for a box or packaging. Customers can initiate the return online and present a QR code on their smartphone when they bring the item to FedEx. The partnership is similar to what Staples us doing with Optoro, with an effort to increase sales of in-store services such as printing, copying, and shipping.

As we head into fall and winter, most people are anticipating a surge in COVID-19 cases. On top of that, there is also the seasonal flu, which tends to peak between December and February. CVS is looking to get ahead of a potential rise on COVID-19 and flu cases by hiring 15,000 new employees. More than 10,000 of those will be full-time and part-time licensed pharmacy technicians who can help dispense medications and administer Covid-19 tests. The expanded staff could also help to administer a COVID-19 vaccine when it is available, assuming federal officials allow pharmacy technicians to do so. This is the latest step in CVS’ staffing expansion during the coronavirus pandemic, as it has expanded its staffing and services during the pandemic, including rolling out more than 4,000 Covid-19 drive-thru testing sites. CVS expects to administer 18 million flu shots this year – a jump from the 11 million it administered last year.

During the coronavirus pandemic, as grocery shopping shifted online, many Whole Foods customers ran into the problem of not being able to find a delivery window for their order. As demand surged, Whole Foods had to stop accepting new customers for its delivery program. As restrictions have eased, online grocery shopping has continued to grow. Amazon is now making it faster and easier for Prime members to get their grocery shopping done by launching free, one-hour grocery pickup for Prime members at Whole Foods locations nationwide. To qualify for one-hour pickup, grocery orders must total $35 or more.

Albertsons is also expanding its e-commerce options by rolling out self-service pick-up lockers at select locations. The lockers, which are manufactured by Bell and Howell, will first be installed at select Jewel-Osco locations in the Chicago area and Safeway locations in the San Francisco Bay area. Grocery adds another level of complexity to self-service pick-up, so the lockers are temperature-controlled allowing all kinds of grocery items to be stored. Customers can shop online or through the store’s mobile app and request self-service pick-up at check-out. Customers will select a pick-up timeframe that works for them, and upon check-out, be given a unique code to open the appropriate locker. Albertsons hopes to roll the program out nationwide if all goes well.

E-commerce is going to be the big driver for the 2020 holiday season and retailers are doing everything they can to embrace the seismic shift. Beginning this month, Nordstrom will add online order pickup at US Nordstrom Rack stores for Nordstrom.com, NordstromRack.com, and HauteLook.com purchases. The retailer will also fulfill online orders from NordstromRack.com and HauteLook.com at nearby Nordstrom and Nordstrom Local locations later this year. The strategy is to give the customer as many fulfillment options as possible to make the shopping experience a easy as possible. Nordstrom is also hiring more than 20,000 seasonal workers to help keep up with demand and ensure proper staffing at all pick-up locations.

Tesla has said it will start exporting China-made Model 3 cars to more than 10 European countries this month. Tesla joins a growing number of auto manufacturers that have begun using China as an export hub for electric vehicles. The company has been expanding its Chinese operations over the last year with the launch of a Shanghai factory which is Tesla’s first car plant outside of the US. Tesla aims to build 150,000 vehicles this year alone in the Shanghai plant. As Tesla begins rolling out Model 3 cars to Europe, it is also building a factory on the outskirts of Berlin which will expand its European export plan.

And finally, a new law will allow China to ban exports to protect national security, mirroring a US ban on exports. The law authorizes tight restrictions on the sale abroad of dual-use goods with both civilian and military applications, nuclear materials and equipment, and other products and services that touch on national security. The law has been in the works for two years and goes into effect on December 1. This is just the latest move in the testy trade dispute with the US and it will be interesting to see how the US responds.

That’s all for this week’s logistics news. Enjoy the weekend and the song of the week, Rock and Roll (Part 2) by Gary Glitter.

As Boston sports fans, we have become accustomed to duck boat parades. Since 2000, the city has hosted 12 rolling rallies for major sports championships, including 6 for the Patriots, 4 for the Red Sox, and 1 each for the Celtics and Bruins. And if not for a few heartbreaks along the way, that number could easily be 15 or more. This year, unless the Patriots are able to pull off some magic, we will not be hosting a duck boat parade for a sports championship. But, in some pretty cool news, yesterday, the Boston Symphony Orchestra performed 20-minute curbside recitals from the duck boats at a number of locations around the city. The stops included Symphony Hall, Angell Memorial Hospital, Reggie Lewis Center, VA Hospital Jamaica Plain, and the Boston Public Library. Audiences were restricted to 50 people due to coronavirus concerns. And now on to this week’s logistics news.

• Walmart adjusts Black Friday plans for smaller crowds
• Amazon wants to fix grocery delivery
• As FedEx makes ‘contactless’ deliveries, head of delivery robot project sees need for Roxo
• Chevrolet racks up 80,000 race miles in vehicles built with 3D printed parts
• Relativity Space makes 3D-printed rockets in ‘factory of the future’
• E2open to go public
• Macy’s converts Dover store to fulfillment center as online orders spike during COVID-19

If 2020 has proven anything, it is that things are bound to change. And the upcoming holiday season is no exception. With Amazon holding its delayed Prime Day earlier this week, and rival retailers holding sitewide sales as well, the holiday season has pretty much kicked off more than a month early. Walmart has also announced some major changes to its Black Friday offerings, which typically see huge crowds rushing into the store to grab items on mega-sale. This year, the company will be holding “Black Friday Deals for Days” with category-specific markdowns on different days. It kicks off online November 4 with deals on toys, electronics, and home products, with the sale continuing in stores on November 7. The second event kicks off online on November 11 with mark-downs on TVs, computers, tablets, movies, music, and more, continuing in store on November 14. The final event will be kick off online on November 25 and continue in stores on Walmart’s “true” Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving. And unlike years past, there will not be a mad rush into the store. Instead, customers will need to line up single-file and stores will limit the number of people inside the store at one time.

As grocery delivery has exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, one lingering problem many consumers have faced is finding a delivery timeframe. Amazon is working on a solution for that problem. According to Amazon, in the event that a shopper can’t secure a preferred delivery time when placing an order, that customer will receive a notice when a spot becomes available. The technology reportedly will apply to orders placed with Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods. This essentially gives a customer a virtual space holder in the queue if there are no immediate delivery windows available. The customer is then given an estimate for when a delivery timeframe will open, and once it does, they are notified and given two hours to place their order.

COVID-19 has also ramped up the need for contactless delivery options for consumers. FedEx has implemented a number of changes to its normal delivery protocols during the pandemic, such as eliminating signature requirements for most packages and sending photos as proof of delivery. The company is also developing an autonomous delivery robot named Roxo, which would remove point-of-delivery contact from the equation entirely. According to FedEx, Roxo is not suited for high density routes that involve multiple stops for deliveries. Instead, the robot is geared towards same-day, on-demand delivery. These deliveries, where a truck brings a single package is inefficient, and FedEx plans to use the autonomous bots to make these deliveries instead.

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of buzz around the use of 3D-printed components to alleviate supply chain bottlenecks. We are starting to see more and more use cases of companies taking out these supply chain complexities with 3D-printed items. Chevrolet’s motorsports division has announced its teams have raced over 80,000 miles of competition this season in vehicles containing 3D printed parts. According to the announcement, Chevrolet’s Corvette, INDYCAR, NASCAR Camaro, and Silverado race teams have all contributed to the miles, using 3D printing for components such as oil tanks, air conditioning cooling boxes, integrated hydration systems, headlight assemblies, and power steering pump brackets, among others. According to Audley Brown, GM director of Materials Engineering, Additive Design and Manufacturing:

“By utilizing 3D printed parts, Chevrolet Motorsports is demonstrating the many benefits of additive manufacturing, including manufacturing efficiencies, mass reduction, parts consolidation, creativity and cost savings. 3D printed parts can offer equal strength and durability to cast or milled components, which is critical for product development and design.”

Not to be outdone by motorsports, rocket builder Relativity Space is turning to 3D-printed components as well. The company recently moved into a new headquarters in Long Beach, CA in preparation for its first launch in late 2021. Relativity Space is building its first iteration of its Terran 1 rocket. To do so, the company is relying on 3D printing to manufacture about 95 percent of its parts, using 3D printers that were developed in-house. Relativity is now on its third generation of 3D-printers, capable of manufacturing a single piece of metal up to 32 feet tall – as high as the new ceiling allows. Terran 1 will stand about 115 feet tall on the launchpad, so Relativity is building the rocket in sections and then using a specialized “horizontal conjoining system” to fit the pieces together.

E2open, a network-based provider of 100 percent cloud-based, end-to-end supply chain management software, announced that it has entered into a business combination agreement with CC Neuberger Principal Holdings I, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company. Upon closing of the transaction, E2open will become a publicly traded company, and it is expected that its common stock will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ETWO”. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of CC Neuberger Principal Holdings I, as well as the Board of Directors of E2open, and is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including the approval of the shareholders of CC Neuberger Principal Holdings I. The total equity investment of $1.1 billion raised in this transaction will be used to pay down existing debt, purchase a portion of the equity owned by existing E2open owners and conservatively capitalize the Company’s balance sheet. Upon the closing of the transaction, CC Neuberger Principal Holdings I will domesticate as a Delaware corporation and the name of CC Neuberger Principal Holdings I will be changed to E2open Parent Holdings.

COVID-19 has shifted the purchasing patterns and behaviors of consumers around the world. While e-commerce became a necessity as the onset of the pandemic due to brick and mortar stores being closed, once stores were allowed to re-open, many consumers continued to shop online. As a result, many retailers have had to shift gears on how they fulfill items. Macy’s has decided to run a test at two of its nearly 550 stores. The stores, located in Dover, DE and Littleton, CO, will be closed to shoppers and will instead be used as fulfillment centers for the holiday season. The stores will still facilitate in-store and curbside pickup orders, returns, bill pay and other customer services, while acting primarily as a fulfillment center for online orders. In a statement, the company said the pilot is in response to an uptick in online orders shipped directly to customers or their nearest store.

Want to learn more about omni-channel fulfillment? Learn how your omni-channel fulfillment operations measure up. Take our latest survey to find out.

That’s all for this week. Enjoy the weekend and the song of the week, the Boston Pops’ version of I’m Shipping Up to Boston.

Earlier this week, guitar legend Eddie Van Halen died after a decade-long battle with cancer. He was often referred to as a guitar god, playing with blistering speed and bringing the tapping technique to the mainstream. One of the coolest stories I have heard about him this week was how he came to play the solo on Michael Jackson’s Beat It. Apparently, he had a deal with his bandmates that they would never do any side gigs or solo projects. However, when he was asked to perform a solo on Michael Jackson’s song, the lure of working with legendary producer Quincy Jones proved to be too much. With the rest of Van Halen out of town, Eddie decided to take on the gig, figuring no one would know he was playing the solo and figuring the song would barely be heard anyway. In all, it took him less than 30 minutes to record, and he wasn’t even paid. According to some accounts, all he asked for was a case of beer and for Michael to teach him some dance moves. As cool as the solo to Beat It is, when Jackson stepped out of the room, Eddie had the sound engineer rearrange the song, which ended up being the final version. And now on to this week’s logistics news.

• Amazon Prime Day expected to generate nearly $10 billion in global sales
• Walmart+ quickly grows membership base
• Staples to pilot a drop-off program for easier e-commerce returns
• Surge in imports congests West Coast ports
• US trade deficit up to $67.1 billion in August
• Mars achieves deforestation-free palm oil supply chain
• Warehouse, parcel operators add thousands of jobs
• UPS faces $100M judgment for delivery of untaxed cigarettes to NYC

Last week I mentioned that Amazon had officially announced a date for Prime Day: October 13 – 14. Even though the annual summer sale holiday has been delayed, the timing of it lines up with an early holiday season kick-off and looks like it will be a big one for Amazon. According to eMarketer, which released its first-ever Prime Day forecast, the sales event will top last year’s and bring in an estimated nearly $10 billion in worldwide sales. To put that $10 billion in perspective, 2019 brought in $6.93 billion, 2018 brought in $4.13 billion, 2017 brought in $2.47 billion, and 2016 brought in $1.5 billion. For 2020, of the $9.91 billion in forecasted sales, $6.17 billion will come from US consumers. In August, Amazon ran its Prime Day sale in India ahead; this was later than years past but earlier than in other countries. If the results from Prime Day India are an indication of how the October will go, these numbers seem attainable. Following the India event, Amazon reported record seller participation, and said it gained at least 1 million new subscribers for its Prime membership program.

After a few delays, Walmart+ finally launched two weeks ago. The program is Walmart’s answer to Amazon’s Prime membership program, costs $98 a year, and includes unlimited free delivery from stores, including groceries, plus gasoline discounts. The big questions surrounding Walmart+ is how much traction the retailer would get. Consumer opinion pollster Piplsay launched a survey of over 20,000 US adults between September 27 and 28. Of those surveyed, 11 percent indicated that they had already subscribed to Walmart+, with 27 percent saying they may enroll in the plan soon and 15 percent expressing no interest. The other question is how Walmart will+ impact Amazon Prime membership. According to the survey, 45 percent of Walmart+ members reported that they also belong to Amazon’s Prime customer benefits program, while 19 percent said they migrated to Walmart’s offering from Amazon Prime. For 36 percent of Walmart+ members surveyed, the signup marked their first such shopping subscription.

Office supply chain Staples is planning to use its stores as drop-off locations for returns of goods sold by other online brands. Staples is partnering with Optoro, a returns and reverse logistics tech firm, to enable consumers to return items to the more than 1,000 Staples stores in the US and get credit for returned items through a QR code on their phones. The plan, which will be called Express Returns, plans to launch in early 2021 to take advantage of the holiday return frenzy. For Staples, the move makes sense, as it the partnership will fit into what it calls its “service offerings,” which include in-store printing, copying, and shipping. Optoro supplies consumers with a portal for making returns and collecting refunds, and helps brands maximize the resale or reuse value of returns.

Shippers are being warned of severe congestion at the California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that could result in increased lead times on shipments. The congestion is mostly the result in a surge of imports over the last few months, which was driven in large part by consumer goods. Discretionary product and staple imports were up in August on stronger food and personal care shipments. Aside from the surge in imports, some of the issues are also due to vessel delays, extra loaders, chassis shortages, limitations in appointment windows, increased dwell time for local cargo, and a stretched drayage market. The ports are encouraging supply chains to use dual transactions “to improve efficiencies and ensure equipment availability.”

In August the US trade deficit rose to its highest level in 14 years. The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the gap between the goods and services the United States sells and what it buys abroad climbed 5.9 percent in August to $67.1 billion, the highest since August 2006. Exports rose 2.2 percent to $171.9 billion on a surge in shipments of soybeans, but imports rose 3.2 percent to $239 billion, led by purchases of crude oil, cars, and auto parts. The US deficit with the rest of the world in the trade of goods such as airplanes and appliances set a record $83.9 billion in August. The US did run a surplus of $16.8 billion in the trade of services such as banking and education, which was the lowest since January 2012. The COVID pandemic has hit US trade hard in 2020, as the combination of import and exports is down 15.1 percent to $3.2 trillion.

Palm oil continues to be a hot topic in the news. Last week the US announced that it would block shipments of palm oil from FGV Holdings Berhad after it found indicators of forced labor, including concerns about child workers, along with other abuses such as physical and sexual violence. I have also written about a large number of companies looking to improve traceability and eliminate deforestation. This week, Mars announced that it has achieved a deforestation-free palm oil supply chain as a result of reducing its suppliers drastically under its ‘Palm Positive Plan’. Through its Palm Positive Plan, which was launched last year, Mars has simplified its supply chain by reducing the number of mills it sources from. It is awarding longer-term contracts only to suppliers who can commit to its environmental, social and ethical expectations. The progress is made possible by taking its mill count from 1,500 to fewer than 100 by 2021, and Mars says it is on the path to further halve that in 2022. With fewer suppliers, Mars claims it is easier to verify that the providers are meeting its environmental and ethical goals.

As the holiday season rapidly approaches, companies are adding tens of thousands of temporary employees in anticipation of the e-commerce surge that is likely coming. The COVID pandemic has propelled e-commerce to unanticipated heights, and it is showing no signs of slowing down. As consumers continue to be cautious of spending time in malls, online shopping is sure to lead the charge for the 2020 holiday season. According to seasonally adjusted preliminary employment figures released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, warehousing and storage payrolls jumped by 32,200 jobs in September. The jump in a sector that includes online fulfillment centers followed an addition of 34,400 jobs in August and came as retailers and logistics operators say they are planning on large-scale seasonal hiring for 2020. Courier and messenger companies that deliver packages to homes and businesses added 10,300 jobs in September, and trucking companies added 4,600 positions. I will have a full forecast on seasonal hiring in the coming months.

UPS is on the hook for a $100 million judgement. Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court denied a petition from UPS to reconsider the hefty penalty for delivering untaxed cigarettes in New York City. The decision by the high court means the delivery company must pay up. A 2014 study concluded that 60% of cigarettes in New York were subject to tax evasion, resulting in an estimated loss of tax revenue exceeding $2 billion annually. UPS said in a statement that it had greatly improved its ability to prevent shipments of untaxed smokes. The city and state sued UPS the following year. According to city Corporation Counsel James Johnson:

“Companies that illegally ship untaxed cigarettes into our city undercut our public health laws and deny the City millions in needed tax revenues. We have not finished our work here. Violators should consider themselves on notice that there is more to come.”

That’s all for this week. Enjoy the weekend and the song of the week, Eruption by Van Halen.

Over the last few months, I’ve seen stories about people receiving random, unidentified seeds in the mail. Usually, the package came from China and had something else listed as the contents on the outside. However, once it was opened, there were just seeds with no description. The USDA in July said the packages were most likely part of a “brushing” scam, in which people receive unsolicited items from a seller who then posts false positive customer reviews to boost sales. This week, Amazon said it has banned foreign sales of seeds in the United States after thousands of Americans received unsolicited packages of seeds in their mailboxes, mostly postmarked from China. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in July identified more than a dozen plant species ranging from morning glories to mustard in the bags of unsolicited seeds. It warned Americans not to plant the seeds. Amazon will now only allow the sale of seeds from sellers who are based in the US. And now on to this week’s logistics news.

• AstraZeneca pauses coronavirus vaccine trial after unexplained illness in volunteer
• Walmart in the news:
  • Walmart piloting on-demand drone delivery with Flytrex
  • Walmart goes virtual as it plans for holiday toy shopping
• Prescription deliveries significantly delayed by Postal Service
• Whole Foods to offer pickup from nearly all of its stores by end of month
• eBay, UPS enter into enhanced tie-up
• Kohl’s to help Amazon grow grocery footprint
• Mondelez tightens palm-oil supplier rules

As we’ve written about before, the race is on to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. One of the world’s largest drug companies, AstraZeneca, has paused its global trials of its coronavirus vaccine because of an unexplained illness in one of the volunteers. According to reports, the participant came down with an inflammatory syndrome known as transverse myelitis, which results in inflammation of both sides of the spinal cord, interfering with how messages are sent throughout the body and potentially causing paralysis. The AstraZeneca vaccine is one of three coronavirus vaccines in late-stage, Phase 3 trials in the USA Data and Safety Monitoring Board. However, the company, along with eight other companies, signed a pledge that they would not seek premature government approval for any coronavirus vaccine. They promised they would wait until they had adequate data showing any potential vaccine worked safely. The company is testing its vaccine, called the Oxford vaccine because it was developed with Britain’s University of Oxford, in the United States as well as the UK, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Walmart has started making its first deliveries by drone, launching a small pilot program this week in Fayetteville, NC. The retailer will be delivering “select grocery and household essential items” using automated drones operated by Israeli startup Flytrex. Each of the drones can fly at speeds of 32 mph, travel distances of 6.2 miles in a round trip, and carry up to 6.6 pounds. Unlike other trials that its rivals are performing, Walmart is not seeking direct certification by the FAA. Instead, by partnering with Flytrex, which is already part of the FAA’s UAS Integration Pilot Program, the company can avoid the need for its own certification.

Every year as the holiday season approaches, Walmart invites hundreds of kids to a convention center near it headquarters to test out toys to see if they would want them for Christmas. This has helped shape the company’s “top toys list” year after year. This year is a little different, as the company clearly cannot invite hundreds of kids to an enclosed location to play with toys. Instead, it has mailed toys to several dozen kids to test at home. Walmart also developed an online tool that lets kids virtually unbox, test, and play with toys since multiple kids can’t wheel around the same truck or play with the same doll in store aisles or at demos due to the pandemic. Walmart Wonder Lab will allow kids to try over 100 toys and guide virtual hands to interact with them.

According to the results of an investigation by two Senate Democrats released this week, changes to the USPS instituted by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy have caused “significant delays” in the delivery of mail-order prescriptions to millions of Americans. The investigation found that average delivery times for prescription drugs increased 18 percent to 32 percent after DeJoy had changed delivery policies. Prescription drugs are typically delivered within two to three days since many are temperature sensitive and patients may require them immediately. But the delays caused by DeJoy’s changes have created new cost burdens that affect the federal government, consumers and taxpayers, the report said.

As online grocery demand has soared over the last six months, companies like Whole Foods have increased their curbside pick-up capabilities and capacity to mee the growing demand. Whole Foods’ pickup service, which for Amazon Prime members doesn’t carry a fee on orders over $35 and can be available within an hour. The company is now getting ready to offer grocery pick-up at nearly every location nationwide by the end of the month. According to reports, some Whole Foods stores are removing in-store dining and seating space to make room for pickup staging.

eBay has announced that they have expanded their shipping relationship and, for the first time, will integrate UPS’ services with eBay’s global platform, a move that eBay said will offer its millions of sellers easier and deeper access to the carrier’s package-delivery portfolio. UPS has been handling the shipping for eBay sellers for years, but the process was not always simple. Sellers would need to go to UPS’ website to print out shipping labels. Under the new agreement, UPS will be integrated into the eBay label-printing function on its platform. This also means that eBay sellers will receive discounts on UPS’ second-day air and ground service; sellers will also have access to UPS’ 85,000 drop-off locations.

Amazon and Kohl’s launched a partnership a few years back that allowed consumers to return Amazon purchases in Kohl’s brick and mortar stores. The two companies are now expanding that partnership. The Milwaukee Business Journal is reporting that Kohl’s will allow an Amazon grocery store, likely its new banner called Fresh, to occupy space in a Kohl’s store in La Verne, California. According to city records, Kohl’s would occupy about 50,900 square feet of the 88,000-square-foot box, with the Amazon grocery store filling the remainder.

As sustainability efforts increase, there has been a lot of focus on palm oil sourcing. Mondelez International said it has tightened sourcing practices around palm oil, the ingredient used in various foods that has been linked for years to deforestation of tropical forests. The company said its suppliers of palm oil must demonstrate they can trace materials back to palm farms and have in place satellite monitoring covering large farms that feed mills that produce oil for the company. Suppliers must also identify all mills on Global Forest Watch, a platform created to monitor forests around the world, and take more action to stop worker exploitation within supply chains, Mondelez said.

That’s all for this week. Enjoy the weekend and the song of the week, The Seed (2.0) by the Roots featuring Cody ChesnuTT.

As the COVID pandemic continues, we have written a number of articles about the supply chain impact and the shortages of products and supplies that has ensued. Recently, there was a concern that there would be a shortage of glass vials for a vaccine that could hinder production. And I just read about another shortage that could impact the vaccine timeline: monkeys. Yes, monkeys. Over the past seven months, more than 100 COVID-19 vaccines, therapies, and drugs have been pushed into development. However, for any of these tests to make it to the table, they first need to be tested on another animal, which is usually monkeys. And the US is facing a shortage as monkeys simply cannot be acquired. According to the article, the reasons for the shortage are threefold. First, COVID-19 has created more demand for monkeys than normal. Second, there has been a massive drop in supply from China, which supplies 60 percent of monkeys to the US. And third, pandemic-related events are exacerbating preexisting monkey shortfalls. On top of this, any monkey infected with COVID-19 needs to be kept in a specially designed lab, which the US has a limited number of. Hopefully there are other testing alternatives available. And now on to this week’s logistics news.

• Amazon in the news:
  • Amazon orders 1,800 Mercedes-Benz electric vans
  • Amazon’s drone delivery fleet hits milestone with FAA clearance
• UPS subsidiary integrates with Google Shopping
• Walmart’s subscription program to launch September 15
• Pilot program would test 3-hour “pause” of driving clock
• Whole Foods opens first all dark store
• Waymo picks Dallas for driverless trucking hub
• Cargo theft forecasted to spike on Labor Day weekend

As part of its sustainability plans, Amazon is investing heavily in electric vans. In 2019, the company launched its climate pledge to become carbon neutral by 2040 and ordered 100,000 electric vans from US startup Rivian Automotive LLC. Now, Amazon has ordered 1,800 electric vans from German manufacturer Mercedes-Benz to expand its European delivery fleet. The order consists of 600 midsize eVitos, which are mainly to be used in inner cities, and 1,200 larger eSprinters, which is Mercedes-Benz’s newest electric commercial van. The plan is to have drivers using the vans before the end of the year. According to Jeff Beos, the vans are part of the company’s “journey to build the most sustainable transportation fleet in the world.”

As interest in drone deliveries continues to heat up, Amazon took a big leap forward in its quest to use the autonomous flying vehicles as part of its home delivery strategy. According to the company, earlier this week the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) designated Amazon Prime Air an “air carrier,” which allows Amazon to begin its first commercial deliveries in the US under a trial program. There are still a number of regulatory hurdles that Amazon must clear before it begins making home deliveries, but this is clearly a step in the right direction for drone usage. Amazon joins Wing, the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary, and UPS as companies that have gotten FAA approval to operate under the federal regulations governing charter operators and small airlines.

Two years ago, UPS launched Ware2Go, its digital fulfillment and warehouse matching service. The on-demand platform enables one-to-two-day shipping across the US using its real-time inventory platform. In a big move, Ware2Go is partnering with Google Shopping to provide delivery promises within retailers’ Google ads, based on real-time inventory availability across Ware2Go’s fulfillment network. According to the partnership, the integration is intended to help retailers optimize ad efficiency using Google Shopping and drive revenue by advertising free, fast shipping offers earlier in the buyer’s purchase journey.

After a number of delays, Walmart is officially ready to launch its answer to Amazon Prime: Walmart+. The service is a new subscription model for Walmart customers that costs $98 a year and includes unlimited free delivery from stores, including groceries, plus gasoline discounts. The coronavirus pandemic has helped create a surge in online orders for Walmart, especially in grocery. The new service expands an existing grocery-delivery subscription that Walmart introduced last year and offers delivery timeframes as fast as same-day. Walmart+ is scheduled to launch September 1.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has certainly been busy over the last six-plus months dealing with changing regulations due to coronavirus and hurricane relief efforts. Now, the agency is asking for public comment on a pilot program to study the one part of the hours-of-service proposal that didn’t make it into the final rule: allowing drivers to pause their on-duty driving period with one off-duty period up to three hours. The pilot program would allow drivers one off-duty break of at least 30 minutes, but not more than three hours, which would pause a truck driver’s 14-hour driving window, provided the driver takes 10 consecutive hours off-duty at the end of the work shift. The benefit would be to allow a driver to take a break to avoid rush hour without it affecting their hours of service.

The coronavirus pandemic has created ongoing demand for grocery delivery. As I wrote about a few months ago, Whole Foods had stopped accepting new customers as it simply did not have the capacity to pick, pack, and deliver orders for more consumers. The company has now launched its first online only store in Brooklyn, NY. The dark store will accept online orders only, with a delivery-only fulfillment model. While the store has been in the making for over a year, COVID-19 certainly helped speed things along. Hundreds of employees were hired to work at the store, delivering to customers living in Brooklyn.

Waymo is joining other autonomous trucks firms building facilities in the Dallas-Fort Worth, TX area to test their autonomous driving capabilities. The Alphabet, Inc. company new permanent facility will initially serve as a hub for road-testing Waymo’s fleet of driverless robotic Peterbilt 579 trucks. Other autonomous firms in the area include Aurora, Nuro, Kodiak Robotics, and TuSimple. According to Waymo spokesperson Julianne McGoldrick:

“Operating in a major freight hub environment like Dallas, we can test our Waymo Driver on highly dense highways and shipper lanes, further understand how other truck and passenger car drivers behave on these routes, and continue to refine the way our Waymo driver reacts and responds in this busy driving region. It also enables us to further advance our weather testing in a diverse set of environments.”

And finally, as we head into the Labor Day holiday weekend, CargoNet, a New Jersey-based cargo theft solution provider, warns that it is a busy time for cargo theft. According to CargoNet’s analysis of historical trends over that period from 2014 to 2019, the most common day for cargo theft is the Friday before Labor Day. With the reality that more and more people are working remotely during the ongoing pandemic, this trend is likely to be exacerbated in 2020. CargoNet advises that supply chain professionals park only in secured facilities with deterrents such as high-visibility lighting, secured fences, surveillance video, or staffed guard services.

That’s all for this week. Enjoy the weekend and the song of the week, Monkey Man by Toots and the Maytals.