Manifest Weekly: February 22-28, 2023

What we're covering???

• Target’s plans to invest $100 million to expand next-day delivery ??
• This week’s featured news stories, including the US hitting Russia with a 200% aluminum tariff ??
• BNSF and Norfolk Southern reach sick leave agreements with several unions in continuing negotiations ??
• Logixboard’s featured content & webinar recap ?? ??

Target’s Plans To Invest $100 Million To Expand Next-Day Delivery

With more and more people shopping online, especially during the COVID-19-induced lockdowns, retailers, logistics players, and other stakeholders are competing not just on various goods, but also delivery time. The quicker a last-mile delivery, the higher the customer satisfaction and chance for repeat orders. E-commerce companies, logistics businesses, and supply chain stakeholders are all working towards making 24-hour or same-day deliveries a reality across the globe. Staying with the times,?Target, too, plans to invest $100 million to expand next-day delivery ?over the next three years as one of the country’s largest retailers works to compete with Amazon and Walmart.

Minneapolis-based Target plans to open at least six more sortation centers across the US by the end of 2026, adding to its network of nine centers. The new warehouses will let it fill more online orders, speed up delivery and cut down on shipping costs. The investment builds on the retailer’s plan to boost e-commerce sales by speeding up fulfillment, including by using its nearly 2,000 stores across the US as distribution hubs. The facilities handled 26 million packages last year– a figure that Target expects to double this year.

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From The Manifest

Logixboard Insider

Couldn't make it to our webinar? Watch the recording to catch up???

Last week, we hosted the live virtual event "How Freight Forwarders Can Win More Bids in 2023." In this webinar, we?heard from FTA's Sal Milici, Neolink's Sean Crook, and Logixboard's Jimmy Speyer on the top challenges,?trends, and best practices among freight forwarders today???

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Featured News Stories

• The US hit Russia with a 200% aluminum tariff . The Biden administration also announced $2.7 billion in new duties on other industrial goods as the war in Ukraine passes the one-year mark.
• The shipping industry is expected to face a flood of new container ships entering service ?according to a report, leading to overcapacity and weaker demand. Carriers are expected to resize their fleets to cope with the order book dilemma, and scrapping and vessel layups are expected to increase in the coming months.
• Inventory gluts are a new source of supply chain inflation hitting consumer prices . Overstocked inventory and the resulting lack of warehouse space are driving new inflation in the supply chain.
• The labor union representing FedEx Express pilots says contract negotiations with the company have stalled , moving the union closer to holding a vote to approve a strike. The approval for such a vote to be called comes after nearly six months of federally mediated negotiations between FedEx Express and the union.

BNSF and Norfolk Southern Reach Sick Leave Agreements With Several Unions

Labor unions and worker strikes are becoming major supply chain disruptions causing delays at the present time. With first the COVID-19 pandemic, then the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and various natural calamities in between, workers have been demanding increased days off, better working conditions, etc. Through December 2022 and into January 2023, there were serious concerns about a rail strike that could bring the US economy to halt. Now,?BNSF and Norfolk Southern reach sick leave agreements with several unions in continuing negotiations .?

BNSF (NYSE: BRK.B) reached sick leave agreements with members of the Transportation Communications Union (TCU) and the National Conference of Firemen & Oilers (NCFO).?The agreement with TCU is for insourced intermodal equipment operators, which BNSF says represent a majority of that union’s members at the railroad. Other TCU members at BNSF already have paid sick days as part of their existing agreement, according to the railroad.?

These agreements are part of a collaborative effort aimed toward modernizing the work environment and addressing quality of life, according to BNSF executives. The railroad added that it is continuing dialogue with other unions about paid sick leave days. BNSF’s two agreements call for an additional four paid sick days, plus the ability to convert three personal leave days to sick leave.?

NCFO confirmed it reached an agreement with BNSF. Its union members will accrue 32 hours of paid sick time. The agreement with BNSF was not the only one recently reached by NCFO.

NCFO also completed a deal with NS (NYSE: NSC) for paid time off for illness and wellness. The union described those terms as the same as the deal reached with BNSF. With these latest deals, all four of the major US Class I railroads — BNSF, NS, Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP), and CSX (NASDAQ: CSX) — have reached sick agreements with at least two rail labor unions.