This week in parcel, FedEx reporting is changing, leaving shippers in the dark on key data. Companies should be reviewing their reports closely for accuracy, but is there a better option than FedEx Reporting Online?
Additionally, with supply chain issues easing, retailers look to manage their inventory. Have they learned their lesson from overstocking a year ago? Lastly, the Teamsters Union has made gains in its negotiations with UPS, according to Teamsters.
After overstocking in 2022, what should retailers do now?
After two years of shortages, 2022 left retailers with more inventory than some had ever seen. This year, it’s meant retailers have needed to look past the bare shelves of 2020 and 2021 and rely on less inventory.
Inventory levels peaked in November, but many are still trying to unload inventory, which remains much higher than last year. After struggling to keep shelves stocked in 2020 and 2021 and overstocking in 2022, have retailers learned to find the middle ground?
With the supply chain issues easing, the pre-pandemic concerns of overstock and understock have returned, where retailers are simply juggling whether the loss of a sale costs more than the inventory space to store too much product. If demand picks back up, retailers are not going to repeat the same mistake from last year.
Read more here.
If FedEx Reporting Online isn’t worth your time, what is?
FedEx is making changes to FedEx Reporting Online, but going by the changes already introduced, it doesn’t look like it’s worth the customer’s time.
While the updated platform does give shippers some improved data visibility, other things are noticeably absent. For instance, there are no descriptions for surcharges. This means that a shipper can be billed for a surcharge and not know what it is for.
As for the changes still to come, the carrier is notably improving its “at-a-glance” dashboard and adding recurring reports and notifications. This will be useful for some, but for moderate- and high-volume shippers, the platform as a whole is still very limiting.
So what’s a better alternative? TransImpact Executive VP of Operations, Brian Byrd, breaks it down in our latest NextSights post.
Teamsters make early gains in national negotiations with UPS, according to Teamsters
According to the Teamsters website, negotiations have gotten off to a good start for the union. While Teamsters had previously stated it would not begin national negotiations until all regional supplemental contracts were resolved, the chairs for both outstanding regional agreements urge the national committee to begin negotiations.
The union and the carrier have already reached a tentative agreement on five issues, including securing unlimited time for UPS Teamsters stewards to attend orientations fully paid and more opportunities to fill vacancies with existing Teamsters members prior to UPS hiring external workers.
Teamsters noted that these gains have been made without any concessions. Negotiations are still ongoing, and the two parties have until the end of July before the current contract expires.