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Join the Supply Chain now community. For more supply chain perspectives, news and innovation, check out supply chain now.com subscribe to supply chain now on YouTube and follow and listen to Supply Chain now wherever you get your podcasts.
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Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be. Scott Luton here with you on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today's Live stream folks. Today on Breaking News now, we're going to be gaining insights on some of the top recent developments in supply chain news, especially the logistics and e commerce. And we're going to be doing so by talking with one of the best in the business. So to walk us through these some of these intriguing industry developments, let's welcome in Max Garland, senior reporter at Supply Chain Dive. Hey Max, how you doing?
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Scott, thanks for having me on. It's always good to catch up with you.
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B
Same. We had a wonderful time learning from you and your analysis and perspective back on the buzz. Well, months ago, sometime last year, but it was great to have you back. And by the way, I learned in the pre show Maxwell J. Garland, which is going to be also a character on the Gilded Age on HBO coming soon. Is that right, Max?
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C
I can confirm you heard it here first on Supply Chain Now. Yes, that is the case.
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B
All right. Well let's get into the facts of the matter. I really appreciate the great work you do on a regular basis, but before we dive into five specific stories you've been reporting on, share a little bit about what you regularly cover over on Suppach.
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C
Yeah, absolutely. So my focus is on logistics and last mile delivery news. So that's a lot of E commerce as well. Think the FedEx and UPS's of the world, a lot of what they're doing, Amazon Postal Service 2 keeping up with all their developments, but in a way that's geared towards shippers, the customers of these big carriers. So I'm regularly covering that. Also ways businesses are making their own logistics and delivery processes stronger. So needless to say, there's been a lot to keep up with on all these fronts lately. So I'm excited to chat about just a few of the articles I've written this month.
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Scott, same. You've been busy. But if anyone can keep up with the ever churning minute by minute developments of all the sectors you mentioned, the companies you mentioned, it has been you. One little quick side note too. I don't know if my one and only father in law, Fred Mitkiff is tuned in, but Max is a fellow Elon Phoenix, an alumnus. So that's probably one of the many reasons why you're so good at what you do. But hey Fred, shout out to the Commodore. Let's get into five stories. We've got big developments taking place. I look forward to get your take here. And we're going to start with this, what I call this ongoing E Commerce arms race that we've seen for years now as Target made a big announcement this week as they are looking to roll out next day delivery to the top 35 U.S. metro areas by the end of October. Now speaking of shout outs, so I'm going to pull up this map we got from Max and the team. So Paul Noble, if you need a quick item for that Cleveland Browns tailgate, hey, Target's got you covered by the end of October. And Greg Davis there in Kansas City, did you forget the Coca Cola's for the Kansas City Chiefs game party? Target next day is gonna be up and running by the end of September. Max, tell us more about these developments and what Target's doing.
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Yeah, so Target's really pushing hard for next day deliveries that tries to turn around, you know, the lagging sales that it's had recently. And the company already does its fair share of same day deliveries today. But Xtane is a big opportunity is what it feels. So yeah, by the end of October, if you're in one of those big US Metros, you can get Target next day delivery and there's going to be 20 more markets getting the service in 2026. So a big reason why Target can do this now is they're getting better when it comes to delivery routing, demand forecasting. Both of those things allow Target to give customers an order window as late as 6pm in some cases for next day shipping. So it can be really quick. So I guess the big question is will it move the needle for Target because as we know, Walmart, Amazon, they also have a lot of next day delivery capabilities.
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They sure do. One more quick blurb before we move on to the next story. It has been fascinating. We may have talked about this last time you're with us because I've been talking about it for years. It really has been fascinating to see what Walmart has done to invest not only in its E Commerce experience, but its in store experience. Max, I'm not sure if you've been into a Walmart here lately. I go a couple times a month and I'm telling you, some people look at me like I'm crazy. But the in store experience has changed as well, dramatically in the last three to four years. And that doesn't come easy. So we'll see to your point. And Target going the ranks and really transform its E commerce experience and capabilities. How would you handicap it, Max? Do you see a Target joining the ranks with the top players there?
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I mean, certainly this could help with that in store experience as well. Actually, Scott, because in our reason Target's adjusting, it's in store fulfillment processes to help out with this. They're basically consolidating a lot of that order fulfillment into stores that are best suited to handle those types of operations. They did a pilot in Chicago that was promising. So they're looking at the in store experience as well for their supply chain. Love it.
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And we got to. Right. We got to. We still have a strong contingent of consumers ever since the pandemic wrapped up. We're back in stores. We want to touch stuff before we buy it. In fact, Max, one more little sidebar. My dear mother who tunes in sometimes, Leah from Aiken, South Carolina, she's buying a new appliance. I was just talking to her this morning and she had found it on the E Commerce. All right. She wanted to go into the store and look at it before she placed the order. And that's very common. That's very common. So we'll see. By the way, folks, don't just take our word for it, but check out, we're dropping a link to each of these stories right there in the chat. You're one click away from reading Max's full take beyond what we'll cover here today. All right, so let's move Max over to the Memphis machine. There were recently announced 2026 rate hikes and some higher surcharges over at FedEx, which has almost become an annual rite of passage. But Max, tell us more.
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Yeah, I mean, you're right, Scott. It is an annual tradition for FedEx and UPS too. It's about as predictable as Christmas coming every year. But the upshot is that FedEx. Yeah. Was the first to announce its 2026 rate increase. Yes, UPS hasn't yet, but it's a 5.9% average increase. Takes effect in January affects a bunch of US Services are going to be surcharge increases too. So thank fees for bulkier packages, deliveries to more remote areas. Those will all be higher. So obviously rising shipping costs pain point for all businesses. I'm sure many viewers of the show can attest to that as well. Believe there's an index I tracked that said ground delivery rates reached a record high in Q2 because of that. So this just adds to that pressure and it's something that businesses are going to have to consider every year.
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Rising logistics costs, decreasing consumer confidence in many ways, we're going to see what the end of the year looks like and then we're going to experience it quickly. And I see a lot of mixed takes for 2026, so we might get into that later on. But Max, let's move from Memphis. I want to explore some news that you've been reporting on related to growing alternatives to UPS and FedEx. And I want to start with this story that you published on Ontrack, who touts a delivery network that more than 70% of the US population across 35 states and Washington, D.C. max, what's the latest with Ontrack?
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Yeah, absolutely. Last week Ontrak announced a bunch of things but, but two that stood out to me were first, an express delivery offering, so two to three day shipping for the longer zone type shipments. That's with the help of clearjet who they partnered with for air shipping. And second, they launched a deferred ground shipping service. So think more of those discretionary e commerce purchases. Maybe a shirt you don't need right away, low cost shipping at a little slower speed for those orders. But you know, with rising costs, as we've mentioned, that's something that could be appealing to the shipper. So some customers are already in pilot with these services before wider launch next year. So we'll see if that helps. Ontrack as it continues growing, the appetite for some of these alternatives increases, no doubt.
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You know, our carrier diversification practices across industry really has been taken to a different level thanks in part to the rise of more capable regional carriers. So this is a really interesting trend and you know, if you read on OnTrack or others and including this next one coming up, Max, talk about investing in technology differentiators and a keen focus on the customer experience. This is not like shipping with regional carriers in 1985, is it?
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No, no. A lot of these carriers now are very tech forward and they see that often as a differentiator with some of the big guys who are saying, hey, we have the tech that's equivalent to these larger carriers like FedEx and UPS. And obviously that translates to better end customer experience. Think tracking things like that because we all want to know where our packages are 24, 7 before they get here.
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It's so true, Max. Earlier this morning I was talking with a supply chain tech genius and I was taking as many notes as I could. Right. But what came up was way back in the day When I used to ship stuff almost every day, which is like in the caveman period, it seems like now I can remember how I did it. My spreadsheet, my carrier sites, a good old analog calculator, figuring out where we're going. And so, you know, sometimes we'd get good prices and optimized routes and that would be a win. But goodness, we would lose more freight. Cause there was no visibility and no tracking. I'd be fighting. I'd be shipping a lot of construction supplies to big construction sites. Right. Be fighting with the general manager. It was going to be here. No, it was going to be. I mean it was old, old technology. And it's amazing to see where we are today and not only with what the big players are doing, UPS and FedEx and all these rise of more powerful regional carriers. Just amazing. And Max, I'll give you a chance to comment there before we get to this next story. It really is the golden age of supply chain tech in many ways, huh?
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Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And the key for this is for all sorts of businesses, the customers expect that now. They expect to have the latest and greatest tracking tech and all that because they're expecting, as we know, that Amazon experience everywhere, it doesn't matter who you are. So you know, these carriers are trying to help shippers get to that level or at least compete with that level because it's so essential nowadays.
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So true. Great call out. Okay, so let's add one more. Let's talk about Veho. I think I said that right. Is there expanding as well, another regional carrier? Max, what's up here?
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Yeah, with Veo, they're expanding the areas they deliver in. So now they're in the Golden State, California. They, they're making deliveries in la, Long beach and other parts of Southern Californ. Now I believe they've launched with a dozen customers or clients or so. And obviously that's a big population center. Scott, that part of the country puts 8 million more people into via coverage area. They now reach over. I believe it's. Yes, they reached 38% of the country and they've been growing pretty fast. I've covered a lot of their expansions in the next two years. They want to be in every major US Metro. So expect more from them soon. And that just means more options out there for the viewers of the show and everyone else doing shipping.
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And options are good. Options are good if you're a practitioner. Options are good if you're a shipper. If you're a consumer, love our options. And you Know you said they gained 8 million more customers via this one expansion. I got you. Right, Max.
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Yeah. They can reach 8 million more consumers. So if you're an online brand and you're thinking, hey, we have pretty expensive shipping costs here in la, oh, maybe we tap into an alternative carrier, maybe like a veho or someone like that. Because launching coverage in places where businesses have a lot of customers that they need to deliver to definitely helps. Doesn't hurt. And it's why places like California are definitely high priorities for, for a lot of these companies, if they can get there.
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No doubt. Good morning, San Diego. Beautiful San Diego. I guess I was being too optimistic. I guess there's 8 million more prospective customers.
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Exactly. So. But yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it'd be great for VO if they got. Yeah, all 8 million of them. But, you know, so I would say for a business. Yeah, it's nice to have that opportunity where it's, hey, we can use VO for this particular shipment. Great. You know.
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Yep. I was on their site earlier today checking out this development you reported on and others. And again, lead with technology, lead with data. In their bowler plate, they mentioned their own time delivery score and upwards of 99%. And their customer ratings, I want to say 4.9 out of 5 out of, you know, thousands of ratings. When you can lead with metrics like that, I'd say things are going pretty good, Max, huh?
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Yeah, yeah. Because a key equation we've talked about, the cost side, but you also gotta consider the service side too. Having that delivery reliability, making sure the end customer knows where their package is. And also reliably, that's key because as an E Commerce brand, you know, that reflects on you too. For the end customer, they aren't just thinking about the carrier in that instance or thinking about your brand. Obviously they don't want a delayed delivery experience to continue. So it's a, it's a crucial point.
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That's right. And one more before we move on to this next story, our fifth story. You made a great call out a few minutes back about how customers and consumers expect the latest and greatest technology. Kind of going back to my lack of visibility and my old ways of shipping things forever and forever ago. It's not like that. Now. I would add to that because you really got me thinking, you know, team members and the top talent that join these organizations are also more and more expecting us to do things like it's 2025 or 2035 versus being stuck in the old ways of doing things too. So you not only Got to make those consumers that we're talking about so much here today. But as you're looking to hire top talent, they want to see technology in place too. Is that right?
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Yeah, absolutely. And you think of all the ways these carriers and all other businesses are implementing AI now that's going to be transformative in some ways to the delivery experience. As to how it evolves, not sure. But we know that it's going to have a big impact even from the customer facing side. But also in more the back end nuanced operations too. That'll help translate some of that delivery data, all that. So. So we're going to see tech playing a bigger role, I'm sure going on throughout the delivery process in the next few years.
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If I just had those bots and Agentic AI technology back in 2004, oh man, we'd be cooking with grease back then. Let's talk about this. Let's talk about There's a bunch of heartburn right as we get into our fifth story here. Lots of heartburn over the end of de minimis here in the U.S. but one organization is jumping in to help operators resume their US bound E commerce shipping. Max, tell us what Universal Postal Union is doing.
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Yeah, yeah, I like the transition Scott. That's good. But yeah, so this is all about the international trade chaos we've been seeing happen over the past few weeks. Specifically for those low cost shipments entering the US There's a bit of context that's important. The de minimis exemption ended last month. So think of all those low cost E commerce shipments you get from overseas on sellers from Etsy, ebay, Temu, Shein, a lot of different marketplaces, those are now being assessed some form of duty or tariff. So now a lot of sellers that don't typically have to worry about tariffs or customs complications, now they do. So this is the case for packages through postal networks too. And postal shipping has been a very cost effective and easy way to get things to people. But now they're being assessed to duty, has to be handled by carriers or qualified parties. And during that kind of transition, a lot of international postal networks have suspended package shipments to the US So the UPU wants things to get somewhat back to normal so they have this delivery duty paid capability to hopefully help postal services restart some of their US shipments.
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Wouldn't it be nice if we could get as much as we could back to normal? Max, Wouldn't that be nice? It would be interesting to see. I'm going to put you on the spot with a question and you don't have to answer this, but I'm really curious. Do you see any sort of scenario where de minimis may come back in some way, shape or form that loophole maybe in a future administration or something like that? Do you see that, Max?
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I mean, it's certainly possible. It's on the table. I think part of it depends on, you know, how difficult or easy the transition is for businesses that rely on de minimis right now and how much noise and pressure will they put on the current administration, future administrations. Do you have to think about the end consumer? If we're getting, you know, suddenly assess these tariffs on international shipments, maybe that'll pressure in terms of inflation, rising costs. So I think it depends on how supply chains transition. And two, how much supply chains and consumers will pressure regulations to change or get back to, as you noted, the way things work. Because that enabled a lot of E commerce shipments to flow into the US.
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That'S right, you named them. The rise of these massive E commerce players that really specialized in that one particular loophole that View Minimus provided it really. I mean, gosh, you're talking about a loophole that created billions of dollars of revenue, I don't know, for these companies overseas. Interesting. We'll see. Your crystal ball seem to be functioning very well. Max, I need to find out where you bought yours. Clearly not at Temu. And it must have been an 8. Must have been somewhere else. A target product or wish.
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Yeah, back in the day. Remember, Wish that was another one of these. But yeah, I mean, this has been key for supply chains like TEMU and SHEIN to directly ship stuff to US consumers for cheap. So how they adjust is something I'm definitely keeping my eye on.
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And you gotta admire that entrepreneurial approach. Right? You really do figure out what the rules of the game are. Find where you can, you know, differentiate and really specialize and blow your consumer socks off and then land and expand. Right. So it really is a fascinating study. Okay, so we've walked through five stories here and we've dropped each of those links to Max's excellent reporting right there in the chat. So check it out. We'd love to get your feedback on them. I bet Max loves hearing from his readers out there. So do that before we pose two final questions with Max, I want to make sure I share. Now, we mentioned Max's reporting regularly. Featured regularly in our almost weekly newsletter here at Supply Chain now we like to call. With that said, this is a image from the last, the latest edition. And that's not me, Max. In my backyard in my model train. But look a little different sky Check it out folks. With that said is always full of practitioner perspective, news resources and live events. Some must see reads like what Max turns out regularly. So you can sign up today. We're gonna drop the link right there so you don't miss a thing. Okay, Max, you have been standing and delivering. I've got one more big question and one more easy question. I think for you the big question Mr. Garland, as we charge into peak in fourth quarter. We're only a couple weeks away from fourth quarter 2025 for most organizations. That's crazy. What is a. Not the. But what is a top potential story or development on your radar that you're watching really closely?
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Yeah, I think to kind of expand upon our last story that we did, I think it's how the end of De Minimis will impact a lot of those peak season and Q4 orders from customers. Because just a few months ago, Scott, a lot of folks were expecting De Minimis to end in 2027. So they thought they had time to adjust. But then all of a sudden the White House said we're going to eliminate in a few weeks. So that's what happened. And this can make for pretty disruptive holiday for those cross border shipments coming into the US because for a lot of brands they don't want to shift their operations fully right now. They have to make sure they can meet that holiday demand because preparing for that is a year round sort of endeavor. So what do you do as a business if you relied on this but now you can't do duty free shipping anymore because De Minimis is gone. Do you pass price increases onto customers? That's risky. Maybe you bulk ship into the US but that's an adjustment. Maybe through more US based fulfillment rather than Canada or Mexico. That also takes time. So big questions for brands heading into a Q4, Scott.
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Max, I'll be staying tuned to all of your reporting and analysis. That's the only way we can keep our finger on the pulse and figure out what to do as things are changing. In some days it feels like minute by minute. It really does. But Max Garland, always a pleasure. Let's make sure folks know how to track you down. Supply chain dive Folks, y' all hear us talk about supply chain dive just about every edition of the Buzz, our news oriented programming. They're the best. The best. And Max is an epitome of that. But it's not just supply chain dive. You've got a whole series of Publications over there at Dive Dive Industries. Right, Dive Properties. Max, how can we track you down?
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Yeah, absolutely. The best way to keep up with all my coverage is by subscribing to the Supply Chain Dive daily newsletter. Includes not only stories from me, but also all my talented colleagues. It's daily news on logistics, operations, procurement, all the supply chain stuff you can need. You can sign up on Supply Chain dive. Com. I see the helpful link you guys have. Also regularly post on LinkedIn with some of my bigger stories and analysis on logistics and delivery news. So feel free to follow me on.
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That platform too, Max. I appreciate that. And you know, I'm a subscriber to Supply Chain Dive for sure folks, check it out. Great resource. But your LinkedIn posts, I tell you, I enjoy some of the back and forth in the comments that you're reporting in your commentary. Kind of fuels. It's really interesting what you can learn down there. Oh, look at there. We're dropping your LinkedIn right there. A big thanks to Tricia and Joshua behind the scenes here today, helping to make production happen each and every day. Okay, before we wrap here, folks, hopefully you've enjoyed this conversation with Max Garland, senior reporter with Supply Chain Dive, as much as I have. Max, I gotta say thank you first. Thanks for being here.
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Always good to be here, Scott. My pleasure. And yeah, excited for more conversations down the road.
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Oh, we got to. We gotta have you back soon. We'll go through your agent, get your book soon. But. But hey, folks, the world is moving way too fast to get your news analysis from just the headlines, right? Or those even worse, not in the know. You gotta dive into the details to really understand what's going on. You gotta turn to trusted sources of sound information and analysis. And as I told you, as you've seen in the last 28 minutes or so, Max Garland is one of the best in the biz. So be sure to connect with Max and the Supply Chain Dive team. We dropped the link right there. And you can also follow Max on LinkedIn too. So with all that said, stay tuned as we continue our coverage across industry here at Supply Chain Now. But you've got homework to take. One thing you heard here from Max, put it into practice. Share it with your team. Deeds, not words. That's how we're going to keep staying on top of things and transforming industry. But with all that said, Scott Luden here on behalf of the Supply Chain now team challenge. You do good, give forward, be the change that's needed. And we'll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain now. Thanks, everybody.
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