Hi! After a few days in Georgia, I'm back in Alabama for a bit. It's just as cold here as back home! We've had a bit of snow, sleet and strong winds throughout the past few days. Interesting weather but I'm looking forward to it warming up a bit so I can start back on some hiking trips.
Amazon has been on my mind this week. Their latest patent on "anticipatory shipping" has created quite a stir and it seems everyone is weighing in on the topic - including me. This past weekend, I dashed off a blog post on the topic. I think there are quite a few possibilities for this type of shipping as well as fulfillment benefits for both B2C and B2B. However, as I mentioned in the post, it will require a good partnership with Amazon's transportation partners. After delivery goofs this past holiday season, will we see Amazon venturing further into delivery items itself?
Actually, it looks like they may just be doing that, albeit, via small baby steps. Last week, the company announced plans to expand Sunday delivery to additional cities in the UK. However, unlike the US, in which it is partnering with the US Postal Service for Sunday delivery, Amazon is utilizing its own fleet of vehicles in the UK.
Back in the States, Amazon Fresh, Amazon's grocery division, uses its own fleet of delivery vehicles. I would not be surprised to see Amazon eventually handle its last mile delivery here in the US and leave the long-haul transport to the likes of UPS, FedEx or perhaps a trucking company. We'll see what happens. I've been following Amazon since the 1990s and they never cease to amaze me.
In other news, I wrote a couple of briefs for the Americas and APAC newsletters as well as outlined the Global Healthcare Logistics report. Yes, instead of calling it Life Sciences I decided to rename it Healthcare - much simpler.
So between now and April will be an extra busy period for me - working on Healthcare Logistics and polishing off the Global Express and Small Parcel report - both are planned for publication in April. Also between now and April, I have a couple of conferences to attend and a whitepaper on Middle East and Africa e-Commerce Logistics to tend to.
Busy but fun work. That's what I like about working at Ti. So, with that, I plan to spend the weekend staying warm and catching up on the Academy Award nominated movies before the winners are announced.
Have a great weekend and week ahead. Thanks for taking the time to read the blog.
Take care,
Cathy
