The life of a history buff usually starts with a question like this: “I wonder what it was like back then?” Until Doc Brown and Marty McFly come to town, our ability to time travel is limited to books and documentaries – research – on the era that interests us most. As logistics experts, we are fascinated with supply chains of the past. How do they compare to the modern era? What did they get right? What did they get wrong? So, in celebration of Independence Day, we’ve put together a brief piece on the logistics of the American Revolution. Happy Fourth of July America,...

During the full lifecycle of a product, it is likely to spend some time in a warehouse. After production, before it begins its journey to the consumer, or at a staging location for restocking and order fulfillment, warehouses play a pivotal role in supply chain management. Each day, consumer goods companies all over the world perform warehousing and storage. Many employ the service of a 3PL partner, while others maintain their stock in-house. Storage spaces can take a lot of different shapes and sizes. Warehousing might look very different from company to company. But the main functions of warehousing and storage are standard across all...

Whether you are a seasoned trade show veteran, or just planning your start-up’s first show, improving your trade show booth shipping can help your company grow. Events are an excellent source of leads for both B2B and B2C companies. The power of great face-to-face interactions will help move your prospects through your sales funnel more quickly, bringing your team more revenue and wins. Developing great operating procedures and implementing some simple best practices can make your next show the best yet. Check out our list of best practices below and move forward with Approved. Take Advantage of the Advance Warehousing One of the common themes...

How are You Shipping Freight to Guam? Maybe you’re a start-up just getting off the ground. Perhaps you have worked in Guam shipping for years. Either way, you probably aren’t maximizing the effectiveness of your Guam Supply Chain as much as you can. We often talk with shippers who are locked-in to a single service solution even when it isn’t the best for their business. Here’s a list of ways to move your freight to Guam – by both air and ocean. You will see that there is more than one way to tackle shipping to Guam. 1. Deferred Service Deferred service doesn’t mean inferior...

Why the cheapest international freight option isn’t always the best Everyone is trying to save money. Whether it’s for your vacation fund, or for a company-wide initiative to ratchet down unnecessary spending, more money in your pockets means more gains at the end of the year. But for freight, like most things in life, you usually get what you pay for with the cheapest carrier. When you cut corners, and hire a subpar freight carrier, the long-term negative effects can wreak havoc on your bottom line. Underqualified carriers entice shippers with rock-bottom prices, and shippers don’t properly weigh the disadvantages before choosing. You might save...

What is the Balikbayan Box Phenomenon? With today’s order-online approach to gift-giving, you can send a gift to someone without ever seeing the product itself. It can seem a bit impersonal. Not so with the tradition of the balikbayan box. In Tagalog, one of the main languages of the Philippines, “balikbayan” means returning to one’s country. For millions of Filipinos living and working around the world, shipping a balikbayan box to family back home is a way of returning there in spirit.   What is a balikbayan box? It’s a large, easy-to-assemble and sturdy cardboard box filled with all sorts of items destined for loved...