Published August 29, 2019
Day #2 of the Final Mile Forum began with a jolt – a look to our industry’s future in a Fireside Chat with Dr. James A. Tompkins and Vijaya Rao. This thought-provoking discussion was moderated by Mark Cossack, President of Priority Courier Experts and a CLDA Board Member.
“I’ve spoken at a number of this association’s conferences and, as I remember it, quite a few years ago I forecasted Amazon would have the capability for one-day delivery by 2020. Well, it turns out that they out-did my prediction and it’s happening now. The big lesson here is that one-day is not about transportation. It’s about inventory deployment. The most important element is inventory, then logistics. It’s a balance between getting the inventory close to the customer without building up huge stock in a warehouse. The one-day thing is a big deal. Those of you in this room who know how to manage inventory are in a great position to capture the market lift from one-day delivery. For those of you who aren’t, I strongly suggest you start now to be ready for a year from now when this wave really hits the shore.”
– Jim Tompkins
