GSCW chat recap: COVID-19 and parcel carrier challenges

‘Nothing but growth’ in e-commerce, last-mile parcel delivery space

Alyssa Sporrer

4 years ago

Parcel carriers face many challenges including e-commerce capacity and the COVID-19 pandemic.

This fireside chat recap is from Day 2 of FreightWaves’ Global Supply Chain Week. Day 2 focuses on retail, building and construction.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Parcel carrier capacity challenges and learnings from COVID

DETAILS: Jeff McDermott and JT Engstrom discussed the recent impact to peak season from COVID-19 and expectations for near-term changes as a result. The discussion explored changes in shipper/carrier behavior, dealing with the accelerated pace of e-commerce adoption in transportation management and other thematic trends in the final mile.

SPEAKER: McDermott, senior vice president of transportation management for Geodis

BIO: McDermott has been with global third-party logistics company Geodis for about 11 years. He has more than 27 years of experience working in transportation, supply chains and logistics, starting out in the carrier space.

KEY QUOTES FROM MCDERMOTT

“It was always about negotiating the best rates you can and giving all of your volume to one carrier so you [could] get attractive volume discounts and incentives. But now that capacity has entered the game, I think that shippers need to consider more of a multi-carrier solution.”

“The consumer buying habits have changed. We all know the younger generations were buying a lot of their products online. With COVID-19, it brought in a lot of the older generation that may have been used to going to the retail store, but now they realize the benefits of online shopping as well.”