IAMC News Briefs—Week of August 15, 2022
By John Salustri
SUPPLY CHAIN DIVE—It’s onward and upward from one million deliveries for Walmart GoLocal, the mega retailer’s one-year old same-day/next-day delivery service. A popular delivery outlet for major retail chains, GoLocal is on target to deliver from 5,000 retail and business locations by the end of the year. The service is part of the retailer’s master plan to curate lines of business outside of in-store sales.
https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/walmart-golocal-surpasses-1-million-deliveries-ecommerce-last-mile/629762/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202022-08-16%20Supply%20Chain%20Dive%20%5Bissue:43854%5D&utm_term=Supply%20Chain%20Dive
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY EXEUCTIVE—Stream Realty Partners has put the wraps on a six-building industrial development in Houston. The 2.3 million-square-foot development, dubbed Empire West Business Park, is the second phase in Stream’s plans there. Phase one included eight buildings, some as large as one million feet. Marketing and leasing are being handled inhouse.
https://www.commercialsearch.com/news/stream-realty-wraps-up-2-3-msf-houston-project/
JLL—It’s not bargain-basement level yet, but the price of automation seems to be dropping. In fact, by 2025, the average price of an industrial robot will be slashed by nearly a quarter of what it was in 2010, from $46,000 to $10,900, this due to lower tech costs, according to Statista. “Other than falling costs, the ability to scale up or down and the ease of integrating such solutions into existing systems are also accelerating the pace of adoption,” reports JLL. Also reducing the risk of an upfront purchase going wrong is a growing trend to robot rentals, Robots as a Service (Raas), the firm reports.
https://www.us.jll.com/en/trends-and-insights/investor/why-semi-automated-warehouses-are-getting-cheaper?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&utm_campaign=Admin%20-%20The%20Source%20%28US%29%20-%20August%202022%20-%20Newsletter%20-%20Dynamic%20Content&utm_term=1772458&elqTrackId=dd29d4d4eb4f4c81af467e43e7f8cdbf&elq=0b4a0ea2300746b9ab7ee1f6f7e29d1e&elqaid=135047&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=249752&elqcst=272&elqcsid=2196
MARCUS & MILLICHAP—Has inflation turned a corner? That’s the question Marcus & Millichap poses as it records a slowing of price hikes. Specifically, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was up 8.5% in July, a deceleration from the 9.1% recorded in June. Both figures are year-over-year. Energy cost reductions are the driver of that dip. Meanwhile, the time lag in the delivery of goods is shrinking as well. “The transit time between shipping goods from China to the U.S. has declined from a pandemic peak of 83 days to 63,” says the firm. “While still above the pre-2020 norm of 48 days, this shift is nevertheless helping supply better meet demand, softening upward pricing pressure.”
https://www.marcusmillichap.com/research/research-brief/2022/08/research-brief-august-inflation
TRANSPORT DIVE—The debate over how to classify trucking owner/operators—as independent contractors or employees—continues in California. While on the books since 2020, the so-called AB5 law has been hotly debated for years. But enforcement of the law is now “poised to begin.” Some 70,000 operators would be affected by the state’s law, which refers only to California workers, no matter where the company is headquartered. While on one hand, it “seeks to extend worker benefits to independent contractors,” reports Transport Dive, “it threatens to upend the businesses of 70,000 owner-operators in California, causing further supply chain disruption, especially in Los Angeles and Long Beach, the busiest port complex in the country.” Drivers held a work stoppage in July, lobbying for exemptions to the rule.
https://www.transportdive.com/news/schneider-national-q2-2022-warns-ab5-disruptive-impact/629124/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202022-08-12%20Transport%20Dive%20%5Bissue:43803%5D&utm_term=Transport%20Dive