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Robots Taking on More Georgia Warehouse Jobs as Industry Grows

Tephnee Usher stands in a McDonough warehouse, separated from the stored goods by a black chain-link fence, and waits for robots to deliver the goods to her.

Human workers are confined to opposite edges of this 17-acre roofed space: delivery bays and shipping bays about a football field apart. The vast concrete area between them belongs to 225 electric-powered, eerily silent robotic Butlers that perform tasks people used to do.

E-commerce, growing at 15% a year, is driving a second boom in Georgia’s robust warehousing and logistics industry, which employs about 118,000 packers and material handlers across the state. Companies that set up ready-to-ship warehouses here last year included Target’s furniture line, Wayfair home furnishings and Dynacraft bikes and scooters. Amazon has four “fulfillment” centers scattered from Braselton to Macon.

Democratic Presidential Candidate John Delaney Unveils $2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan

A $2 trillion proposal from 2020 presidential aspirant John Delaney would look to improve connectivity along freight routes, transit systems and other corridors through a comprehensive revenue stream.

“There are no easy answers to many of our economic issues, but there are simple answers, including launching a massive, job-creating, community-improving infrastructure program to rebuild our roads and bridges, extend rural broadband, improve decaying water systems and build the advanced energy economy,” Delaney said May 29. “As your president … I will roll up my sleeves and do what my dad the electrician did his whole life, get to work and start building things, big things, again.”

Specifically, Delaney would dedicate $200 billion to the federal Highway Trust Fund, an account used to assist states with construction and maintenance projects which relies primarily on dwindling revenue from the fuel tax. Under the plan, the fuel tax would be increased to account for inflation since it was last raised in 1993. Then the rate would be indexed to inflation.

Some Fleets, 3PLs Turn to Near-Shore Staffing to Address Shortage of Office Workers

While the freight transportation industry has struggled for years to recruit and retain truck drivers and maintenance technicians, many companies are facing another labor challenge — a shortage of entry-level office workers.

As it becomes increasingly difficult to find, hire and keep employees who respond to customers’ calls, dispatch drivers and pursue new business, fleets and third-party logistics providers are pursuing a range of strategies to address the labor shortfall, including turning to staffing agencies that connect them with logistics workers overseas.

Amid a vibrant job market that tends to favor job seekers, transportation companies often find themselves competing with each other — or with other industries — for the same talent, transportation executives said.

Exxon, Chevron to Face Climate Change Pressure From Investors

Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp.’s unwillingness to venture beyond their core oil and gas business will face a test May 29 when shareholders vote on climate change proposals at both oil companies’ annual meetings.

The U.S. oil majors typically have enjoyed an easier ride from investors on environmental issues compared with their European rivals. But pressure is building from some investment managers, especially after Royal Dutch Shell and BP recently made significant shifts to address investor concerns.

“I don’t think they’re doing nearly as much as the majors in Europe are,” said Brian Rice, a fund manager at the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, which manages about $230 billion including Exxon and Chevron shares. “Alternative energy, to me that’s the future.”

Transportation Experts, Government Leaders Stress Human Factor of Infrastructure

As cities continue to grow and infrastructure rapidly incorporates more technology, former Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx cautioned industry leaders and experts to remember the humans who will be affected.

Infrastructure should be the connective tissue that links communities rather than alienates them, said Foxx, now chief policy officer at transportation and ride-sharing company Lyft.

“If transportation gets whizzed out by technology, we forget that it’s still about people,” Foxx said May 13 while addressing an Infrastructure Week kickoff event. “It is a fact that we need to build more, and better, infrastructure, but we also need to imagine it in a better way than we had in the past.”

VW Stock Gets Boost From Planned IPO of Heavy-Truck Division

Volkswagen AG shares climbed the most in two weeks after the German automaker revived plans for a partial offering of its Traton SE heavy-truck division and said it may dispose of two noncore businesses.

The decision to list the truck unit came late May 13, just two months after the world’s largest carmaker shelved the proposal, citing market conditions. While it didn’t explain the about-face, VW said it hopes to list the business — which sells Scania, MAN, and VW-branded heavy trucks — by its August break.

“The most important point for us is that we’ve made the decision to IPO now,” Volkswagen trucks head Andreas Renschler said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on May 14. “Of course, there are uncertainties in the market, but they will be always there. Now we can go further and develop our strategy.”

Nestle US Unit to Cut 4,000 Jobs by Stopping Direct-to-Store Delivery

Nestle SA’s U.S. unit will lay off about 4,000 workers as it stops delivering frozen pizza and ice cream directly to stores and instead transitions to a warehouse model that’s becoming an industry standard for major food companies looking to trim costs.

The company said May 7 that it is shutting down its direct-to-store delivery network for products such as DiGiorno and Skinny Cow, beginning in the third quarter. The change, announced at a shareholder event in Arlington, Va., means the elimination of an operation that now includes 230 facilities, 1,400 trucks and 2,000 different routes.

The unit was able to reduce costs but, ultimately, the direct-to-store model was too expensive even once the company “reached the maximum point of efficiency,” Steve Presley, CEO of Nestle USA, said. “You can’t have that duplicative cost in the structure.”

The U.S. unit employs about 48,000 people, according to a spokeswoman. So the cuts represent about 8.3% of the workforce.

Diesel Drops 1.1¢ to $3.16 a Gallon; Oil Slides to $61 a Barrel

The U.S. average retail price of diesel fell 1.1 cents to $3.160 a gallon. Oil prices slipped to $61 a barrel as the United States and China imposed higher tariffs on the other’s goods, which chilled the outlook for demand.

Diesel costs 7.9 cents less than it did a year ago, the Department of Energy said.

Regional diesel prices were mixed, lower in seven regions and higher in three. The top price was in California, where diesel climbed 3.9 cents to $4.136 a gallon. The lowest price was in the Gulf Coast region, where it dropped 2.2 cents to $2.905.

Also last week, the national average price for regular gasoline fell 3.1 cents to $2.866 a gallon, DOE’s Energy Information Administration said.

The national average is 0.7 cent lower than a year ago, EIA said.

FedEx, UPS Strive to Automate Loading and Unloading Trucks

As FedEx Corp. and UPS Inc. beef up automation to keep pace with surging e-commerce and a potential threat from Amazon.com, they’ve been stumped at a crucial stage: loading and unloading trucks.

Robot makers are getting close to solving part of that puzzle.

Siemens AG and Honeywell International Inc. have built machines that pull packages from the back of a tractor-trailer and place them on conveyor belts, whizzing the parcels off for sorting. Making robots that can load trucks is more complicated, although clearing that hurdle isn’t far off.

“The biggest challenge in our world is: Every single package is different in size, shape, weight, color, material,” said Ted Dengel, managing director of operations technology at FedEx’s ground-delivery unit. “It makes it a very tricky problem.”

The devices, unveiled at a recent automation conference in Chicago, hold out the promise of increasing productivity while reducing the need for one of the most grueling jobs in logistics. Couriers are relying on automation to grapple with the rise of online shopping, which is fueling record demand but pressuring profit margins. Amazon’s plan to handle more of its own shipping and offer more one-day deliveries is only upping the ante.

Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Repeal Federal Excise Tax on New Trucks

Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives recently introduced legislation aimed at repealing the 12% federal excise tax on certain heavy-duty trucks, tractors and trailers.

Reps. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) and Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) led a bipartisan effort April 29 to unveil the Modern, Clean, and Safe Trucks Act of 2019, which would repeal the tax.