Sent Items #158: Monday, June 10, 2024

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Happy Monday! Hope you had a nice weekend.

I got back at 2 AM Saturday night (Sunday morning?) from my annual trip to Vegas where I spent a couple days with my younger brother celebrating our birthdays. We were both born on the 7th, five years apart.

I saw Dead and Co at the Sphere. One of the best concerts I’ve been to, and the most unique concert experience. Don’t pass up a chance to see a show at the Sphere. It exceeded the hype. I’m now a Dead Head!

Here’s a video and a couple pics:

Before we get into a few articles, $25 for 8 rolls of toilet paper?

How about this crazy story:

Hearing this happening more and more with a recent spike in trucking bankruptcies 😞

Digital Freight Startup Transfix Sells Brokerage Unit (link)

• Speaking of freight company challenges, digital freight startup Transfix sold its brokerage unit and is resetting itself as a software provider.

• The company, which was considering going public only two years, is selling the digital middleman operation to trucking and warehousing company NFI Industries.

• Convoy went out of business last year after having been valued at $3.8 billion 18 months earlier. Another upstart, Next Trucking, was acquired several months ago by a rival.

• Uber’s Freight unit is surviving in part thanks to the ride-hailing giant’s deep pockets and a strategic shift to expand into transportation management through an acquisition. Uber’s brokerage arm posted revenue of $1.3 billion in the most recent quarter, down 8% from a year ago.

SEKO wins conditional reinstatements from US customs agency (link)

• Here’s some good news on the issue I wrote about in last week’s Sent Items. SEKO said U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has conditionally reinstated its participation in two vital international trade programs, but still has not identified the violations that led to the suspensions.

• The company is seeking unconditional reinstatements, as the CBP has yet to provide any evidence or examples of compliance issues to justify its actions.

• The week prior CBP announced that it had suspended multiple customs brokers from its "Entry Type 86" expedited customs clearance program to prevent abuse of the tariff exemption for direct-to-consumer imports valued at under $800 per day.

• This continues to be a HOT HOT topic with the proliferation of lower valued e-commerce shipments originating in China via marketplaces like Shein, Temu, and others gaining market share.

• Meanwhile, Shein is expanding its Shein Exchange resale platform to Europe and the U.K (link). The Shein Exchange is an integrated online resale platform where users can sell and purchase used products.

Logistics Operators Are Looking to Break the Sector’s IPO Logjam (link)

• Bankers say tight financial markets and weak freight demand has led to a drought in new public listings among transport and logistics companies. Transport and logistics operators are looking to break a logjam in public stock offerings, with bankers saying some companies are exploring listings following a fallow period marked by tight funding and weak freight demand.

• Refrigerated warehousing company Lineage Logistics, which along with Americold is the one of the largest cold storage operators in North America in terms of capacity, is the biggest on the docket. Lineage could target a valuation of $30 billion or more in an IPO later this year. Ohio-based tank truck transporter Kenan Advantage Group is exploring an IPO at a valuation of $3.5 billion. Of course there was chatter earlier in the Spring about ShipBob planning an IPO (link).

Watchdog sees reverse logistics potential for Postal Service (link)

• The U.S. Postal Service may have an opportunity to expand its presence in the reverse logistics market and take on 3PLs as well as rivals UPS and FedEx, according to the Office of Inspector General (OIG).

• In a new white paper titled “Sending It Back: Reverse Logistics and the U.S. Postal Service” (link) the report concludes that more opportunities could be available to the agency to grow further. “By its sheer size, [the Postal Service’s] retail and transportation network may be well-suited to support the reverse logistics marketplace,” according to the paper. “In addition to visiting nearly every delivery location six days a week, the USPS has a nationwide network of physical locations in communities large and small.”

• The OIG cites data showing that U.S. shoppers were expected to return $173 billion worth of purchases made in the 2023 holiday season alone, a 28% increase from the previous year.

• “Beyond current pick-up/drop-off and delivery offerings, post offices could potentially play a role in front-end triage; personnel could quickly evaluate returned products, ensuring that they are what the sender claims they are, and even doing a quick evaluation of item condition. This third-party verification would serve to help minimize returns fraud.” Before expanding into product evaluation, however, the agency would need to evaluate potential liability issues, as well as the cost of developing the employee skills necessary for evaluating package returns, the OIG asserted. HELLO TWO BOXES!!

Have a great week!

- Matt

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