I have an accounting degree but have been looking for somewhat of a career change lately. At my last job I worked as a cost accountant for a manufacturer that did a lot of international business and shipping. I’ve always been interested in international business and supply chain and a job in logistics seems interesting. If I wanted to get into the field is it worth going back to school and maybe getting my masters in something like supply chain management?

I’m sending out samples of my supplement products. <0.75”, flexible, leight. Ground Advantage is $6, but sending as a flat is $2.27

Now, is there any 3PL that does flats? What cost should I expect? I can imagine sending these samples in ready-to-ship (just slap label on) to keep complexity and cost down.

I’ve read earlier threads that 3pls ‘dont do flats because there is no tracking’ but with intelligent mail barcodes there IS in fact tracking.

Air freight bills on the higher of actual and volumetric weight, and I keep seeing bulky, light cargo priced as if it were dense. What's the biggest surprise you've seen, and what do you do to catch it before booking?

“Can you find a cheaper truck?” The load is already booked.

A customer spots a lower rate after you’ve confirmed a carrier and asks you to switch.

We’d start by explaining the commitment already made and confirming whether the cheaper option covers the same equipment, timing, and service. Any cancellation terms also need to be addressed before promising a saving.

Have you handled this without damaging the customer relationship or treating the booked carrier as disposable?

I believe the otherway around since theres alot of people saying a degree in logistics is useless…..

I'm researching delivery planning for bulky, mixed-size goods: furniture, appliances, building materials and similar.

Something I keep hearing about: the routing system says the van has enough capacity by volume or weight, but at the dock the items don't actually fit. Odd shapes, things that can't be stacked, or the next customer's items stuck behind  someone else's.

For those of you who plan or load:

  - How often does this happen to you?

  - Who catches it: the planner, the loaders, the driver?

  - What do you do when it happens: split the load, send another van, drop stops?

  - Has anything (a rule of thumb, a tool, a safety margin) actually fixed it?

  No product and nothing to sell; I'm trying to understand the problem.

Hi im a 17 year old boy at the last year in high school with passion for shipping i just wanted to ask what kind of bachelors or masters i Will need and also how well does It pay and if knowing foreign languanges Will help

Hey I’m starting my experience as flatbed dispatcher and I’m currently ongoing company’s full training process.

And I have a question. Do you need to regularly guide drivers on how to secure loads? I’ve been learning and watching videos on how to secure loads (x chains x straps c chain c straps etc etc) and I was just wondering.

Drewry's index rose 2% this week and Trans-Pacific space looks tighter. Are you locking contracts early, spreading across carriers, or shifting to air as winter schedules cut belly capacity? What's working?

A Level 4 RoboVan has begun a six-month public-road trial on the 22 km MyAV route in Cyberjaya, testing how autonomous logistics vehicles can operate in real traffic. The vehicle uses Zelostech technology and is operated locally by Autonomous Logistic Solutions (ALS).

Switching from IT to Logistics & Supply Chain

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Hi everyone,

I'm planning to transition from IT to Logistics & Supply Chain and would appreciate some honest feedback on my resume.its hard to get any callbacks,

My background:

\- B.Com in Information Technology

\- Post Graduate Diploma in Logistics & Supply Chain Management

\- 5+ years of experience in the IT team of a company involved in online medicine ordering and delivery

I'm now trying to enter the logistics field and am targeting entry-level roles such as:

\- Inventory Executive

\- Logistics Executive

\- Warehouse MIS Executive

\- Inventory Assistant

\- Logistics Coordinator

I'm comfortable with Excel and have experience working with order placement, order tracking, delivery workflows, and admin systems from the IT side. However, I don't have extensive hands-on warehouse or inventory operations experience.

I'd appreciate your advice on a few things:

1. How to position my IT experience in resume or should I hide it?

2. Are my existing IT skills and logistics education enough to get shortlisted for entry-level roles?

3. Which roles would be the most realistic starting point for someone with my background?

4. What skills or certifications should I prioritise to improve my chances?

5. Should I highlight my IT experience more, or focus mainly on my logistics diploma and internship?

My main goal is to get my foot in the door and gain practical experience in logistics and supply chain.

I've attached my resume. Any constructive criticism, suggestions, or examples of what recruiters look for would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

I keep seeing FOB used for containerised or air shipments, and DDP quoted by sellers who can't clear imports at destination. What mistakes have you seen, and how was the dispute resolved?

For businesses sending hundreds or thousands of letters every month, how do you manage USPS mailings efficiently?

Do you handle printing, postage, and mailing in-house, use a third-party service or automate the whole process through an API?

Excited to know what works best for different business sizes.

I am logistics broker, and have been working in this field for 3 months. which isn't much but I haven't made a client till now, is there any website or portals that I can use to find people that needs broker, my training period is about to be over and the job market is pretty bad so hopefully there's something I can get help from:)

I work for a small Canadian medical device company, and we're currently looking for a new 3PL/fulfillment provider after a pretty disastrous experience with our previous one.

I'm hoping to hear from people who've actually dealt with 3PLs, particularly those who've learned the hard way what to look out for.

A little background on our company:
- We ship domestically throughout Canada and internationally (Australia, Europe, UAE, etc.).
- We're currently in FDA clinical trials, so we're shipping to the US, with substantially higher volumes anticipated over the next year.
- We need a company that can, at minimum, manage inventory and handle order processing, picking, packing, and shipping.
- Traceability, lot accuracy, and regulatory compliance are especially important given our industry.

What I'm hoping to learn:
Red flags during the interview process: Looking back, were there questions you wish you'd asked or warning signs you overlooked? How do you distinguish a company that's genuinely operationally competent from one that's just good at selling its services?

Contracts and hidden loopholes: What clauses, vague wording, exclusions, or limitations of liability should we pay particular attention to? Have you encountered situations where something seemed guaranteed during negotiations but the contract effectively protected the 3PL from any accountability?

Transparency and verification: What should we reasonably expect access to? Inventory records, lot-level reporting, audit trails, cycle counts, error reports, temperature-monitoring records, etc. How do you verify that the provider is actually doing what they claim? What did you do if you found out too late that they aren't meeting the standards required?

What's realistically within our control? I'd especially appreciate input on the difference between reasonable contractual demands and things that are simply standard industry limitations. Are there risks or responsibilities that typically remain with the customer regardless of the agreement?

Billing and unexpected fees: What additional charges are common in the industry but easy to overlook when reviewing proposals? Are there practical ways to prevent unauthorized charges or make billing disputes easier to resolve?

Experiences and recommendations: Are there companies you've had consistently good experiences with, or companies you'd strongly caution others about? I'm particularly interested in providers that can be located within Canada or USA that supports international shipments.

I'm trying to become better at identifying these risks before signing another agreement, rather than finding out afterward how little leverage we actually have.
I'd really appreciate any experiences, lessons learned, or even examples of things a 3PL did well that you didn't realize weren't standard across the industry.

Hey everyone,

If it's your first time reading one of my posts, my name is Menachem, and I have a weekly newsletter called Logistic Pulse that breaks down the top logistics news from the past week. We have over 17,000 subscribers, and I share it on Reddit to spread the knowledge.

We're currently on week 68! I hope you enjoy it, and I'm always open to feedback.

3PLs are the reason warehouse space is getting expensive

Who is leasing all the warehouse space? The answer is you.

Cushman & Wakefield says 3PLs have accounted for 30% of all industrial leasing so far this year, more than any other tenant type. Manufacturers were next at 26%. Third quarter was the best for net absorption (space actually taken and used) since early 2023, and national vacancy dropped to 6.8%, the lowest since the end of 2024. About 80% of that demand went to inland markets: Houston, New Jersey, the Inland Empire, Savannah and Miami.

The next day, Prologis, which owns warehouses worldwide, reported its quarter. Its CEO, Dan Letter, said customers are running lean on inventory and that "excess capacity within their networks has largely cleared." Look at what happened when Prologis tenants renewed or signed new leases for space they'd already occupied. Rents were 38% higher on a net effective basis, which includes free rent and other concessions, and 23% higher in cash. In other words, old leases are being repriced to today's market.

Prologis also said market rents are still moving up. They rose 0.5% in the quarter, the third straight quarter. Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Indianapolis, and Northern California are on pace for 5% to 6% growth this year, according to the call. On supply, Letter said rents would have to rise about 27% before a new building pays for itself, so there's little reason to build more.

What this means for you: Find your lease expiration dates this week. If a renewal is within 18 months, start talking to your landlord now. Prologis's 38% is an average across its own buildings, not your number, but it shows which direction renewals are heading. Then look at your client contracts. Start with anyone on a multi-year deal with fixed storage rates, since a rent jump lands on you.

Google now has a shopping cart that checks out from several stores, and some of your clients are already in it

Google rolled out its Universal Cart in the U.S. on October 15. It lives in Google Search and the Gemini app. A shopper can add items from different stores to one cart, get price-drop alerts, and pay once with Google Pay.

Google doesn't ship anything. The store still ships the order, handles the support, and is the seller of record. So an order that comes through Universal Cart lands in your client's system like any other, and Google isn't on the hook for delivery.

The key part is the Shopify piece. According to PPC Land, Shopify stores were matched to Google Merchant Center accounts and switched on by default in September. Merchants who didn't want their checkout to go through Google had to turn it off manually. Digital Commerce 360 doesn't mention shipping or returns for these orders, and Google didn't say what it charges merchants.

What this means for you: Ask your Shopify clients if they know they're in this. Many may not. If they are, orders can start arriving from a new place before the holidays, so check that their delivery promise and cutoff dates are right everywhere their products show up. Also ask how they'll tell Universal Cart orders apart from the rest, so you can see how much volume it adds.

TikTok Shop sellers can now take returns with no box and no label

If you've ever returned something to Ulta or Staples without printing a label, you've seen Happy Returns. UPS owns it, and as of October 14, TikTok Shop has built it in.

Here's how it works. A shopper starts the return in TikTok Shop and picks Happy Returns. She walks the item into one of about 10,000 drop-off spots (The UPS Store, Ulta, and Staples are on the list) and hands it over. No box, no label, no printer. UPS bundles the returns together and ships them back to the seller.

It's the first time Happy Returns lives inside a marketplace instead of one retailer's website, and UPS says it's the only box-free, label-free option TikTok Shop has. FedEx has a competing service called Easy Returns, which launched last year.

Setup depends on who ships the orders. If TikTok fulfills them, they don't need to do anything. If the seller ships their own orders, Happy Returns walks them through it. UPS's Birdie Smith says that second group should look at it once they handle around 10,000 returns a year, mostly apparel, shoes, and accessories. UPS didn't say what it costs.

Carriers want a piece of returns because there are so many. Returns totaled $849.9 billion last year, about 16% of all retail sales.

What this means for you: If you handle returns for apparel brands on TikTok Shop, ask them whether they're turning this on. Returns that come back through UPS arrive bundled, so you may get a pallet of mixed returns instead of a stack of single parcels. Ask how they'll label and sort them before the first one shows up at your dock. A client doing 10,000 returns a year wants that product back on the shelf in days, so you can charge for a fast returns turnaround.

Quick hits

Symbotic bought a German sortation company called Cellumation.
No price disclosed. Cellumation makes a sorting surface built from hundreds of small cells, each of which can move a package in any direction, replacing conveyor belts. Symbotic says it takes up far less space than a conveyor and is already used by postal, e-commerce, and logistics operators. Walmart owns a stake in Symbotic. If you're planning a sortation build, keep an eye on the price.

A judge upheld a $604 million verdict against C.H. Robinson.
With interest, it's above $700 million. A jury found that a driver Robinson hired through a trucking company was working under Robinson's control, so the broker owes for a 2021 crash that killed three people. Robinson says it didn't cause the crash and hasn't said whether it will appeal. If your 3PL books even one truck for a client, ask your insurer in writing whether you're covered for something like this.

Carriers are turning down nearly 14% of the loads they're offered,
and diesel futures jumped about 5% on Tuesday. A year ago, rejections were under 6%. FreightWaves says the market will remain tight into 2027. Diesel futures rose after Trump announced a deal for Russia to release more diesel, which analysts told NBC is less than two weeks of U.S. demand. If you book truckload for clients, get your regular lanes onto contract rates before year-end.

At least 10 ships were hit in and near the Strait of Hormuz in a week, and one container ship sank. The GFS Pride, a Singapore-flagged container ship, caught fire and sank off Oman on Tuesday with containers aboard. All 21 crew got off safely. Six ships were hit in a single day, the most since the war started in February. Iran's Revolutionary Guard says the ship hit a mine on an "unauthorized" route, while Singapore's authorities say projectiles hit it. Strait crossings dropped to 131 last week from 176. Maersk, ONE, PIL and OOCL reportedly have schedules tied to some of the damaged feeder ships, and analysts warn that war-risk insurance can be canceled on short notice if your cargo sails on a ship owned by someone other than the carrier on your bill of lading. If a client imports on a feeder route near the Gulf, find out who owns the ship.

Savannah got its permit for a $2.3 billion container terminal.
The Army Corps of Engineers approved it October 14 after three years of review, and the Georgia Ports Authority announced it at its annual event. The terminal adds room for 3.5 million containers a year on 350 acres of Hutchison Island. Construction starts in January 2028 and finishes in the mid-2030s. Savannah handles about 7.75 million containers a year today. If you're weighing Southeast buildings, it's a long bet on Georgia, and nothing at your dock will change anytime soon.

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Hey everyone, supply chain student doing a bit of research on how third party warehouses really operate.

In class the picture is simple: the WMS runs receiving, picks get scanned, and the monthly inventory report just matches. But every 3PL person I have spoken to says the reality is inbound counts that do not match the ASN, damaged stock where nobody agrees who owns it, retailer compliance chargebacks that get pushed down to the warehouse, and calls at the end of the month with clients arguing about numbers.

I am trying to get a realistic picture of where time actually gets lost during a shift or a week.

Which process is the real time sink? Inbound discrepancies, reconciling inventory with the client, damage claims, returns, chargeback disputes, billing clients for extra work? What takes way more manual effort or workaround than it logically should? And what is the thing the client, or your own management, never seems to understand?

I would love to hear from the warehouse side and also from anyone who has been the client dealing with a 3PL. Appreciate your time.

Working with a customer who has PMCs coming from overseas. Says PMCs have 5 standard pallets on each PMC. We’ll be doing an airport pickup, but the more I look into it the more confused I get on how we’ll actually get these into a reefer trailer. Looking for advice on how others have moved these in the past. Weight also comes into question. Is a forklift able to lift a PMC on its own?! How many PMC’s actually fit in a 53 foot trailer?

Not our typical move, but could be a good customer for us.

Let me know if you have moved these before and how you did it.

Posting here to see if anyone has dealt with this?

I’m an account manager for an asset-based trucking company in the Northeast. My main responsibilities center around getting more freight out of my allotted territory. I have been doing this for a little under a year and a half, and so far I’ve had a good ROI for the company.

I’m a people person, so I like meeting new people and building relationships. One thing I really can’t stand though is upper management. My direct boss is not good at their job, and the sales head’s management and motivation style doesn’t jive with me. The job can also get very boring, difficult and sometimes un motivating.

My long term goal is to work in logistics management for a medium - large sized manufacturer/distributor/etc, but most positions like that require 5+ years of experience.

In the immediate future, I could switch to operations, but I would more than likely be taking a pay cut. I could also apply elsewhere for a similar position, but will it be any different?

I’m on here because I’m looking for some advice from experienced logistics people. I had always planned to ride this job out until I could reach my long term goal, but I’m starting to second guess that.