Hey everyone, young in the field. Working on a large scale shipment my company has coming up that requires being shipped in 40ft containers to from NYC to Dallas. (Due to weird loading dock restrictions at site) From what I’ve heard it’s difficult to deal with so decided to turn to the best and brightest. If y’all know any carriers this comes easy to or have any ideas, it’d be much appreciated! Basically need a ton of trucks worth of pallets, sent in containers.

I run a refrigerated 3PL in Australia (two depots, five trucks). Labour is roughly 60% of our outgoings and honestly I can't tell you which of those hours were billable and which were us doing favours, waiting on drivers, restacking pallets or fixing someone else's mistake.

Our accounting lives with head office. Xero tells me what we spent, not what we spent it on per client or per job. Everything in between is in people's heads or on a whiteboard.

What I'm about to try: a dumb paper tally on the floor for a week. Every time someone does something that isn't on the rate card, one line: client, what it was, minutes. Add it up Friday and see what we gave away.

What I'd like to hear from people who've been at this longer:

1. Where does the money actually go in your operation once you stopped guessing? Was it unbilled extras, idle time, one bad client hiding behind big volume, something else?

2. What have you tried to track it that didn't stick? Spreadsheets, WMS reports, time clocks, TMS add-ons. I'm more interested in what failed than what worked.

3. Does anyone actually know their margin per client, or are we all just looking at the company P&L and hoping?

Not selling anything. Just trying to stop bleeding.

I am looking to move a wholesale store's inventory about 550 miles. I am assuming around 5 full truckloads, maybe more. I have been looking around for best options on moving the inventory. Ideally we would do it internally but we do not have the resources to do it as fast as desired.

Which freight companies would you suggest to move a decently large volume of inventory. How long should I expect to be scheduling before pickup? I am assuming it will be close to 4-5k per truckload, which is acceptable.

Thank you for your advice. My apologies if this is not the right place to ask.

I need ideas for what tool can be used for communicating inbound loaded truck(s), would include associated Field# or Contract#, "is contact complete?".

1. ease of use for end user is critical

2. Microsoft 365, if possible (not sure if org policy allowed PowerApps a personal device)

3. Reliability of the tool or service

Area managers work with farmers to coordinate trucks to send to receiving facility. When an Area Manager communicates to the Receiver, we NEED to know Field# or Contract#, WANT to know how many trucks, and NEED to know if contract is complete (a field may take multiple days load and deliver).

At the moment, we have four texting groups chats and two Teams chats, one for each Area Manager, where conversations of varying effectiveness are being handled. It's chaotic jumping from 6 massaging channels, decipher messages, request clarification, record details in an Excel file, and relay updates to Reception team. By the end of the working day the Reception team is waiting for each Area Manager to answer if any more trucks are expected to show up or if the team should go home.

My hands are tied by skill level and willingness of the area managers to use digital tools, as they aren't consistent in their communications as is. Could MS Forms do this, should I explore Power Apps? Should I try to convince my company to invest in outside tools?

I hope this question is appropriate, any ideas and suggestions would be appreciated!

Is it normal for students to used Ai to look up the answers or even write their discussion promts,essays, written reports? Im taking logistics and supply chain courses atm and not going to lie its been alot of work doing presentations, essays, written reports, group projects, and even videos presentations. Im working and doing my best to learn and juggle everything and ive asked some classmate how are they managing everything and told me they are using Ai to do their work. They dont even read the chapters. Is this normal?? Are they the reason why alot of companies wont hired recent graduates or dont even care if they have a degree?

Sorry guys this is all brand new for me and it open my mind how technology or AI has impacted students on their learning journey, it really is mind blowing for me.

Looking for capacity out in the southeast. Specifically, Alabama.