As retailers wrestle with rising consumer expectations, FedEx Corp. has launched an expedited parcel service supporting both two-hour and end-of-day delivery options.
Memphis-based FedEx says it created the service through a collaboration with OneRail, a Florida-based last-mile delivery solution company.
The new “FedEx SameDay Local” offering will let shoppers choose two-hour or end-of-day delivery directly at checkout. The service will connect FedEx customers to a national network of more than 1,000 delivery providers, coordinated through intelligent orchestration. Orders are then automatically matched to the appropriate vehicle and driver, dispatched quickly, and tracked with live updates from pickup to delivery.
According to FedEx, the accelerated options are necessary because consumers don’t just expect “as fast as possible” delivery for every order—they increasingly want more choices. For example, some purchases need to arrive immediately, others must come within a precise time window, and sometimes shoppers want the most economical option and are willing to wait.
The FedEx service was announced a week after Amazon introduced faster delivery options with new 1-hour and 3-hour options. The Seattle-based online retailer and logistics service provider (LSP) said customers in a growing number of cities and towns can now get over 90,000 products delivered to their doorstep in three hours or less.
That network includes 1-hour delivery now available in hundreds of cities and towns across the U.S., and 3-hour delivery in over 2,000 cities and towns. Consumers can check if their area has 1-hour or 3-hour delivery by visiting www.amazon.com/getitfast.
Since its launch in 2015, Amazon Same-Day Delivery has expanded to offer delivery on millions of items to customers in more than 9,000 cities and towns across the U.S. According to the company, its Same-Day Delivery sites function as highly efficient hubs that enable the full lifecycle of an order under one roof, from fulfillment to final delivery. Over time, this integrated approach, coupled with its predictive AI inventory placement algorithms, has streamlined the picking, sorting, and fulfillment processes to enable even faster delivery speeds, Amazon said.
An analysis of the driving risks facing today’s fleets shows that collision rates have begun to level off, rising just 4% in 2025, highlighting a dramatic shift after post-pandemic surges, according to fleet video and safety platform provider Lytx.
Most importantly, the rate of severe crashes per mile fell by 4%, and moderately severe collisions plummeted by a substantial 41%, according to Lytx’s “2026 Road Safety Report.” The study cited similar results from the National Safety Council’s estimates of a 12% reduction in motor vehicle fatalities in 2025, despite Americans driving a record number of miles.
Yet the data issues a stark warning: less severe crashes are climbing at an alarming pace, with minor collisions up 5% and low-severity incidents soaring 16%.
Those results come from data in Lytx’s global driving database, which encompasses more than 341 billion miles of data analyzed from 6.3 million drivers in over 90 countries. In 2025, Lytx identified and examined over 217 million new driving events and processed upwards of 126 billion minutes of video via Lytx event recorders.
Additional results showed:
- Near collisions dropped a dramatic 23% from last year’s all-time high
- Coaching efforts on device use (such as smartphones) surged 40%, reflecting intensified focus on distraction reduction
- The top four riskiest U.S. roadways are concentrated near major airports, amplifying urban hazards
- July remains the deadliest month for drivers, underscoring seasonal risk patterns
Consumer packaged goods companies and OEMs are expanding their use of artificial intelligence (AI) as the technology’s costs decline and its functionality grows, according to a report from PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies.
According to a report from Virginia-based PMMI, the growth in AI’s role can be attributed to:
- Lower costs and increased accessibility for companies of all sizes.
- Higher awareness and movement beyond pilot projects.
- Stronger confidence in the technology and willingness to invest.
- Greater acceptance as workers, especially on the frontline, experience tangible benefits.
As use of AI expands, the most common applications fall into five categories: knowledge transfer; machine vision; predictive maintenance; regulation and compliance; and data transparency.
Despite that growing usage, obstacles remain to implementing AI. Primary concerns include data hallucinations and accountability for AI-generated errors. This has increased interest, especially from smaller firms, in software-as-a-service models that shift risk to providers, PMMI said. Other barriers include: cybersecurity, internal attitudes, ROI, latency challenges, existing data infrastructure, job security, and gaps in operational readiness.
Those conclusions come from a report titled “Building an AI Advantage in Packaging Equipment,” which is based on interviews with AI vendors, packaging machinery manufacturers, and consumer packaged goods companies.
“Manufacturers across the packaging value chain are recognizing that AI can help address some of their most pressing challenges, from workforce knowledge gaps to operational efficiency. What we’re seeing now is a shift from isolated pilots toward broader adoption, where AI supports smarter, more connected production environments,” says Jorge Izquierdo, vice president, market development at PMMI.
Georgia Ports Authority’s new inland port in the state’s northeast region is set to open in May, offering new logistics infrastructure that connects to Savannah’s global ocean carrier network of 40 ships per week, port leaders said today.
Located in Gainesville, Georgia, the site is designed to allow local manufacturers — including poultry, heavy equipment, and forest product companies — to reach international markets more efficiently.
At full build-out, the $134 million Gainesville Inland Port (formerly known as the Blue Ridge Connector) will have an annual capacity of 200,000 containers. The facility is based on direct rail service running five days a week between Northeast Georgia and Savannah, giving shippers an alternative to a 600-mile roundtrip truck route, and serving to reduce trucks on Georgia’s highways and in the Atlanta region.
“Our new inland rail facility in Gainesville, Georgia, will significantly offset truck traffic congestion in Atlanta and improve air quality by replacing an estimated 26,000 truck roundtrips in the first year alone. We’re already seeing positive customer engagement, and Norfolk Southern will bring an excellent level of service working together with GPA,” said Georgia Ports President and CEO Griff Lynch.
The facility is part of Georgia Ports’ nearly $5 billion overall infrastructure investment plan over the next decade to expand berths, yards, gates, inland ports and rail capacity.
Gap Inc. will introduce artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to two key parts of its online retail experience: finding correct sizes and checking out.
The company owns its namesake Gap brand as well as Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic and Athleta. Gap detailed its introduction of personalized fit guidance, which uses the technology vendor Bold Metrics’ Agent Sizing Protocol. It also detailed separate support for Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). With its announcement, Gap follows Best Buy, Wayfair and other retailers with its adoption of Google’s protocol for connecting merchants’ checkout flows and transactions within conversational interfaces.
Gap Inc. ranks No. 20 in the Top 2000 Database. The database tracks North America’s largest online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales and more.
What are Gap’s new AI use cases?
Personalized fit support and support for UCP in online checkout are just two of the ways in which Gap is using AI for its customers and operations. The company characterized the moves as part of its goal to scale “intelligence across every journey,” making AI part of its operating model.
“We are not pursuing AI for novelty,” said Sven Gerjets, chief technology officer at Gap, in a released statement. “These partnerships are about solving real customer problems — helping shoppers feel confident about fit and making it easier to complete a purchase.”
That ambition extends to other parts of the shopper experience as well.
“They also reflect the holistic AI strategy we’ve built to scale intelligence across the enterprise in a disciplined way that drives measurable value over time,” Gerjets said.
How Bold Metrics’ Agentic Sizing Protocol works
Gap is a launch partner for Bold Metrics’ Agentic Sizing Protocol. Bold Metrics said it designed the protocol to help customers find their correct size when shopping for apparel in conversational agentic commerce experiences.
The two companies will connect customers to more than 1,000 delivery providers through FedEx's SameDay Local service.
The disruption could be five times larger than the impacts of previous conflicts that slowed the flow of oil from the Middle East, according to the Dallas Fed.
The discount retailer will lay off 373 employees starting in May as it shutters its facility in a Charlotte suburb.
Musk said the 100 million-square-foot facility would address a lack of available chip production capacity for Tesla's cars and robots.
The funds are part of a larger $10 billion commitment to build out the automaker's U.S. supply chain.
The tie-up would diversify each company’s portfolio somewhat but might look better on paper, some analysts said.
This time, Ahold Delhaize USA executive JJ Fleeman will succeed him as CEO, with Vasos exiting the position in 2027.
Operating in a market that’s evolving at a breakneck pace, third-party logistics service providers (3PLs) certainly aren’t lacking in challenges. They remain the tip of the supply chain execution spear for businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Yet as they plan and execute such fundamental 3PL tasks as storing products, filling orders, managing carriers, and delivering goods on time at the lowest landed cost, increasingly, shippers are demanding more as they seek to control disruptions, reduce risk, and ensure stability to carefully crafted supply chain operations.
Among those issues are constantly rising operating costs, shifting tariff policies, regulatory mandates, geopolitical disruptions, labor shortages, and how and where to deploy emerging technologies across the logistics ecosystem for maximum benefit.
Whether it is product at rest or in motion, shippers want their 3PLs to provide the resources, tools, technologies, real-time information, and analytics they need to successfully operate in a constantly shifting supply chain landscape.
What will it take to be a 3PL survivor?
RESILIENCE, RELIABILITY, CONSISTENCY
“In general, shippers in today’s market want 3PLs to deliver resilience, reliability, and consistency,” says Steve Sensing, president of supply chain solutions and dedicated transportation solutions for logistics giant Ryder. He believes Ryder is in a unique position to meet that need given its “port to door” inclusive logistics approach, its scope of services, and the breadth of vertical industries it serves. The company, across all its transport modes, purchases just under 10 billion freight moves annually for hundreds of customers.
In terms of demand, “it’s been a weak freight market [that] has been elongated, now going into its fourth year,” Sensing observes. And while recent reports around improving manufacturing output signal a potential rebound, “we don’t expect [freight volumes] to bounce back this year,” he says. Sensing adds that with tepid economic growth, “customers are under pressure and are trading cost for service.”
Those cost pressures are not likely to abate, Sensing believes, and may become more intense as slim margins and higher costs force more capacity out of the industry. “As smaller [truckload] carriers exit the market, our role is to help customers get ahead of that [and secure reliable capacity at competitive cost] to be prepared for when the market bounces back,” he notes.
Is there a magic bullet for 3PL success? Sensing cites two areas. “First, during the RFQ [request for quotation] process, you have to understand deeply your customer’s business and what they are trying to solve. If you don’t do that, there will be disconnects, and you will fail,” he notes.
Clients often have strong ideas about the problems that need solving and what they want their end game to be, he says. But it is incumbent upon the 3PL, based on its experience and expertise, to communicate early and often, suggesting ideas or approaches that validate or improve on the customer’s objectives, and most importantly, collaborate honestly and openly with the client to come up with the best plan, Sensing explains.
The second area is start up. “The ability to effectively start up a new piece of business and communicate effectively with the customer from day one is critical. That is the most difficult part of what we do, and [it’s] where we make some of our most significant investment in the team,” he says. “You will have issues; no start up is ever perfect,” Sensing adds.
Then once the operation is up and running, it’s about defining the KPIs (key performance indicators) that will measure success—and reveal areas that need attention. Sensing believes that one area where Ryder stands out and others struggle is continuous improvement. He emphasizes that the process of delivering and executing a solution doesn’t stop once start up is done. That’s just the first inning. “We wake up every day trying to earn our customer’s business by saving it money and proactively driving improvement for it and its end-customers.”
CONVERGENCE OF THE PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL
While the fundamental role of the 3PL has not substantially changed, the challenges 3PLs face, the role shippers want them to play, and the tools they use to manage and execute the service are evolving in multiple directions, observes Matthew Beckett, senior director, analyst for the logistics and supply chain practice at the research and advisory firm Lire l'article original
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