The Canada Post Strike Survival Guide 2016

I have found this great resource on how to manage your business in the event of a Canada Post Strike.

Whether your business ships with Canada Post or not, the impending Canada Post strike  will significantly affect your shipping operations.

https://ca.lateshipment.com/home/canadapoststrike/

At LateShipment, we have created a comprehensive guide to help you minimize the impact of this strike on your business. The strike starts next week and Its time to act now, you can thank us later !!

Fedex continue to raise fuel surcharges as the price of Fuel is going down.

Here is a great article on how this will affect you and your company.


http://www.afms.com/articles--tips/archives/09-2015

SCOPE 2015: Conference in the middle of a riot. #SCOPE2015

I took part in the SCOPE 2015 conference in Baltimore this week, and it really was a great example of the “the best laid plans of mice and men….” The staff of SCOPE did an amazing job of picking a venue, gathering sponsors, speakers, exhibitors (all excellent), only to end up in a city with civil unrest.

That being said, the “riots” had little effect on a great conference that I would certainly attend again.

Here are some of my thoughts on the conference:

Best Booth: Scout Painless RFPs

Keeping it Simple SCOPE 2015

 Love the minimalism of the booth. All the white space was actually quite captivating. The fact that the booth could be turned around for a complete different experience the next day was getting a lot of bang for your dollar.

Great job to Stan Garber and team.

Ah-ha Moment with Speaker: “The Future of Fulfillment” by David J. Nielsen, Senior Vice President, Business

Development, Overstock.com

Click for more info and great deals

It was great to hear about the owner of Overstock.com; Patrick M. Byrne. I really enjoy people who are willing to take risk, but look to make the world a better place.

David quoted research that shows that online customers are willing to wait up to 4 days for their items to be delivered. With Amazon suggesting drones and other same day deliveries, this gives the supply chain options to meet the needs of the market.

Click for more information

Best Pitch: AFMS 

This company has been doing business in the US for over 23 years and they are able to negotiate saving for their customers: an average of 22% on the transportation spend. This is accomplished by having great benchmarking data, very experienced staff that know all the transportation tips and tricks, and a holistic look at all the part of worldwide transportation.

I am very excited that they have plans to service the Canadian market.  This market is very underserved with this level of knowledge and experience.  I predict that AFMS will be very successful in Canada.

Best Meal: Mo's Crab and Pasta.

This is going to be one of my Baltimore traditions. The place was understated but the food was amazing, and it had many locals enjoying their meal. The crab cake was very good.

 Best True Baltimore experience: Faidleys 

Soup and a crab cake for lunch at the Lexington market. Delicious! I wish I could have taken some home with me, but seafood does not travel well. What a treat.

Great job SCOPE.  See you next year.

Lee Smith is the CEO of LSL Holding Company, a leader in the Supply Chain selection and Courier optimization consulting. Whether you are new to the Canadian Market or looking for ways to improve your existing supply chain to Canada they can help.

        lee@lslholdingco.com

www.lslholdingco.com
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Great Conference sponsored by the Logistic Institute #risk #resilience#plog

It was a pleasure to be Co-Chairman of the Risk and Resilience one day seminar sponsored by Logistic Institute on April 16th in The GTA. This was new endeavour for the Logistic Institute, but given it's success there will be more to follow.

The speakers were extremely informative and very organize to provide a well-balanced view of what is sure to be an important topic for future Supply Chain discussions.  

The Speakers were as follows;

David Watson: Co Chairman; International Shipping Executive Retired after 43 years with Orient Oversea Container Line.

David provided a history lesson on the shipping and the growth of the container shipping industry. Fascinating to see how large the vessels are getting.

Alex Tang: P. Eng. (ON, BC), C. Eng., F ASCE, P.Log., President, L&T Consultant

Alex provided an amazing view of Risk and the lack of the preparation, the cost and the time required to get things normalized.  The presentation had some great examples.

Essa Al-Saleh: President & CEO, Agility Global, Integrated Logistics

Essa's presentation really enforced the importance of dealing with the emerging markets. The unique cultures and business practices that must be taken account, while being a company that operates under sound principles.

Irvin Varkonyi: CSCP, PLog., President, Supply Chain, Operations Preparedness, Education

Irv was able to discuss the study of Risk and Resilience and how it applies to a supply chain. What can we do as professionals to understand and Mitigate the risk.

Fergus B. Groundwater: CPA, CMA, President, Pegen Industries Inc.

Fergus closed the event by bringing risk and resilience home. How do we manage our risk in a small to medium size firm. Fergus had some real life examples that brought the subject to live.

Presentations

The presentations are available at the Logistic institute (ClickHere). 

Do not miss out.

Subscribe to the Lowdown, the weekly logistics newsletter (click here)from the Logistic institute. There are many courses and learning opportunities to obtain a Professional Logistic designation (Plog), it is what separates the leaders in the Supply Chain industry.

Lee Smith is the CEO of LSL Holding Company, a leader in the Supply Chain selection and Courier optimization consulting. Whether you are new to the Canadian Market or looking for ways to improve your existing supply chain to Canada they can help.

        lee@lslholdingco.com

www.lslholdingco.com
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Greater Toronto Area: April 16th. Risk and Resilience Conference. This is one of the hottest topics for Supply Chain professionals. A few seats are still available. Don't miss out.

Link for registering. 

https://t.e2ma.net/webview/n3lah/9e3dd9dcfb8d2ee482ffdff65302883b

This a great opportunity to hear from experience speakers in this area of supply chain concerns. Whether you are in Operations, Sales or Consulting on Supply Chains; There is something for everyone. 

Come and join us. 

Is the Canada Post Postal Code System the best in the world?

By Lee Smith, P.log, B.M., CEO of LSL holding Company.

I was recently on a trip in US and I began thinking about the Postal Code of Canada vs. the Zip Code of the US. Which was the better system in terms of identifying a region and making it easier for Courier companies and individual users to find a specific location. So I did some comparisons.

Interesting facts about the Postal code (wikipedia)

• Implemented from 1972 to 1974.
• There is a theoretical limit of 7.2 million postal codes.
• 830,000 active postal codes represents about 12% of the total.
• Not used are: D, F, I, O, Q or U, and the first position also does not make use of the letters W or Z (In some cases it would make it difficult for the automated system to figure out the letter, as this is used to identified hand written addresses as well as mechanical ones).
• Includes a very special code for the North Pole: H0H 0H0

Interesting facts about the Zip Code (wikipedia)

• Implemented 1963.
• ZIP: Zone Improvement Plan.
• ZIP+4 introduce in 1983.
• There are just over 42,000 ZIP codes being used in the United States.

Ease of use

Reading from right to  it is easy to identify any part of Canada by the first letter in the postal code. Quick what state(s) does the number 3 identify in the US?

What makes up a Postal Code?

Postal District: All the Provinces are easy to identify by the first letter of the postal code. It is very easy to tell whether you after dealing the Newfoundland (A) or British Columbia (V), or somewhere in between. The larger cities of Montreal (H) and Toronto (M) have their own unique postal district in keeping with the large percentage of the population that call these cities home.

Forward Sortation Area. This is equivalent to the first 3 digits of the zip code. It is important to note that the second space in the FSA is very important. It denotes whether this is a urban Postal Code (1-9) or  Rural postal Code (0). As much of Canada can be sparsely populated the rural Postal Code can cover some very large areas geographically. This system allows a rural code to be changed to an urban one if there is a population increase in that area.

Local Delivery Unit. This provides the Postal Code with the great versatility. It allows for the the LDU to identify a block, building, a floor in a building, a suite on a floor in a  building, a customer in that suite, etc… It is all dependent on volume of mail and availability of unique postal codes. With only 12% being used, they have room to grow.

What is a Zip Code

A Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) Code is the numerical code assigned by the U.S. Postal Service to designate a local area or entity for the delivery of mail. ZIP Codes may consist of 5, 7, 9, or 11 digits, and may refer to a street section, a collection of streets, an establishment, a structure, or a group of post office boxes.

ZIP codes are numbered with; 

• The first digit representing a certain group of U.S. states, 
• The second and third digits together representing a region in that group (or perhaps a large city)
• the fourth and fifth digits representing a group of delivery addresses within that region.

Other uses

As big data becomes more relevant large shippers are finding the Postal Code a great way to triangulate on their customers and provide more specific target marketing. The government has also used the Postal Code for census measurement, electoral boundaries and for allocating resources.  The Zip Code provides a looser, but still functional grouping, and with the +4 allows for finer calibrations of location in the US and Territories.

Canada Post has provided a great tool for those who need to find a Postal Code quickly (postal code lookup )   You just typing in the number and name of the street and it does the rest. Give it a try.

The USPS also has a tool to view Zip Codes. It takes some more effort to get to the final Zip Code. 

Checklist: The Winner is?

Easy to use. Postal Code

Easy to read visually. Postal Code

Easy to expand. Postal Code

Adding new combinations. Postal Code

Look up tool. Postal Code

Conclusion

The Postal Code system is the best fit for Canada. There are others in the world that have used the Alphanumeric system such as Great Britain, Argentina and Australia. The zip code is limited by the having only 10 possibilities in each position, where postal code has 26 possibilities in 3 of the 6 positions. The ZIP plus 4 is one of the ways that the US tried to get the pin point address location that comes with the Postal Code. That takes up 10 spaces for the information versus 6 for the Postal code. It is too late to change the ZIP code but I am sure the USPS would love a do over for 1963.

Disclaimer: There are many options that should be considered before deciding on the best method for clearing the border for your customers. It is best to review with a professional before making any major decision on your supply chain.

Lee Smith is the CEO of LSL Holding Company, a leader in the Supply Chain selection and Courier optimization consulting. Whether you are new to the Canadian Market or looking for ways to improve your existing supply chain to Canada they can help.

        lee@lslholdingco.com

www.lslholdingco.com
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Managing Returns and exchanges of merchandise from Canada

By Lee Smith, P.log, B.M., CEO of LSL holding Company.

I was very surprised to to visit a client a few years back to find out that they were experiencing a 20% return rate of goods that they sold on the internet. With some effort we were able to reduce the return rate to a more manageable 6%. The difference of 14%, was the difference between making a profit and losing money on the eCommerce part of the business. 

This shows the importance of returns on the bottom line of any business, but it becomes even more complicated when crossing the border is introduced into the mix. If you have been following my series of blogs (click on this link to my blog site) on Non-Resident importer status and Carrier Low value shipment Clearance, now you are ready to look a the options for returns from Canada.

Return options

• Reship: Have the customer keep the item and just reship a new one. If that items is less than $20, you are better off just shipping a new one if you do not have a consolidation point in Canada.

• Consolidation: Have all items return to a consolidation point in Canada. This is a great option if you have the volume or if your items are valuable and you want to make it simple for your customer.
• • Triage: As an option of consolidation some suppliers will offer triaging. Great way to identify bricks (items of no value, but costly to return) and having them stay in Canada instead of paying for crossing the border.
  • Consolidated shipment: The supplier in Canada will hold the items until there is enough volume to ship back to your location (that level can be decided on upfront)
  • Destroy: The Canadian supplier can provide destruction with various level of certificate. No point in bring the items all the way back to your location in order to destroy them.
  • Liquidation: This is another option that saves the items have to be returned to your location, and generates some revenue for your company in Canada.
  • Fulfillment: If the item is still sellable, this provides an option to reship it to another Canadian consumer. Reduce your cost from your location.
• Customer generated return: This is where the consumer returns the items to your location at their expense. This is one that where it is very important to work with the customer to ensure that the item is identified as a returned item as this has taxes and duties implication for your company. It is also important to make it clear to the client, that they will have to apply with the carrier to get their duties and taxes back on a return item. E-14 forms for Mail services, B-15 Forms for Courier services.

Checklist of questions for building your returns and exchange program.

What is the volume that you expect?

What is the percentage of returns that you currently experiencing?

How important is it for you to have the items returned to you?

Can you delay the returns of these items if it will save you money by consolidating?

How easy do you wish to make it for your customers?

Once you can answer these questions you will be well on your way towards creating a return policy and program that meets your needs and he needs of your customers.

Disclaimer: There are many options that should be considered before deciding on the best method for clearing the border for your customers. It is best to review with a professional before making any major decision on your supply chain.

Lee Smith is the CEO of LSL Holding Company, a leader in the Supply Chain selection and Courier optimization consulting. Whether you are new to the Canadian Market or looking for ways to improve your existing supply chain to Canada they can help.

        lee@lslholdingco.com

www.lslholdingco.com
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