Consumer Goods Logistics Blog

During the COVID-19 pandemic, warehouse worker protection has emerged as a critical core competency for corporate logistics departments and their 3PL partners. Business continuity literally depends upon it since a virus outbreak could close down a distribution warehouse.

But getting serious about worker protection requires more than investing in extra PPE and setting up a few wash stations. It requires a significant investment of time and money.

During a recent meeting with KANE associates, our long-time business partner, Sam’s Club, reminded the team that they were “the backbone of this economy right now.”

It was a heartfelt comment that cut right to the heart of the matter – without logistics workers, the supply lines for essential goods like food and household staples stop flowing and commerce grinds to a halt.

KANE’s new Chief Operating Officer is Patrick Coughlin, a 30+ year logistics industry veteran with a strong history of driving performance excellence in corporate logistics and 3PL environments. We recently sat down with Patrick to discuss the trends and opportunities he’s seeing in the market.

Every logistics operation will say safety programs are a priority. But many such claims are lip service only. Safety solutions, over and above OSHA-mandated programs, cost money – for training, equipment and software. Many companies struggle to invest money in things that might happen.

On February 11, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) announced plans for a commercial vehicle ban on all major highways in Eastern Pennsylvania in anticipation of a predicted snow-ice mix the following day.   Thankfully, the severity of the storm fell short of predictions and roads remained safely drivable for the duration of the weather event.

But by the time DOT administrators caught up with Mother Nature’s exact plans, it was too late for trucking companies to avoid major financial losses related to pulling trucks off the road.

This blog post was developed collaboratively by Dan Volpe, TJ McCann, and Tom Paciga

Kane Is Able has had great success in reducing the number of workplace injuries and other incidents in the last 13 years, achieving a reduction of 56% in the Recordable Incident Rate (RIR) during that time. We’re not perfect, and there’s always room for improvement. But we feel we’re getting something right when it comes to logistics safety, and we’d like to share some of our tactics, strategies and findings from our journey, as well as observations gained from the wider logistics industry.

Recently, a crack team of logistics detectives (aka “business students”) from the University of Scranton arrived at KANE’s Scranton distribution campus. Their mission: audit and document best practices in warehouse/DC sanitation for their senior class project. Code name: Operation Clean Team. The results of the mission have been kept secret – until now. 

With the ELD mandate taking effect, the issue of truck driver safety is at the forefront of logistics industry news. This is a good thing as driver safety is the foundation of our industry – and it needs to improve. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), there were 4,050 large trucks involved in fatal accidents in 2015, an 8% increase from 2014.  In this blog post, we will examine the dangers and promote methods by which they can be reduced.