So, we learnt that, the use of trucks in different distribution
centers and warehouses is inevitable in a few industries. Not just inevitable,
it somehow seems to get more profitable. But what if the prices of fuel soar?
Higher fuel costs would , in a way mean that people are using their money to
buy gasoline instead of spending it on goods.
According to the latest reports, the U.S. diesel prices , in
almost all the U.S, regions have been dropping consistently, this time for the
third week yet, in the week ending Sept. 30, dropping a total of 6.2 cents
during this period, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.The
national average price is $3.91 and this has shown a decline of almost 0.8
percent week by week.
California saw the largest decrease in diesel price this
week, with a drop of 3.7 cents to $4.172. The price in the Central Atlantic
region slipped to $3.997, leaving only the average prices in the New England
and California regions above the $4 per gallon mark. Now , lets take a look at
Walmart’s truck logistics…
Walmart has 158 distribution
centers with a fleet of 6,500 tractors,
55,000 trailers and more than 7,000 drivers. They maintain a private fleet of trucks and a skilled staff
of truck drivers, as also they believe that their team of drivers is the best
in the world. They’re part of one of the largest and safest fleets, and every
year they drive 700 million miles to make millions of deliveries to our stores
and clubs.
They aim at transporting
their merchandise in sustainable ways ,
drivers follow the most efficient routes to their destinations, and work
to minimize the number of “empty miles” they drive. Thus giving us a glimpse of
what we could probably term as “lean cost cutting”.. they try to maximize their
merchandise and minimize the losses. Just last year, Walmart drivers
logged 28 million miles while transporting 65 million cases. Those improvements avoided
nearly 41,000 metric tons of carbon emissions – the equivalent of taking 7,900
cars off the road.
But , what if Walmart establishes it in some country wherein
fuel for such kind of a logistic demand proves to be extremely costly ? Like, letsay India... They
would then need to develop flexibility in their mode of transport… this would
mean starting from scratch because it would involve everything including the
geographic study of the place , to the resources . So, I would conclude that, while
determining the logistics of such a huge chain , instead of following a
standard protocol, one may want to attribute certain decisions to the specificity
of the location wherein the supply chain is set.
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