A panel of leading economic and business leaders in the trucking industry discussed the changes and evolution of shipping behavior during the CCJ Market Movers program at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday.
The panel was comprised of TransForce Chairman and CEO Alain Bedard and Covenant Transportation Group President David Parker and moderated by Avondale Partners’ Donald Broughton and CNBC business reporter Morgan Brennan.
One of the largest causes for change is attributed to e-commerce, the panelists said. “Based on everything we know, to use a baseball analogy, we think e-commerce is at first base,” says Parker. “This is just the beginning,” Bedard says. “E-commerce has changed the way people do business and that’s going to continue.”
Panelists discussed the changes being made by shippers who are now working for e-commerce customers.
“Right now, it’s changing the way some retailers are doing business and many are shutting stores down,” Bedard says.
The loss of those storefronts is being made up for through the use of online shopping and promises of inexpensive, or oftentimes free, shipping. “There is one dynamic that we are keeping an eye on and that’s stock levels of inventory,” Parker says.
He believes that companies will be forced to keep high stock levels to ensure that they aren’t out of products.
