What an incredible time to be alive – you can purchase something with one-click, and have it delivered to your doorstep overnight … or even just within hours. It almost feels like telepathy meets teleportation. Yes, we’re that much closer to being able to get what we want, when we want it – but we’re not all the way there yet. Package delivery, or logistics, has a long history of disruption and evolution, and what used to take 28 days now takes mere hours.
By the 1870s, we were no longer relying on horsepower or the seas to deliver things from coast to coast. The railroad made what used to take a month now take mere days. But with the advent of airlines, the time it took to ship was cut even further, and with deregulation of the airline industry and the invention of the UPC code, it led to the rise of Federal Express (FedEx) and United Parcel Service (UPS). A postal worker strike changed the way the Postal Service operated forever … and made them better.
Amazon, as an industry player, is now shaking up the logistics process even further. With Amazon Prime and Amazon Prime Now, what was once concerned fast shipping is now snail mail, and what was once deemed impossible is now routine. Will Amazon, or some other drone delivery service, solve the “last mile problem” that’s vexed logistics operators for years? And how soon? Find out in this episode of Trailblazers.
“We like to say that the information that flows with each package is as important as the package itself. We ship about 19 million packages a day but we also have about 100 million tracking requests … and all of those tracking requests equate to big data in a really kind of remarkable way. We were actually doing big data before the term existed.”
Evan Bakker
Is a Senior Associate at L2 - a digital benchmarking firm who analyzes disruptive technologies in the retail industry.
George J. Laurer
Invented the Universal Product Code (UPC barcode) while working as engineer for IBM in 1973.
Devin Leonard
Is a staff writer for Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine and the author of Neither Snow Nor Rain - a history of the United States Postal Service.
Dan McMackin
Dan McMackin started his career loading trucks at the United Parcel Service (UPS). He is now a spokesperson for the company.
Matthew Sweeny
Is the CEO and founder of Flirtey - a drone delivery service.
Inventions don’t always turn out the way we anticipate. For innovators, the application of original ideas can look much different than even they imagined.
As customer data grows exponentially, when should businesses let go of the proprietary data mindset?
What's the story of the first food item ever delivered? The first ever ordered online?
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