The growth of ecommerce means that brick-and-mortar stores are not the only places customers can purchase products. Technology has changed e-commerce in such profound ways that other tangential industries have had to adapt. With businesses promising faster delivery times and customers increasingly expecting it, the transportation and logistics industry is feeling pressure. There are numerous issues, both positive and negative, that have come up as ecommerce puts pressure on the logistics and transportation industry.

Faster Delivery Times

The trucking industry is a key component of the logistics and transportation industry, providing a crucial link between customers and businesses. Customers expect products to not only be available for purchase at their favourite online retailers but that these products also get to them as fast as possible and at little cost.

As this has happened, the job descriptions have changed, and transport and logistics responsibilities have increased. Intra-regional and last-mile trips are up, and ecommerce truckers have to find a way to adapt. They are doing this by operating in smaller regions instead of over the road. Longer national and intra-regional transportation jobs are being replaced with shorter pickup and delivery jobs. This has led to a decrease in the length of the trip the average driver makes.

Driver Retention and Shortage Issues

As e-commerce grows, there is an increase in the demand for short-haul and long-haul drivers. The United States Department of Transportation says the annual transportation volume will reach 29 billion tonnes by 2040. This means there will be demand for an additional 51,000 drivers.

The growth of ecommerce has presented both opportunities and challenges for this industry. First, drivers need to acquire job skills for transportation and logistics to take on both short and long-haul trucking jobs. The experience required for transport and logistics will remain relevant especially as the demand for drivers keeps increasing with the growth of e-commerce.

Also, the nature of last-mile deliveries means there will be an increase in the demand for e-commerce drivers able to complete local deliveries. This becomes obvious when you look at job boards and job description examples for transport and logistics that increasingly call for drivers to complete last-mile deliveries. If you have the skills, you can look at transportation and logistics job descriptions which include transport and logistics responsibilities to better understand what the industry demands.

While short-haul deliveries provide additional opportunities for younger drivers, they could worsen the shortage of drivers making long-haul deliveries.

New Rules to Regulate Driver Hours

Governments around the world, including the UK government, understand that there is an increase in the demand for drivers and players in the transportation sector. Because of this, they have regulations in place to ensure drivers are not on the road for too many hours.

For example, drivers cannot drive for more than nine hours a day and need at least 11 hours of rest every day. There are also rules for the total number of hours a driver can be on the road, all put in place to protect drivers.

There is no doubt that e-commerce is having a massive effect on different industries. One of these is the transport and logistics industry where both businesses and customers require safe, fast and cost-efficient product delivery. These effects will amplify and continue to be felt as e-commerce grows unless stakeholders find adequate solutions fast.