Above the Fold: Supply Chain Logistics News (December 5, 2025)

By Adrian Gonzalez

I woke up this morning to a dead laptop.

I pressed the power button. Nothing. Pressed it again. Nothing. Pressed it again, but held it down this time. Still nothing.

(A series of F-bombs)

The laptop was plugged in. The printer, my phone, and everything else that was plugged into the power strip was on and working.

(One more F-bomb)

I texted my wife (clean version): “I guess I’m going to the Apple store instead of the gym this morning.”

I brought the laptop down to the kitchen and plugged it into the outlet by the coffee machine while I brewed myself a cup.

It turned on.

—

That was my morning. How was yours?

Moving on, here’s the supply chain and logistics news that caught my attention this week:

The Battle for Ultra-Fast Delivery — and What We’re Losing

Most consumers have no idea what happens when they click the “Order” button online. They just want whatever they ordered to arrive when promised — which increasingly means later today or tomorrow — and in good condition.

Scanning some of the news items above, it’s clear that order fulfillment and delivery remain a battleground for retailers.

“Target is testing new fulfillment models for overnight delivery of online orders as one of the country’s largest retailers works to turn around a yearslong sales slump,” reports Liz Young in the Wall Street Journal. “The tactics are part of a push to cut shipping costs, speed up delivery and improve the in-store shopping experience as the retailer seeks to better compete with rivals Walmart and Amazon.com.”

Of course, Amazon continues to raise the bar. The company announced this week that it is now testing “an ultra-fast delivery offering of the items customers want and need most urgently in parts of Seattle and Philadelphia. Amazon Now brings thousands of household essential items and groceries to customers’ doorsteps in about 30 minutes or less.”

Amazon is also starting to reshape consumer expectations around delivery costs, with “Free delivery” giving way to “discounted delivery.” Per the press release: “Prime members get discounted delivery fees starting at just $3.99 per order (vs. $13.99 for non-Prime customers), adding to the savings and benefits already available with Prime membership. A small order fee of $1.99 will apply to orders below $15.”

Amazon adds that it is “utilizing specialized smaller facilities designed for efficient order fulfillment, strategically placed close to where Seattle- and Philadelphia-area customers live and work. This approach prioritizes the safety of employees picking and packing orders, reduces the distance delivery partners need to travel, and enables faster delivery times.”

(The Washington Post also reported this week that Amazon is considering ending its contract with the United States Postal Service and building out its own competing nationwide delivery network — something it has effectively been doing for years now.)

What about Walmart? Well, the company and Wing announced that they are launching “ultra-fast drone delivery in Metro Atlanta, bringing an essential time-saver to tens of thousands of homes just in time for the busy holiday shopping rush.” Here’s more from the press release:

Walmart products eligible for drone delivery include grocery items, last-minute gifts, household goods and over-the-counter medicine. Whether facing a forgotten dinner ingredient or searching for a last-minute holiday toy, Wing can turn a 20-minute drive in notorious Atlanta traffic into a five minute or less average flight time.

Isn’t modernization awesome? Remember when you had to drive to stores, walk up and down crowded aisles to find what you wanted to buy (only to discover, sometimes, that they were out of stock), and then stand in long, noisy lines to check out?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in on this new commerce model. This time of the year, there’s a constant parade of delivery trucks dropping packages off at my house every day. But as someone who grew up stocking shelves and manning the cash register at my family’s bodega in Brooklyn, I can’t help but wonder: What is all this speed and convenience costing us?

Sadly, it’s the decline of human relationships and community.

When a Software Provider Changes Its Pricing Model

WiseTech Global announced its new CargoWise Value Packs this week, but all everybody was talking about, especially online, was its new pricing model.

First, here is an excerpt from the WiseTech press release:

The four value packs (and their variations) are part of a new commercial model for CargoWise that replaces and enhances the seat and transaction license (STL) commercial model that has been in place since 2014. Importantly, there are no longer any CargoWise Cloud standard hosting costs or seat fees in the CargoWise Value Packs. CargoWise Value Pack charges are directly related to the transaction that the logistics provider is providing to the importer or exporter, and logistics service providers may choose to pass on the charge to their customers as a disbursement, consistent with how many industry charges are dealt with today [emphasis mine].

Moving from a seat and transaction license commercial model to a transactions-based model is certainly a big change — and as a result, “there are some customers that will pay the same price they’ve always paid. There are some customers that will see a small price rise. There are some that might see a larger price rise,” according to WiseTech CEO Zubin Appoo, as quoted in The Australian Financial Review.

The article by Tess Bennett shares this customer perspective:

One WiseTech customer told The Australian Financial Review the new system was so opaque they were still unsure how much their WiseTech bill would be this month. They also dismissed the company’s suggestion that they should pass the cost of the product on to their end customer.

“They are expecting us to charge these monthly costs to our clients, but it is such a competitive market we don’t believe our clients will absorb our costs. It is like asking a tradesperson to charge their tools to the client,” they said, speaking anonymously to protect commercial relationships.

Whether you agree with the new commercial model or not, it seems like WiseTech has fallen victim to the same problem many companies (including its customers) face when trying to get employees to use a new software solution: change management.

Us humans, we hate change.

We always want to know: What’s in it for me to change?

It seems like WiseTech failed to answer that question convincingly for customers before making this change.

This reminds me of when Netflix tried to quickly ramp off shipping DVDs to customers to focus more on streaming. The company was right: streaming was the future. But it botched its initial attempt to make the transition, customers revolted, and Netflix was forced to reverse itself.

Netflix eventually succeeded in making the change and is now the dominant player in video streaming (and is about to buy Warner Bros. film and streaming assets in a $72 billion deal).

Maybe the WiseTech leadership team can learn something from Netflix?

In the meantime, competitors are leveraging this moment to their advantage, and new startups — like FreightSuite, which secured $4.5M in Pre-Series A funding — continue to enter the market, everyone promising to cure the ills that plague the freight logistics market.

This too shall pass.

And with that, have a meaningful weekend!

Song of the Week: “Everybody’s Changing” by Keane