Learn what goes on at our fulfillment centers -in real time
Hear directly from our Chief Logistics Officer and VP of Operations on the latest news in logistics and how ShipBob is continuously adapting and innovating for you.
The Latest News
Understand the latest fulfillment, supply chain, and carrier updates as COVID-19, government updates, and surcharges are rapidly changing.
ShipBob's Inside Logistics Series
Meet your hosts
Todd Bills
Chief Logistics Officer, ShipBob
Todd Bills has over 25 years of experience in supply chain and operations with a focus on ecommerce. He has held leadership positions at companies like Wayfair and Target before joining ShipBob. Not only does he have extensive experience in direct-to-consumer fulfillment, but managing and scaling a distributed fulfillment network.
Genaro Bugarin
Vice President of Fulfillment, ShipBob
Genaro Bugarin also has over 25 years of experience in supply chain and distribution for large ecommerce operations. He has led teams across multiple fulfillment centers at companies like Wayfair and Ingram Micro, plus 15 years at Petco where he managed, expanded, and launched fulfillment centers, while supporting 400 stores nationwide.
Why listen to ShipBob's Logistics Series?
Hear Directly From Us
We want to connect directly with you and allow you to hear from our leaders who are spending time within our centers across our entire network.
Learn the Fundamentals
From self-fulfillment versus using a 3PL to what happens within a fulfillment center, learn some of the fundamentals of supply chain for ecommerce.
ShipBob Updates + Welcome
Episode 1: June 10
Our CLO, Todd Bills, joins us from our Bethlehem, PA fulfillment center. He shares how all ten facilities are still open, how we are managing PPE with states opening things, our hiring plans (150 hired in the last 6 weeks), the impact of the civil unrest, and how our carrier partners are adapting to the changes.
Season 1 of the ShipBob Logistics Series
Receiving SLAs & Surcharges
Episode 2: June 12
Our CLO, Todd Bills, joins us to share updates around how fulfillment center statuses (fully operational across all 10 facilities), positive updates around our receiving SLAs, the peak surcharges from UPS and FedEx and how ShipBob will cover 33-100% of all fees, plus hiring updates (nearly 240 new associates) and carrier delays.
Carrier Delays & Load-Leveling
Episode 3: June 16
Our VP of Fulfillment, Genaro Bugarin, joins us for the first time to explain why there are carrier delays, how some carriers are seeing more than 1M packages per day than 2019 holiday peak season, what load-leveling is, what we are doing to combat this, how we are working with the carriers, and what you can do for your brand.
Fulfillment SLAs & Surcharges
Episode 4: June 23
Our CLO, Todd Bills, joins us to share updates around reducing our fulfillment SLAs by one day from the COVID extended SLAs, how over 99.6% of orders are getting shipped within the one day extension, reminders on the peak surcharges from UPS and FedEx (we are covering 33-100% of fees), plus the carrier delays based on the increased demand.
Holidays & Carrier Updates
Episode 5: June 30
Our CLO, Todd Bills, joins us to share updates around the holidays with carrier pickup timelines for the 4th of July and Canada Day, the UPS and FedEx surcharges, our Lost in Transit policy, reverting our inbound receiving SLAs to pre-COVID levels, reducing our outbound SLAs, and data on carrier delays, such as UPS having the shortest delays, but UPS MI having the longest delays.
Warehouse Receiving Orders
Episode 6: July 16
Our CLO, Todd Bills, joins us after a little break to discuss the importance of taking care of what you have in your control, such as the details and data on your Warehouse Receiving Orders (or WROs). In Q1, our average receiving time across the entire network was 0.89 days, but with the influx in ecommerce demand, this has grown. We have hired 280 people to accelerate receiving and fulfillment times, but the more detailed the warehouse receiving information is from you, then the faster we can verify, stow, and start shipping your orders.
No Storage Restrictions in 2020
Episode 7: July 20
Our CLO, Todd Bills, joins us to share some ShipBob updates immediately after Amazon's announcement on their inventory limits for product shipments from third-party sellers that use their US warehouses and restrictions on storage across all categories for the remainder of 2020. At ShipBob, we will not be imposing any warehousing limits in 2020 nor any surcharges like other fulfillment solutions. To help our customers, we are opening more fulfillment centers and hiring accordingly to mange the influx of demand for both today and the holidays.
UPS MI Updates & Carrier Delays
Episode 8: July 29
Our CLO, Todd Bills, joins us to share updates on what we are seeing with UPS MI, how we are working with them, and what you can do. Over the last few weeks, we have seen a significant degradation in their service levels with up to 4 day delays, especially in California, Texas, and New Jersey. To combat this, we are opening up our carrier options to all customers who want to turn off UPS MI for now, where we will cover 100% of the incremental costs for a new carrier in zones 1-4 and we are covering a portion of the delta for zones 5 and greater.
Hurricane Isaias Update
Episode 9: August 4
Our CLO, Todd Bills, joins us to share what is happening with Hurricane Isaias as it hits the east coast of the United States. Our carrier partners have informed us that they will be suspending both carrier pickups and dropping off inventory to our Bethlehem fulfillment center due to the weather conditions, so there will be shipping delays. We are currently operating within our facility and will continue to prepare all orders to be shipped once our carrier partners resume service.
International Carrier Rates
Episode 10: August 12
Our CLO, Todd Bills discusses international rate increases coming on September 12 due to recent changes in the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which ShipBob has been absorbing since July 26. These will be 100% passthrough rates, applicable to all international plans for ShipBob’s standard ship option from shipments originating in the US going to other countries.
Peak Holiday Surcharges
Episode 11: September 11
Our CLO, Todd Bills, joins us to share how carriers like UPS, FedEx, and USPS are implementing peak surcharges for domestic shipments during the 2020 peak holiday season. These surcharges have very complex structures, so ShipBob has simplified them to make it easier to calculate. Todd walks through how to interpret them, when they all go into effect, and clarifies that the COVID-19 surcharge of $0.20 that went into effect in July will go away on November 1, 2020.
Same Day DTC Fulfillment SLAs
Episode 12: September 21
Our CLO, Todd Bills, explains how we have added 100s of fulfillment center associates across our network and worked hard to reduce our extended COVID-19 direct-to-consumer fulfillment SLAs, which is now back to its pre-COVID timeline. Now, any outbound orders imported before noon local time will be fulfilled same-day, with post-noon orders going out the next business day.
Holiday Cutoff Dates
Episode 13: October 16
ShipBob's CLO, Todd Bills, discusses some important holiday cutoff dates shared by our carrier partners for standard, expedited, and overnight shipping. Todd advises that it's important to keep a close eye on holiday cutoffs as many of the dates are much earlier than normal.
Preparing for Holiday Peak Season
Episode 14: November 24
ShipBob's CLO Todd Bills provides updates on ShipBob's fulfillment operations as we prepare for the holiday peak season. Some of the highlights include additional safety precautions in all fulfillment centers, a temporary +1 business day SLA extension on certain SLAs, and processes and technology put in place to ensure packages get fulfilled and shipped on time.