INDUSTRIAL LOGISTICS: A Booming Market that Requires a Specialized Touch
2017 was an exceptionally solid year for the industrial real estate market, with an especially strong showing during its fourth quarter. According to a recently published outlook by JLL, a Chicago-based industrial real estate firm, warehouse and distribution center vacancy rates fell to an all-time low, while rents for those properties rose slightly. Combined, this points to a robust market, even as it deals with a labor shortage in trucking, rising constructions costs, and East Coast ports in drastic need of infrastructure investment.
Despite these issues, demand rose for “mid-sized industrial product,” as evidenced by the expansion of smaller warehouse and distribution locations throughout the U.S. This, in turn, was fueled by shippers wanting to be closer to their clients in order to keep up with industrial product demand.
To satisfy that demand, shippers have sought to augment their new location investments by focusing on faster delivery rates, as well as last-mile delivery services. The bar having been set by Amazon and other major online retailers, smaller competitors have focused on supply chain design that offers the full range of specialty services required by the complexity of most industrial logistics operations.
These services are what are sometimes referred to as “White Glove.”
White Glove service offers more than simple transportation and delivery. It involves coordinated timing, specialized equipment, installation, debris removal and other such intricate capabilities.
These capabilities are required by the industrial market, as they fulfill all their potential needs, including high-value/sensitive cargo handling, time-definite guarantee, around-the-clock service, coordination of install times with delivery teams and technicians, rigging and crating, uncrating and debris removal, rollouts, light assembly, and careful product placement.
When it comes to finding a freight forwarder and logistics solutions provider to handle all of this, there are few that are as reliable as Aeronet Worldwide®. Aeronet saw record growth throughout 2017, growth that included the opening and expansion of several domestic locations.
Aeronet has also been offering White Glove service since before it was an industry-wide standard. Their Associates can help customize supply chain solutions to fit any delivery and operation, no matter the complexity. Aeronet delivers cutting-edge logistics solutions for all industrial markets and projects.
