Warehouse Wisdom, Weekly. 09/25/2026

INTRODUCTION / SEPTEMBER 25 2026

Happy Friday!

Getting your caulk delivered by drone is no longer science fiction. Lowe’s is piloting drone delivery with Wing and DoorDash, offering more than 100 eligible products with delivery in as little as 20 minutes. At the opposite end of the delivery spectrum, e-commerce has a problem that’s considerably harder to get off the ground: big and bulky goods. Consumers increasingly expect couches, outdoor furniture and other oversized purchases to arrive with the same urgency as a phone charger, putting pressure on retailers to rethink inventory placement, forecasting and fulfillment. Patience, it seems, is no longer included with free shipping.

This week, we’re covering plenty more, including soaring Panama Canal transit costs, shifting Suez Canal traffic, $9,600 Asia-to-U.S. container rates, potential diesel export restrictions, FedEx’s upcoming rate hike, Amazon’s latest fulfillment and AI moves, and more. Let’s dive in!

FREIGHT AND SHIPPING
Diesels, canals, containers, and labor keep shippers on their toes

Let’s start with diesel, because transportation budgets could use another headache. With diesel prices elevated, the White House has been weighing possible restrictions on U.S. diesel exports. Energy Secretary Chris Wright pushed back against a flat ban, warning that it could cause refiners to reduce overall production and ultimately drive up prices for gasoline and jet fuel.

Ocean freight isn’t exactly offering much tranquility either. Large cargo ships have recently paid as much as $5 million just to secure passage through the Panama Canal, as global shipping disruptions and extreme weather increase the value of transit slots. The 50-mile canal handles almost 6% of global trade, so paying millions simply to get in line gives a whole new meaning to a shipping surcharge.

There is better news coming from the other major canal. Suez Canal transits increased 27% year over year in August, reaching 1,358 vessels as carriers selectively returned to the Red Sea route. Canal revenue jumped 56.7% to $567.1 million as well. A broader return could eventually free up vessel and container capacity elsewhere, although North American shippers shouldn’t start planning a rate-reduction party just yet.

That’s especially true because Asia-to-U.S. container rates remain stubbornly high. Trans-Pacific demand, port congestion in Asia and blank sailings have kept spot rates elevated, with Far East-to-U.S. East Coast pricing around $9,600 per FEU. It isn’t pandemic-level pricing, but “not as bad as the pandemic” isn’t exactly the benchmark most importers were hoping to celebrate.

And the composition of those imports continues to change. U.S. imports declined 4.5% during the 12 months following the April 2025 tariff announcement, while containerized ocean imports dropped 4.3%. The underlying data also shows sourcing shifting away from China and toward Mexico, Vietnam, Taiwan and other Southeast Asian countries. For SMB importers, supplier diversification continues to look less like corporate jargon and more like a practical sourcing strategy.

On the trade front, businesses buying from China received a little more breathing room this week as the U.S. and China agreed to extend their trade truce by two months, pushing its expiration to Jan. 10. The agreement continues the tariff reductions and suspension of certain trade actions negotiated last year. It doesn’t eliminate uncertainty, but two more months without another round of changes is something importers can actually put on the calendar.

And because supply chain managers clearly needed something to worry about several years in advance, 2028 could bring two major labor negotiations at virtually the same time. The West Coast dockworker contract expires July 1, 2028, followed one month later by the UPS-Teamsters contract. No disruption is predetermined, but with West Coast ports and the country’s largest parcel carrier negotiating back-to-back, 2028 is already earning itself a small reminder on the logistics calendar.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLISHER
A quick note

ONLINE MARKETPLACES
Amazon opens the door to rivals as AI and delivery options expand

Amazon spent years making its own marketplace the center of sellers’ universes, but now it’s helping them manage the competition. The company is opening Seller Central to rival marketplaces, allowing U.S. sellers to manage listings, orders and profitability from eBay, Shopify, TikTok Shop and Walmart inside Amazon’s platform. The tools are rolling out gradually at no additional cost. For SMB sellers juggling multiple channels, fewer browser tabs might qualify as innovation all by itself.

Amazon is also adding AI-powered supply chain agents to Seller Assistant. New capabilities will help sellers with inbound planning and aging inventory, while Amazon ultimately envisions the tool providing proactive alerts and recommendations across sellers’ global operations. The interesting part for smaller merchants isn’t simply another AI chatbot. It’s AI moving closer to inventory decisions and supply chain execution, where mistakes tend to be considerably more expensive than a poorly written product description.

Costco is widening its delivery net too, with DoorDash now providing nationwide same-day delivery from Costco locations. More than 4,000 products are available through the platform, and the expansion joins Costco’s existing relationships with Instacart and Uber Eats. Consumers keep gaining more ways to get products faster, which means the delivery bar for everyone else keeps inching upward.

WAREHOUSE QUICK DELIVERIES
Kroger’s digital sales, Amazon pay hikes, and AI holiday shopping

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LOGISTICS VITALS
FedEx’s 2027 rate hike is in the mail

FedEx has unveiled its 2027 pricing changes, and parcel shippers may want to leave a little extra room in next year’s budget. The headline increase is familiar, but the actual impact will depend on package characteristics, services and surcharges.

WAREHOUSE TECH
Amazon bets on smart glasses, same-day hubs, & rail

Amazon drivers may soon spend a little less time staring at their phones. The company is expanding smart glasses for delivery drivers that use computer vision, AI and cameras to provide walking directions, locate packages and identify potential hazards. Drivers testing the technology have already completed 275,000 deliveries, and Amazon plans to add 5,000 more devices with a goal of having 20,000 in use by the end of 2027. The last mile is becoming increasingly high-tech, right down to what the driver is wearing.

Of course, fancy glasses only help if the inventory is close enough to deliver. Amazon reportedly expects to grow from roughly 85 facilities today to 1,000 same-day delivery hubs by 2031. The goal is to put those facilities within a 10-mile straight-line radius of 80% of U.S. Prime subscribers. If you’re wondering whether consumer expectations for fast delivery are going to relax anytime soon, 1,000 fulfillment sites suggest Amazon has a different theory.

Amazon is also attacking fulfillment speed from the other side of the country. Its new Standard Ocean Express service routes imported inventory through the Port of Los Angeles and then directly by rail to East Coast fulfillment centers. Amazon says the service can improve transit times compared with standard routing, helping sellers position inventory sooner and reduce stockout risk. Put the three stories together and Amazon’s strategy isn’t subtle: move inventory across the country faster, put it closer to customers, and make the final delivery more efficient.

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WAREHOUSE OPERATIONS
Rugs Direct finds savings by thinking inside the box

Sometimes the smartest logistics solution isn’t a robot, AI platform or multimillion-dollar automation project. Rugs Direct cut its delivery costs by changing how certain rugs are packaged: folding hand-tufted rugs instead of rolling them. Long, heavy rolled rugs can trigger oversized fees and require multiple people to handle, while folding eligible products creates a more manageable package and reduces the risk of added carrier charges. Rugs Direct says the shipping savings outweigh the small number of rugs that might need replacement because of folding. Not glamorous, perhaps, but your P&L has never cared much about glamour.