Today's Pickup: Gartner releases annual Supply Chain Top 25

Good day,

Gartner, Inc. released the results from its annual Supply Chain Top 25, identifying supply chain leaders and highlighting their best practices.

Cisco Systems scored the top spot in the ranking, followed by Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, Schneider Electric, and Nestlé. Six new companies joined this year's list – Lenovo, AbbVie, British American Tobacco, Reckitt Benckiser, Biogen, and Kimberly-Clark.

Three key trends stand out this year for the companies that made the list, Gartner said in a press release. They use a "language of purpose," recognize that problem solving requires partnership with others in the community and were early and frequent adopters of digital technologies.

Did you know?

Gross margins for truckload activity managed by 3PLs declined 210 basis points in the first quarter of 2020 compared to a year ago. Intermodal margins were down 140 basis points while less-than-truckload margins dropped 10.

Via FreightWaves 

Quotable

"People now understand how critical it is for us to get our goods. When we're standing in line waiting to get toilet paper and paper towels, they now start to understand a little bit about the role the ports and everybody in the supply chain play in getting goods and actually where those goods are manufactured."

– Michele Grubbs, vice president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, via 

FreightWaves

In other news:

Clean incentives fuel California's new gold rush

The state offers one of every three of the approximately 300 incentive programs in the U.S. and Canada that cover vehicles, infrastructure and renewable fuels. (Fleetowner)

Democratic senators call on regulators to investigate potential Uber-Grubhub deal

A merger between Uber Eats and Grubhub would combine two of the three largest food delivery application providers and raise competition issues in many markets around the country, lawmakers said. (The Hill)

Robots rule a city under lockdown

Milton Keynes, a town near London with a population of 270,000 and a vast network of bicycle paths, is well-suited to Starship Technologies' rolling robots (New York Times)

Bid farewell to Softbank's $100 billion technology Vision Fund

The fund lost $10 billion in value in the first quarter of this year alone and is now worth less than what backers invested in it. (BusinessInsider)

Final thoughts,

The pandemic has triggered worker protests demanding that Amazon offer more paid sick time and temporarily shut warehouses with infections. Helping guide these protests are labor groups and unions eager to gain access to the e-giant after years of failed attempts to unionize its operations, Reuters reports. Although the odds are slim of organizing the Amazon workforce, unions are helping workers leverage media and public opinion to force the company to change some of its practices.

Hammer down, everyone!