US import prices jumped 0.5% in August due to surging energy costs. On a year-over-year basis, import prices dropped 3%, a seventh consecutive monthly decline. Export prices rose 1.3% in August, the biggest gain since May 2022, driven by higher prices for nonagricultural industrial supplies, materials, capital goods and vehicles.

Members of the United Auto Workers have started striking at three US automotive assembly plants after the union and automakers failed to agree to a labor contract. Roughly 12,700 workers are striking at Ford Motor, General Motors and Stellantis facilities in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio respectively. The vehicles affected are the Ford Ranger pickup and Bronco SUV, GMC and Chevrolet pickups and vans, and the Jeep Wrangler SUV and Gladiator pickup.

Estes Express Lines has submitted a new $1.525 billion cash stalking-horse bid for Yellow's network of industrial properties, surpassing Old Dominion Freight Line's $1.5 billion submission, according to bankruptcy court filings. Estes is also offering financial terms that include a lower breakup fee that could provide Yellow and its creditors with additional cash to pay off debts and the flexibility to sell some terminals individually or in packages.

Theodore High School in Alabama has introduced a Distribution & Logistics Academy to prepare students for careers in the booming local logistics and supply chain management industry. The program, in partnership with industry, will provide skills training, certifications and mentorship opportunities starting this year with approximately 70 students.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services is acquiring the freight brokerage arm of BNSF Logistics for an undisclosed amount that includes its truckload, drayage, expedited and less-than-truckload platform services. BNSF Logistics, which operates as a subsidiary of BNSF Railway, will continue handling its warehouse, specialty retail, heavy-haul and project-related services entities.

Consumer packaged goods companies are facing constant supply chain disruption "such as geopolitical conflicts, severe weather challenges, and uncertainty over trade policies," said Tom Madrecki, vice president of supply chain and logistics for the Consumer Brands Association. "We must focus on averting policies that will make it harder for the supply chain to operate seamlessly and inhibit the ability to meet consumer demand on top of so many existing challenges beyond all control," Madrecki explained.

Walmart is launching an Express Delivery Service for online customers shopping from 4,000 of its stores nationwide, according to a company blog post. Orders placed by 9:30PM will be delivered by 10PM to serve customers' "last-minute needs."

Nancy Harhut, behavioral specialist and chief creative officer at HBT Marketing, explains how brain science can help business-to-business marketers understand the role emotions and instincts play in buying decision-making. "Even if your audience is highly intelligent, even if they're a senior executive who has the best interest of the company in mind, there are still emotions at play that influence their decisions," Harhut says.

Advertisers are scrutinizing spending and stretching ad dollars amid inflation and focusing on contingency plans and flexible contracts so they're well-situated to be reactive to looming issues such as COVID-19 outbreaks and the writer's and actor's strikes, say experts. Rain the Growth Agency's Robin Cohen says "clients are going into Q4 with an assumption that it's been a tough year" and notes linear television, streaming and interactive ads are among the most popular formats.

Bored employees can end up frustrated and unproductive, affect team culture and could result in some of them leaving the company, leadership expert Julie Winkle Giulioni writes. To avoid this, managers should proactively gauge engagement and co-create an experience that offers variety, growth, autonomy and new challenges, Winkle Giulioni writes, noting that this builds trust and shows respect and value.

Companies where leaders practice what George Mason University School of Business professor Kevin Rockmann calls "relational indifference" by saying they want good employee relations but never doing anything to facilitate them will create cliques of in- and out-groups instead of the cohesion needed to thrive. "It's not about everybody being best friends; it's just about having productive working relationships that are characterized by respect, so that when the [expletive] hits the fan, people are going to step up," Rockmann says.

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