What we're telling 3PLs at IWLA this week

Winning RFPs starts with fit, not price. Plus drone delivery benchmarks, robot import bans, and Panama surcharges.

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Slotted Admin
August 06, 2026

What we're telling 3PLs at IWLA this week

Winning RFPs starts with fit, not price. Plus drone delivery benchmarks, robot import bans, and Panama surcharges.

As this hits inboxes, I'll be at the IWLA Fulfillment Forum speaking with Mike DeFabis from IDS Fulfillment, powered by DHL Supply Chain, about strategies for winning 3PL RFPs in a competitive market.

The key theme from the session: When providers lose an opportunity, price is rarely the whole story. More often, the relationship wasn't the right fit from the beginning.

The strongest fulfillment relationships are usually decided long before the first order ships. They're built during qualification. It's why we spend so much time thinking about fit at Slotted. Strong partnerships are built on alignment around operations, capabilities, expectations, and ways of working. Price absolutely matters, but it can't overcome a poor fit.

It's a principle we've believed since day one, and one we recently revisited in an updated blog on winning 3PL RFPs.

WHAT’S TRENDING

📦 Drone delivery keeps expanding

Walmart and Alphabet's Wing expanded 30-minute drone delivery across the Greater Orlando metro as part of a plan to reach 150 stores this year. DoorDash also received FAA Part 135 certification for DoorDash Air, allowing the company to begin commercial drone operations later this year.

Drone delivery still serves a small percentage of orders and is best suited for lightweight, time-sensitive shipments. For now, the bigger impact is on customer expectations. As more consumers experience 30-minute delivery, that becomes the benchmark they're comparing everything else against.

📦 Warehouse robotics just got more complicated

The FCC banned imports of new Chinese-made humanoid and four-legged robots on national security grounds. China currently produces an estimated 85% of the world's humanoid robots, making the ruling especially significant for operators evaluating warehouse automation.

For providers planning automation investments, hardware availability, lead times, and country of origin suddenly become part of the buying process alongside ROI and operational fit.

📦 The Panama Canal is tightening again

The Panama Canal Authority reduced maximum vessel draft to 49 feet on July 24 and will reduce it again to 48.5 feet on August 15 as El Niño conditions continue to limit available water.

Carriers have already begun passing those costs through. CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, and MSC all announced Panama Canal surcharges over the past two weeks.

For brands routing freight to East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, transit times and landed costs are likely to move again heading into peak.

Also This Week

📦 Tariff refunds continue moving. CBP has refunded roughly $86 billion through the CAPE portal following the Supreme Court's IEEPA ruling. Importers that paid qualifying duties between February 2025 and March 2026 may still be eligible to recover funds.

PARTNER HIGHLIGHT

Solution Provider Highlight: Stock

Stock is the logistics infrastructure for inventory donation.

Brands and 3PLs are sitting on billions of dollars of excess, obsolete, returned, and abandoned inventory every year. Most of it still ends up liquidated, recycled, or destroyed not because teams want that outcome, but because donation has historically been too manual and operationally difficult to execute at scale.

Stock changes that.

Stock helps brands and fulfillment providers move excess inventory to vetted nonprofits quickly, compliantly, and with minimal operational lift. The platform integrates directly into existing warehouse workflows, making donation as simple as shipping an outbound order.

Stock manages the matching, logistics coordination, documentation, and compliance process end-to-end, including bills of lading, donation receipts, and transportation coordination. Inventory can move out of facilities within days instead of sitting for months.

For warehouse and fulfillment providers, Stock creates value in several ways:

  • Quickly remove abandoned or aging inventory from warehouse space

  • Offer brands a responsible alternative to liquidation or disposal

  • Improve client retention by adding a high-value operational service

  • Help customers recover value through potential tax advantages and reduced storage costs

  • Create a differentiated service offering without adding internal operational burden

Several enterprise fulfillment providers who also leverage Slotted are already using Stock to support their customers with excess inventory management at scale.

Stock also provides enablement materials, sales support, and customer-facing resources so account management and sales teams can easily position donation as part of their broader fulfillment solution.

Learn more about Stock and inventory donation solutions by emailing Abby Nawrocki directly at [email protected]

OPPORTUNITIES IN FULFILLMENT

Account Executive Digital Sales @ RR Donnelley | Texas

VP of Product @ Stord | Remote

Sales Development Executive @ RR Donnelley | Maryland

Global Sales Director @ Crane WW | California

Senior Revenue Accountant @ Cart | Remote