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POPSCali Gets High Speed Rail ..eventually Californians voted on tuesday to get a new high speed line on the west coast. Not to be available until 2030, this is still a great step for high speed rail in this country beyond Acela.
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POPSNorthrop Grumman Buys Scaled Composites Burt Rutan formed Scaled Composites in Los Angeles in 1982. Since that time, his company has designed and flown revolutionary aircraft ranging from the globalflyer, to X Prize winning SpaceShipOne. Rutan has now sold the company to Northrop Grumman Corp. This is the third time Rutan has sold Scaled Composites, having repurchased the company twice before. Northrop and Scaled Composites have worked together on a number of projects including the military B-2 Stealth Bomber and UAV projects. No change is expected in management. Rutan is an engineering genius, so it doesn't take a genius to see that its good business to leave him in charge!
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POPSDHL Disaster Response Team: Good to Go! I rarely mention my employer here at Freightdawg.com because I think its important to blog at an industry level. However, I am extremely proud of a particular group that I am humbled to call colleagues. DHL Disaster Response Team (DRT) is a volunteer group of people who react to both domestic and international disasters, whether man made or natural. The DHL press release below documents the efforts of the Americas DRT in its present deployment in Peru as a result of the earthquake there.
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POPS100 Percent Cargo Inspection: Part Deux Congress apparently didn't read my article of April 7th, 2007 on the practical difficulties of 100 percent cargo inspection called for under House bill HR-1. HR-1 requires 100 percent cargo inspection of all air and ocean cargo. Forget that we don't have the current technology to perform the scanning. Forget that there is no clearly defined mandate for what's to be scanned. Forget that it will take a loooonnnngg while to figure out the union rules on how this will take place. The one concession I can see in the passed bill is that rather than implementing this deal by the end of 2010, it has a 5 year implementation window with the ability of the government to extend the deadline 2 years...
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POPSAirlines Listening to Bloggers
I spent yesterday on one of those one day business trips that I hate. You know the kind. Out early in the morning...complete day of business, then the late flight back home. I have two of those this week (yuck.). Yesterdays flights were impacted by weather delaying my arrival back to Atlanta until about mid-night. I should've been home by 9PM. With that kind of frustration in mind, and with thousands of air travelers now online in various social networks, it is no surprise that airlines are beginning to get savvy about reading what's being said about them. Freightdawg.com is one of those sites that gets read. The article below is from the Boston Globe regarding the frustrations of air travelers and airlines lurking on the comments to action customer service. That is absolutely brilliant stuff from a customer service point of view. While regular travelers like me will post about the travails of daily flying....I guarantee a blogger who got a comment and servic
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POPSDelta Recovery Continues in May Delta Airlines continues its impressive recovery from bankruptcy with strong year over year gains in passengers carried and in revenue growth. Delta's traffic rose 5.9% in May overall, with a very strong 2.9 percent growth in domestic traffic. Overall growth was driven by a whopping 12.8 percent growth in international traffic in May. Having personal experience in dealing with Delta senior management, Delta seems to be a changed airline. Using 6 sigma principals applied to everything from cabin cleanliness to misrouted bags, the airline seems to be in full recovery mode with momentum being felt by passengers. Delta's strategic investment in long haul routes has clearly benefited the airline due to lack of discounters on those routes. Most airlines have struggled domestically, with even stalwarts like Southwest Airlines openly discussing slowing expansion of their US domestic network.
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POPSVirtual Inventory: A Reality for some Retailers. I spend a lot of time in airline seats. Invariably I wind up looking at the Sky Mall catalog. You know the one. It has hundreds of the coolest items, like spiked sandals for aerating your yard. These are items that are fun to look at but sometimes hard to legitimize for purchase. Nevertheless, people do buy. Sky Mall is a marketing company. If you buy from them the order is processed then transmitted to a vendor for drop shipment to your home or office. The system works well. Two years ago I bought two Christmas presents on Sky Mall. The process worked great. I ordered on-line and the shipment arrived promptly via parcel carrier straight from the vendor. When the item didn’t fit, I processed a return directly through Sky Mall. I was able to return the item with no problem with a credit back to my American Express card. The whole concept of drop shipping or maintenance of a “virtual” inventory was one of the basic ideas behind many dot.coms in the early 20
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POPSBritish Airways accused of Price fixing Fuel Charges No Way BA! Virgin Atlantic Airways for a long time had the slogan "No Way BA!" painted on the sides of its Boeing 747's. This was initially in regard to a potential merger in the 1990's between British Airways and American Airlines. Today it means something different. Virgin Atlantic reported British Airways to British authorities on accusations of price fixing related to fuel surcharges. But the richest part of this story seems to be that the one BA tried talking into an off tariff agreement was...Virgin Atlantic. Can you say "Busted"?
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POPSBuying Postage Stamps at a Discount! Now heres an extremely clever idea. In order to beat USPS rate hikes, buy old stamps at a discount from Stamp and Coin Dealers! Dan Pritchett at Logos Bible Software found a creative way to make a deal with a local stamp and coin dealer to not only buy old stamps at a discount but get his invoices hand stamped to boot! This idea wouldn't work for large businesses, but if you're an entrepreneur with more modest billing and invoicing needs, this idea has merit.
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POPSDHL Investment in Polar Air Clears Hurdle DHL Express has invested 150 million dollars into Polar Air, an all cargo airline subsidiary of Atlas Air Worldwide. The deal gives DHL extensive extra lift capability into a number of markets. DHL's investment represents a 49% stake in the carrier. DHL is number 1 in market share worldwide in international parcel express with as much as a 40 percent market share in Asia. Polar AIr's B747 fleet will augment DHL's own fleet and charters.
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POPSNails on ITWO i2 Technologies took a beating on Wall Street last week, losing 30 percent of its share value after announcing earnings of 13 cents a share on revenues of 65 million dollars. Analysts had expected earnings per share in the 22 cents range. i2 subsequently announced the retirement of CEO Michael McGrath as a result. The column below is by Lenny "Nails" Dykstra, who is now a columnist for TheStreet.com. I find it entertaining that a guy who played "all out" for the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets is now a Wall Streeter. The most vivid memory of Dykstra I remember was the 1993 World Series when TV cameras showed Dykstra, then with the Philadelphia Phillies, sitting in the dugout next to manager Jim Fergosi. Dystra was smoking a cigarette and chewing tobacco...at the same time! The dude was crazy then and may still be. He things i2 is a good buy. Maybe I'm crazy too. I agree with him! i2's product line is solid and they continue to grow in customer base.
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POPSLogistics Talent: Growing your Own I recently posed a question to my LinkedIn network requesting opinions on which US universities had the top supply chain and logistics programs. The answers I got weren't suprising. Stanford, University of Tennessee, Michigan State and Penn State featured predominantly. The article below from Logistics Management Magazine highlights an increasing desire by senior supply chain managers to grow their own internal talent rather than hire newbies straight out of the academic halls. The University of Michigan has a Master of Supply Chain Management degree that takes seasoned employees from other parts of a business, and combines their manufacturing or engineering backgrounds with an advanced supply chain degree. The thought is that these cross trained employees will bring a faster ROI than younger "supply chain only" employees whose background is only based on university learning. Whats your opinion? Is it better to cross train from inside than hire new grads?
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POPSCrave the Open Road? Theres a job for YOU. There is a crisis in America that gets bigger every day. As the baby boom generation gets older, fewer and fewer workers from that generation are available to drive the trucks that move almost all of the products we consume every day. For that reason, the American Trucking Association is conducting a wide ranging and diverse hunt for new drivers. Lost a job recently to downsizing? Crave getting out of that Dilbert cube you work in? Maybe you are just home from the Middle East and want out of the Army. Trucking could be for you. Supply chain demand is way up, and drivers are hard to find. That means premium opportunity for those who want to try their hand at the open road. The ATA says there are 20,000 openings now for drivers. In 7 years time, in 2014 that figure jumps to over 110,000 jobs.
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POPSWhats Next? McOil? In the quest for alternative fuels, it seems that there will be a new use for rendered animal fats. Tyson Foods, a large food conglomerate with big interests in poultry especially, is working with Conoco Phillips to develop diesel fuel products from rendered animal fats. While acknowledged not to be a major fuel alternative, just think what might happen if a fast food chain like McDonalds started a conversion program similar to this one? A chain of fuel stations entirely supplied with McGas and McOil? I wonder if animal fats can be traded as a commodity?
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POPSOld School Transportation I found this amazing video and just had to share it. It is a compilation of remarkable uses of basic transportation ranging from bicycles to hand carriage. Looking at this, it is easy to see why the US Air Force never successful at shutting down the Ho Chi Minh trail during the Vietnam War, and how such amazing sites as the Great Wall of China got built. Somehow I suspect none of these folks belongs to the Teamsters!
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POPSFedEx Raises LTL Rates The FedEx Freight and FedEx National LTL rate increases announced in March go into effect April 2, 2007. The FedEx entered the LTL market in the US with the acquisition of Watkins Motor Lines in September 2006 and maintains their LTL division as a separate entity under FedEx Freight. The FedEx/Watkins merger along with UPS's acquisition of Overnite Express, is creating a blurring of lines between LTL and parcel industries by offering longer haul, larger shipment sizes with guarantees in service delivery usually reserved for express services. While increasing service levels, both carriers are also likely to try to use increased LTL service reliability as a way to raise rates in what has been a traditionally rate driven market. Both carriers will also continue to try to merge the Express and Parcel markets through bundled contracting and pricing offers.
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POPSSupply Chains in Space! Leave it to the brainiacs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to think about the provisioning of interplanetary fixed based stations. Engineers at MIT, Olivier de Weck and David Simchi-Levi have created a tool called SpaceNet, which models movement of freight between Earth and stations on the moon. With transit times of up to 9 months on a mission to Mars, supply chain execution in space would be difficult. Perhaps the moon will serve as a staging area for the future! Now how long until FedEx or DHL start advertising interplanetary Express services? When it absolutely positively has to get there...in 10 months!
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POPSSt. Baldricks Foundation helping cure childhood cancer St. Baldricks foundation is a fantastic organization set up to raise money to cure childhood cancer. The essence of the deal is "how much money would you pay to see me shave my head if all the money went to cure childhood cancer"? This suprisingly simple question and deed has raised millions of dollars for a fantastic cause. Im in this because my daughters softball coach Bill Malloy did this last weekend on St. Patricks day. His daughter has had leukemia and is now in recovery. It takes special people to do this, and big hearts to lend. Please contribute if you get the chance and feel the need.
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POPSUSPS Price Increases Approved The US Postal Service gets a rate increase for mail postage to 41 cents for First Class one-ounce letters. The pricing approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission also allows a new item, called a Forever Stamp as well as "shape based" pricing which reflects the additional handling costs associated with some parcel boxes and envelope sizes. Check out the rest of the article clipped from Parcel Magazine.
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POPSAirline Flight Tracking: FBO Web 3D Fboweb.com has announced an implementation their online flight tracking system that integrates with google earth. This allows you to see in near real time, flight activity at major airports such as Atlanta, LAX, New York JFK and Chicago O'Hare.
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POPSS. Carolina and Ga. Governors Propose New Jointly Run Port Big news in the ocean freight business. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue announce intention to develop a jointly run port facility in Jasper, SC. Modelled on the Ports of New York and New Jersey, the new port facility would share responsibility and funding on a bi-state basis serving the southeastern US. This is huge news as ocean vessels continue to get larger. Savannah, Georgias primary commercial deep water port, is limited in capacity by Savannah River, on which it sits. The new port would be capable of handling increased capacity container ships and as a green field project, potentially attract co-located commercial distribution centers.
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POPSInbound Logistics: The Indian Logistics Goldmine. Logistics and transportation companies always follow the freight. If sourcing origins change, so do liner vessel routes. Warehousing, forwarding, consolidation and other 3PL services also go where the business is. Behind China, India is the second most important Asian sourcing and manufacturing location. India boasts of a highly competent technical work force, low labor costs and abundance of low cost manufacturing. The key to Indian growth for the long term however will be continued investment in supply chain infrastructure. The article below from Supply and Demand Chain Executive outlines the challenges and opportunities.
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POPSNRF: Container Traffic Starting to Build at Retail Ports The National Retail Federation issued a press release highlighting container traffic growth at major ports used by major US retailers. The NRF's "porttracker" follows activity at the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, Tacoma and Seattle on the West Coast, and New York/New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston and Savannah on the US East Coast. Container traffic growth for February, typically the lowest volume month for the year, is up 10 percent over February 2006. This years peak season volume should reach crescendo in July, 2007 based on current projections. The National Retail Federation is the largest Retail Trade Association in the world.
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POPSAirbus Posts Record Loss of 572 million Euros Troubles in development and deployment of the A380 continue to impact Airbus and parent company EADS. Cancellations of orders, including all orders for the A380F freighter, by both FedEx and UPS, have forced the European aircraft maker to consider elimination of up to 10,000 jobs as well as spin off of a number of plants throughout Europe.
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POPSWeather affects Rail Traffic in February Snow and Ice in the mid-west and northeastern United States hampered rail operations in February. No surprise as truck traffic and parcel carrier hubs located in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio were similarly impacted during the winters worst storms.
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POPSAn Example of Courage and Leadership First, This has nothing to do with my normal fare of Logistics related blog posts. It's an article I write to illustrate a profile in courage. I am honored to be related to the subject of the story. My cousin is a TV news anchor in San Antonio, Texas. KSAT's Leslie Mouton is my mothers niece. Beautiful, intelligent, funny and talented. The person I see on TV doesn't seem like the down-to-earth kid I grew up with. The first time I saw her on TV, I didn't recognize her. That was years ago now. She contracted breast cancer a few years ago. Rather than hide it, Leslie took it and made it a public thing. She talked about her illness on-line, on the news, and even did the News Bald...to show that a woman can be in recovery from cancer and still perform in that most plastic of worlds...Television. That effort, and her other local work with cancer charities etc., landed Leslie on the Oprah Winfrey show. She was highlighted as a hero by Oprah for being so br
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POPS2007 Rate Negotiations: Opportunities Exist in Certain Modes As 2007 rate negotiations continue, shippers are finding more flexibility in rate discussions depending on mode of transport. Parcel carrier rate increases seem to be sticking, along with new fee structures based on dimensional weight. Truckload carriers are more rate competitive based on available capacity. Rail rates continue to increase while air carriers continue to be impacted by the price for fuel. Check out the clip below from Logistics Management magazine for more information.
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POPSEconomics 101 The cornerstone of Harvard professor N. Gregory Mankiw’s introductory economics textbook, Principles of Economics, is a synthesis of economic thought into Ten Principles of Economics. Anybody who is a Harvard professor is obviously a very smart dude. Thats why its particularly funny, when another PhD, turned comedian, takes the piss out of a Harvard guys published work. Knowing that a professors tenure is usually based in part on published works, one has to wonder if Dr. Yoram Bauman, Ph.D's stand up routines "count" for tenured publication? (Inquiring minds want to know!)
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