Packing materials used in both freight and express parcel movement are both expensive to produce and eat lots of petro resources. Not exactly green materials.
ZDNet has a great video on some new developments in creating biodegradable packaging for ecommerce uses as well as some interesting information on how bio materials are making their way into plastics used in everyday items up to and including automobiles.
On June 11, 2010, staff members at DHL's hub in Brussels, Belgium held a farewell party in honor of team members leaving the company as a result of DHL's hub relocation to Leipzig, Germany. By all reports, the party was a major bash. The following is a direct report!
The party was a roaring success with over 620 people attending from as far away as Singapore, the USA & all over Europe including many ‘old’ DHLers. The weather Gods smiled and gave us a beautiful evening allowing many party goers to remain ‘al fresco’ for the duration. The free bar was, quite naturally for a DHL function, very popular while the buffet provided some much needed nourishment to sustain all those present through until the early hours.
The entertainment started at 2030 with ‘Methuselah’ taking us back in time with some oldies on the disco followed by a presentation and slide show covering the history of DHL in Brussels, including some ‘interesting’ old photographs. The excellent band, Xzent, gave us 2 hours of great music before the tombola was drawn with some fabulous prizes as donated by generous suppliers & airlines.
After the ‘official’ business was over, DJs Kristof & Macphisto made sure that the venue rocked through until 0500 with the champagne tent providing a small haven of peace for those who needed it.
Unfortunately the planned auction of old DHL framed photographs could not take place due to technical difficulties but the subsequent ‘on line’ auction raised over Euro 900 for the charity ‘Annick for Kenya’.
A great party in the true traditions of DHL White and the photographs can be found at http://s737.photobucket.com/home/bru110610/allalbums
Cheers,
Neale
For many years, DHL's European hub and headquarters was in Brussels, Belgium. In recent times however, the company has relocated it's hub operations and many jobs to Leipzig, Germany.
Soon, the DHL team in Belgium will transition to new jobs, and in many cases, new careers with other firms. Nevertheless, one heck of a party is planned to close this chapter in DHL's European life. See below for details!
THE DHL FAREWELL TO BRUSSELS PARTY
IT’S STILL NOT TOO LATE TO REGISTER FOR THE PARTY OF THE YEAR!
The date is now confirmed for Friday 11th June 2010 at Melsbroek football ground close to the airport starting at 1900 and going on until the early hours.
Many thanks to all of those who have registered and more thanks to those who responded to the brufarewell@gmail.com email address advising whether or not you will be attending this event. Also very many thanks to those who have already transferred payment to the BRU Farewell bank account.
Please note that, in order to ensure we register you correctly, in addition to registering on this site, please email brufarewell@gmail.com, confirming whether or not you will be attending and with how many people. If people have responded independently of your group, they will be treated individually.
Once you have accepted please transfer €55 per person to the BRU Farewell ING bank account 377-0159018-72 (IBAN: BE38377015901872, BIC Code: BBRUBEBB) before 7th May to guarantee your attendance.
Once you have made payment for yourself and others in your group, we will send you a ticket showing your name and the total in your group (if more than just yourself) to present to security on the night of the event.
The event will feature 4 hours of free bar (thereafter cash will be accepted), a barbeque, a disco and a live band. For those football fans among you, there will be a screen showing the second match of the World Cup (France v Uruguay) although this will be in one corner and will not intrude on those who want to concentrate on partying!
The dress code will be casual but, as an idea, if you have any old DHL logo’d items of clothing still hidden away in the wardrobe, it might be fun to dig them out and come appropriately attired!
For those who have any distance to travel or who simply want to party to the max & not worry about driving home, we have a deal on rooms at the Airport Holiday Inn at Euro 75.00 per single or Euro 85.00 per double including breakfast for those who can face it! The reservation form is downloadable by emailing brufarewell@gmail.com and requesting the document. Shuttles will be arranged to take you from the party back to the hotel. More details on that later.
Many thanks and best regards,
The Organizing Committee
This blog is about logistics. You will find almost 500 posts here and only one or two that are politically related. That's on purpose. I try to stay within the boundaries of my business.
In this case however politics is my business. Former President Bill Clinton gave a speech recently at the University of California, Berkeley, warning about the power of words and the potential of rhetoric to incite harm. Specifically Clinton referred to the strong negative discourse today between Tea Party Republican /conservatives and supporters of the current government over a host of issues, with healthcare being at the center.
In this case, I think Clinton meant to align the Tea Partiers with radicals, which I disagree with, but I think he still has a bigger point worth noting.
Clinton reminded the audience that in 1995 similarly strong sentiments were running when Timothy McVeigh and accomplices bombed the Federal building in Oklahoma City. His point was that words have strong meaning and what may be political rhetoric for elective purposes for some, may incite violence from others with a more literal interpretation. Speech is free, but it is not without cost.
The key point with which I agree with a president I did not support,... is that the words we say to each other matter. As Americans, political balance is one of the reasons our democracy has been successful. I also believe it's the reason our economy has been as successful as it has for almost 235 years. Weights and balances allow dialog, even difficult dialog, to take place. Political dialog allows a free market economy to work.
What happens nowadays though, especially amongst we bloggers, is that information and opinions, regardless of viewpoint, are now as free as electrons. Crazy can travel as freely as traditional. Words incite actions, even unintended actions. What's dangerous is that what's crazy to you may be both sane and logical to me. Even more so, cultural collisions now happen instantly thanks to the Internet.
Where that comes back home to my world is that it costs the global economy serious money to scan freight shipments and packages for explosives. It also costs big money in airline and shipping company practices and policies on security. Doubtless, much of this is borne on the back of 911 related terrorism, but domestic terrorism is also a factor. I suspect your office building has different security measures now than it did in 1990. That's a result of both domestic and international attacks on our country.
Ultimately, I think this comes down to respect. Difficult to enact other than through restraint. I'm not talking about being politically correct. That's only a way of masking true feelings with obtuse words. What I'm talking about is being educated on the issues and speaking in a way that engages discussion.
I'm about driving costs out of supply chains, which means finding a safer world. I hate to think the only way to do that is to ramp up the security investment while the rhetoric takes the same arc.
I don't have all the answers here, nor am I sure my opinion is completely coherent. But I know that the ramped up conflict increases risk, and risk costs money.
Eric
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Most people think of Memphis as the home of Elvis, Blues and Barbecue. That's all good, but that ain't all there is. Not according to the Memphis Chamber of Commerce anyway.
Freight is also important in Memphis Tennessee. How many metropolitan Chambers of Commerce have a Vice President of Logistics? Memphis does.
Jim Covington is the Vice President of Logistics for the Greater Memphis Chamber, and he wants new business. Air, ocean, intermodal, river traffic...the works. In this regard, the Greater Memphis Chamber has started a marketing campaign dubbing Memphis as "Americas Aerotropolis".
America's Aerotropolis
Memphis has the blessing of being centrally located in the United States. Its location on the Mississippi River also gives it access to the biggest riverine domestic corridor in the country.
Freight transportation companies can obviously read a map. A well known purple express company has its largest global hub in Memphis, making it the busiest cargo airport in the country. Additionally several major railroads have intermodal hubs in Memphis. All this makes for a great place for companies to set up distribution facilities in the region. Retailers like Williams Sonoma, Dell, and others have facilities nearby in order to leverage the infrastructure.
Nevertheless, Memphis wants more. See this linked White paper that the Greater Memphis Chamber has put out on the benefits of the city and surrounding areas. The local TV stations are in line with the effort. Check out this news story that includes some video as well.
At the end of the day, the Chamber of Commerce in Memphis wants jobs. Whether employment comes from additional transportation company investment, warehousing or retailer investment, the community wants to grow and is leveraging its best assets to make that happen.
Eric
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My friend Rich Palarea of PA Associates has some interesting comments and observations about UPS's recent change in its parcel letter rating policies.
It used to be that a UPS letter envelope could contain as much paper as you could stuff in the envelope. It traveled at the same rate. FedEx meanwhile charges by envelope weight up to 8 oz. then actual weight. UPS is now changing the rules to be closer to the FedEx model. Shippers who use UPS for letter traffic better watch for an increase in the freight bill.
Read Rich's article in part below.
| No More "Unlimited Weight" UPS Letters - a 44% Increase in Your Shipping Costs For years, UPS has made sure that shippers comparing their express envelope shipping with FedEx, or even premium US Postal Service offerings, know that a shipper can stuff as much paper as they would like into the UPS letter and legal-sized envelopes without any restriction on weight and still obtain the "letter" rate. In contrast, the FedEx terms place a limit on letter and legal envelopes at eight ounces and everything more than eight ounces is billed at the actual weight. For shippers or organizations like PA & Associates, which help shippers with their spend management strategies, special consideration needed to be given when negotiating and comparing UPS envelope shipments to FedEx envelope shipments to ensure that shippers considering a move from UPS to FedEx did not realize an increase in shipping expenses in this area. However, UPS changed this policy for 2010. As noted in the UPS Tariff/Terms And Conditions of Service for Package Shipments in the United States, UPS will now charge by scale weight (rounded up to nearest pound) for letter and legal envelopes weighing more than eight ounces (see page 23, section 35.3). Interesting to note that the Terms and Conditions document is buried four clicks into the UPS.com website. It isn't surprising that UPS changed its policy for this segment of shipments given their intensive focus on package yield which began in 2009 (more about this fundamental, strategic change in managing profit margins which has already begun to affect end-user pricing and discounts in a future blog post). What some may find surprising is how UPS has (or has not) conveyed this change to their users. |
Eric
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April 1, 2010 - Some recent interest in this subject by some readers warrants reposting this article. It was one of my favorite ones to write because I spent many years in the ocean freight business.
____________________________________________________________
Despite the slick advertising you see on Sundays between NFL games, shipping by any mode is still more of an art than a science. Nature plays a factor in the movement of anything. No whiteboards involved at all.
Check out the video below, which shows a container ship at sea in heavy weather. The ship takes an absolute beating and rest assured, nobody on deck is very happy. That HDTV you have in your living room right now might have been on this ship but you'd never know it.
This takes me to another subject... How many of you know what "General Average" is? Do you know where it came from? Methinks its time for a maritime history lesson!
General Average is a maritime legal term that allows a carrier to charge its customers for damage done to the ship while at sea. The video above shows a major storm. If the ship were damaged with massive cargo loss etc., the carrier could legally take the cost of the repair and divide that by the cargo interests on board and send you a bill. Look at the back of your ocean bill of lading. Its on there.
Back in the "olden days", prior to the early 1800's, merchant ships would be commissioned for voyages. A British merchant with wool to sell, along with other merchants with other native products, would commission a vessel and a captain and crew to sail to a foreign market like China or India. On arrival, the captain became a trader and would sell the goods in exchange for money or other local goods like silks, tea, Chinese pottery, anything! How much money the enterprise made, including the captain and crew, depended on how good he was at trading. Now, if the ship got damaged in transit from weather, pirates, acts of god, etc., the commission contract said that the commissioning merchants could be billed for the damage repair cost. That tradition in maritime history continues to this day though carriers are very sensitive about whether to charge this because it is very unpopular with major customers.
The reason shippers get so mad about General Average today is that they enjoy what's called full liner terms on their ocean bills of lading, which is a contract of carriage. The shipping company promises to run a regularly scheduled service with predictable schedules. Given that people expect that what they buy will be fulfilled, they are very surprised when something happens to their goods and they themselves are held responsible. Most protest vehemently! That wasn't the case prior to 1837.
In 1837 the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) was commissioned by the British Government to make scheduled runs between England and Spain and Portugal in support of the British mails. A country trying to run an empire needs regular mail service.
P&O was the international mail company long, long before UPS, DHL or FedEx ever delivered an envelope. P&O started what became known as Liner Service. England is an island nation and this was a common way that shipping companies got started. NYK of Japan started the same way. Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha means Japan Mail company.
This idea of commissioning ships with trade goods created strong trades with China long before Wal*Mart ever existed. Ever heard of the Opium Wars? Shipping companies (P&O in particular) wanted to trade British wool with the Chinese. The Chinese already had silk, which was not only cooler, it was lighter and much more suited to the weather in China. Frustrated, the Brits needed a different product. They were already active in India and noted that the Indians had a nice local trade in opium poppies.
So...rather than trade that smelly old wool, the Chinese were offered opium. That's a product that creates instant demand if you weren't already aware... and a nice but infamous trade took place for awhile between India and China and P&O made good money on it. That's something the company wasn't real proud of in the view of history, but that's what happened.
In case you didn't know it, I spent many years working for P&O Containers, then P&O Nedlloyd. Both now part of Maersk Lines. The heritage of our commerce is directly tied to our global maritime history. That's evolving to suit current markets, but the old history is worth knowing. I'm intensely proud to be an old steamboater, even though I now wear a forwarders clothing!
Eric
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The Teamsters are making a concerted effort to unionize FedEx Ground. In this instance, as reported by Logistics Management Magazine, they are going to shareholders trying to persuade them that the FedEx Ground business model of independent contractors is a "flawed model" with tax and benefits liabilities that FedEx may be liable for in the future. As Jerry Hempstead points out below, the shareholders are going to do what's good for the shareholder. Right now FedEx shares are doing pretty well.
Parcel shipping: Teamsters renew call for FedEx Ground employees to unionize Jeff Berman, Group News Editor -- Logistics Management, 9/2/2009WASHINGTON—In its latest attempt to get FedEx Ground employees to organize, the Teamsters Union said in a letter to FedEx shareholders that its business model for FedEx Ground is highly flawed, as well as “an unlawful and unsustainable business model.” FedEx classifies its Ground drivers as independent contractors rather than full-time employees. And the Teamsters charge that this “misclassification” has allowed FedEx to “evade expenses like payroll taxes, overtime pay, and benefits,” adding that “numerous state and government agencies have found that FedEx Ground’s contractor model is a sham and are looking to collect the money owed to workers and states.” The Teamsters also cited an August 2008 Bloomberg article that stated the pre-tax liability from unpaid payroll taxes could be as high as $2.5 billion. While the Teamsters stated their case to FedEx shareholders, an industry analyst told LM they are likely to have a “hard sell” ahead of them for a few different reasons. “The shareholders in my humble opinion are going to do what's best for the shareholder and not what's best for a bargaining unit that does not represent any FedEx employees,” said Jerry Hempstead, president of Orlando-based Hempstead Consulting. “The shareholders have seen the price of the stock double in the last six months [from $35.76 on March 6 to $69.60 on September 2]. That's usually a sign that Wall Street is positive on the direction management is taking the company and a vote of confidence in those steering the ship.” |
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Here's an additional video of the tragic crash of FedEx Flight 80 inbound to Tokyo Narita airport on March 23rd, 2009. The initial video I posted was from CNN and contained some uninformed speculation on what happened. I post this here just for purposes of clarity. I again wish my condolences to the FedEx family on this loss.
Coverage is based on Japanese news agency film and commentary.
The FedEx press release can be read here.
Eric
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Do you use Twitter? This is the social networking tool that allows users to tell multiple followers exactly what they are doing at any given moment.
Frankly I see little business use for this tool, but apparently there are some. There are also some good reasons NOT to use this tool. A great friend of mine who is also an attorney, once told me that anything you write down in email or any form of written communication can be used as admissible evidence in a court of law. I can only think that Twitter now puts that rule on steroids. All electronic communications are stored somewhere for perpetuity.
Check the link out here on what happened to an Ad agency executive who shared his personal opinions on twitter prior to a meeting with FedEx. Good on the FedEx folks for their reaction to this event.
Eric
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