Eric Joiner's Freightdawg.com - The Logistics and Supply Chain Blog!

Additional Video of FedEx MD-11F crash at RJAA

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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Twitter Me Not...

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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FedEx MD-11 Crash

Our friends at FedEx suffered a serious loss today with the crash of an MD-11 freighter in Japan.  FedEx Flight 80 was inbound to land at Narita Airport from the FedEx hub in Guangzhou, China when it apparently encountered wind shear.  The CNN video below shows their coverage.  

Both pilots were later confirmed as killed in the accident.  The FedEx press release can be read here.

Eric

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Freightdawg Sports News?

It's not often I get to report on anything sports related here on Freightdawg.com.  Kevin Scarbinsky is a sportswriter for the Birmingham News.  He writes mostly about the never ending saga of Auburn and Alabama football (which is why I read him).  This week however, Scarbinsky had a very interesting article about the University of Memphis basketball team.  It seems that FedEx is a major sponsor of the hometown university sports program. 

FedEx sponsors many NCAA sports programs, but takes great care of the hometown team.   In homage to the great purple beast,  somebody at Memphis decided that for one game, the basketball Tigers would change their uniforms from their normal blue and silver to orange and purple.  This was to have been last Wednesday when the Tigers played SMU.

Now this seems politically savvy when a major local corporation puts big bucks into your mid-major university sports program.   How else to get Fred Smith's marketing team to invest more shekels into sports advertising while laying off folks and taking mandatory pay cuts?   Somebody thought the wiser of it though.   According to Scarbinsky, the U of M alumni and fan base complained bitterly to the Athletic department leadership, who promptly caved in.

According to Memphis BBall coach Mike Davis, nobody complains about FedEx's money, but changing the uniforms was another matter.  Davis did say that if FedEx ponied up a couple of million dollars, then the Tigers would wear those purple and orange uniforms!

Eric

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UPS Bikes Around Hawaiian Military Bases

KGM Channel 9 in Hawaii had an interesting report today on UPS's use of bicycles to deliver parcels at three military bases on the big island of Hawaii.  Said to be an experiment in "green" economics, the practice might expand to other sites.

In Europe, Latin America and in parts of Asia, seeing couriers on everything from gondolas to motorcycles to bikes is nothing new.   Its interesting to see this being used more now in the US.

Now the big question... are the drivers Teamsters?

UPS Experiments With Bicycle Deliveries Written by Brooks Baehr - bbaehr@kgmb9.com December 24, 2008 06:05 PM The company famous for its brown color scheme is taking a new "green" approach to Christmas. For the first time UPS is using pedal power to deliver packages on Oahu. UPS "driver helpers" have gotten out of their trademark brown trucks and onto bicycles to make deliveries at three military installations (Hickam, Schofield, Helemano). "We're saving money. We're not putting another car on the road to make these deliveries," said UPS Human Services Manager Ben Dorado. "We're not consuming as much fuel. And also we're not having any C02 emissions." "We like to call it our green routes. It's helping the environment. And also it's helping us getting done what we need to get done," Dorado added.

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Far afield: The Dangers of Far flung International Operations

 I don't talk about my employer a lot, but I'm proud to work for DHL.

We have global operations in over 220 countries worldwide. Usually when I say that, it's in the context of telling customers that we can get their goods from one point to another worldwide. That's an abstract concept generally because most people haven't been to the far corners of the earth. Its an abstract concept to me too. I'm pretty well traveled, but I haven't been to all of the "high risk" parts of our global operations.

DHL has always had extensive operations in the Middle East. On Saturday, October 25th, the risks of working in this environment became very real. Two DHL Express executives were murdered in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan by a security guard hired to protect them.

David Giles of Great Britain was deputy director for DHL Afghanistan. David died in the company of Jason Bresler from South Africa, who was the Kabul station manager. The security guard, who had been a DHL employee for a month, took his own life as well.  Somewhere now, three mothers grieve.

Folks forget that shipping is an art. Getting goods from point A to point B across the globe engages challenges with weather, politics, time, machinery reliability, human frailty and many other factors.  Much of that hasn't changed since man first set out upon the seas.  Nevertheless, demands are made to track packages, send data to ERP systems and feed databases. In the quest to do just that, people in far away lands do many things to satisfy customer and company needs.  In every country on every continent, there are guys like David and Jason, doing the job. 

DHL is the only express parcel company with an office in Kabul. 

Eric

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Patrick Dixon Discusses Virtual Fulfillment

Dr. Patrick Dixon MD is a world famous futurist, business consultant and speaker. Here he discusses the future of supply chain and logistics relative to on-line order fulfillment.  While I think Dr. Dixon sometimes has his "hair on fire" relative to what the future may hold, many of his ideas and observations are spot on.

Dr. Dixon comments here on virtual fulfillment of retail orders placed on-line and the challenge that fulfillment presents for federal postal authorities as well as integrators such as UPS, DHL and FedEx.

I will say that Dr. Dixon is plenty lucky if he can place an order today and reasonably expect it tomorrow. There are not many warehouse operations who can execute same day order execution on a volume basis.  Also many online retail operations choose the cheapest method of product movement in order to stay price competitive with local shops, which means shipment by ground.  That's a 3-7 day fulfillment right there in the US at least.

In Germany, which is the venue in which Dr. Dixon is speaking, one day fulfillment may well be possible if the warehouse can pick and ship the goods same day.

Dixon also talks about having dozens of vendors sharing a common warehouse.   That's likely never  gonna happen if they have to sign the same warehousing contract.  I've been involved with VMI operations in the past where just getting 10 vendors to agree to the same shrinkage allowance is next to impossible!   The warehouse operator would have to take title to the goods.   When that happens.  You have AMAZON.COM.   The rest is just choosing the fastest mode available that still allows you to be competitive.

Dr. Patrick Dixon's website is www.globalchange.com

Eric

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Finally: Somebody did some Homework

DHL's proposed air line haul deal with UPS has caused considerable controversy since its announcement in May. Understandably, there's been a lot of concern from the citizens of Wilmington, Ohio, where DHL's hub is located, as well as employees, politicians, union officials and DHL customers. 

Much of what has been reported however has been inaccurate, or at the very least, lightly researched regarding what the history and business impact of the DHL/UPS deal is.  So much so that it's become a political football.  That's no surprise in a federal election year and in a politically important state like Ohio.  The situation is very serious for all concerned, so accurate information becomes all that much more important.

Having said the above, I want to point to the factcheck.org article that appeared in Newsweek this week. This article has more correct information than almost everything else I've read. Both the Obama and McCain camps would do well to read it.

Factcheck.org a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in US politics. The Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

I highly recommend reading the complete article!

clipped from www.newsweek.com Distorting the DHL Deal An AFL-CIO flier and Obama campaign ads say that McCain cost Ohioans 8,000 jobs. We say that's a distortion of the record. Joe Miller | factcheck.org Ads from the AFL-CIO and the Obama campaign claim that McCain is partly to blame for the loss of more than 8,000 jobs in Ohio. They paint a false picture. There's at least some truth in both ads: German-based DHL announced a deal that could result in 8,200 lost jobs in Wilmington, Ohio. And McCain did in fact oppose an amendment that would have kept DHL from buying Wilmington-based Airborne Express. McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, was also a DHL lobbyist charged with easing the merger through the Senate. But the ads go too far. Some statements about McCain are misleading and some of the inferences the ads invite are unsubstantiated: The ads charge that McCain opposition to a 2003 amendment helped DHL and amounted to turning his back on workers. That's misleading. McCain said he opposed a version of the amendment because it was a special project inserted into an unrelated bill, not to help DHL. And the Teamsters union praised the merger at the time, saying that it would lead to more jobs. And at first, more jobs indeed followed. The ads also imply that the DHL merger is a direct cause of the job losses in Ohio, which we find to be both unlikely and unsubstantiated. Airborne Express had laid off 2,000 employees before the merger, and analysts at the time said that the struggling carrier would need to make expensive investments in its international infrastructure to remain competitive. Analysis The AFL-CIO and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama are blaming John McCain for the loss of more than 8,000 jobs in southwestern Ohio. The AFL-CIO mailer is the most explicit, saying that "McCain helped cut a deal that sent over 8,000 jobs to a foreign-owned company." Obama's television ad, which began airing on Aug. 14, charges that "John McCain helped pave the way for foreign-owned DHL to take over an American shipping company." An Obama radio ad, which began airing in Ohio over the weekend, repeats the message that McCain "used his influence in the Senate to help foreign-owned DHL buy a U.S. company and gain control over the jobs that are now on the chopping block in Ohio."

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Final Delivery: UPS Package Car used as Hearse.

This is a touching, if slightly weird, story about a Chicago area UPS driver named Jeff Hornagold whose body was transported from a local funeral home to the cemetery in the last delivery van he drove during a 20 year career at UPS.

Mr. Hornagold died of lung cancer and asked his friend Michael McGowan to drive the truck for his final delivery.  You have admire a man that committed to his profession and his company. Mr. McGowan is also to be admired for his devotion to his friend.

Jeff Hornagold was a UPS driver for life...and death.

clipped from news.yahoo.com CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. - Jeff Hornagold loved being a UPS driver. So when the suburban Chicago man died this week of lung cancer, longtime co-worker Michael McGowan agreed to take him on one last delivery. McGowan transported Hornagold's body from Davenport Family Funeral Home to Saturday's funeral services in his UPS truck. McGowan says he plans to keep a picture of Hornagold in his truck until he retires so that they can keep riding together. Hornagold was a UPS driver for 20 years, and his wife Judy Hornagold described him as "just the happiest UPS man alive." She says the special delivery was the perfect tribute.

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Earth Class Mail: Confluence of Virtual and Real Mail

How would you like to have a mailing address on Park Ave in New York, or Market Street in San Francisco? What if all your important "snail mail" showed up in your email box instead of the US Mail box in front of your house?

Both of these possibilities are real if you sign up with Earth Class Mail.  Earth Class Mail is a service that allows your physical, US Post Office mail to be sent to a specific destination, then scanned and sent to you as email.  Further,  Earth Class Mail has the ability to assign you a virtual (real) mailing address at a prestigious vanity address, then accomplish the same thing.

Here's how it works. First, you pick a "Remote Address" for one of Earth Class Mails locations, and have selected mail sent to that address. As a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency, Earth Class Mail receives your mail, then instantly scans all the sealed envelope images, and then electronically delivers each envelope image to you online.

Some of the things you can do with Earth Class Mail include:

• Delete all junk mail with a click of your mouse 
• Have Earth Class Mail securely scan mail contents so you can read it online
• Shred sensitive information
• Forward the original to you or someone else
• Forward the electronic document to whomever you choose;
• Archive the paper originals at Earth Class Mails facility

If you travel a lot, or have a small business that requires mail management, this is a seriously good option.  Pick a Park Ave address, but have the mail delivered electronically to your email address in Peoria or your gmail address which is accessible anywhere. How cool is that?  Say you are a retiree with an RV who wants to check up on their snail mail while on the road.  Access it via Earth Class Mail. Your physical mail is scanned and sent to your email account, allowing you to deal with it any way you want.    My son has spent the last 6 weeks in Italy studying abroad. With this service he could have checked his postal mail every day.

This isn't a solution for magazines and DVD's etc. It's primarily aimed at important mail you might receive such as bills or correspondence.   Certainly you also wouldn't want your Netflix video DVD's being handled virtually. That's REAL media you are paying to enjoy. Its not an information transfer. Its a media transfer.

With Earth Class Mail, you get your postal mail scanned and sent to you via email, archived if needed, and a vanity postal address to boot!  If you run a small business, or are a traveling executive, this service is well worth a look! Check out the video below.

(Note: Some corporate proxy servers ban video from youtube.com.  If you see white space below...you may be on such a network. Please revisit from home or a connection that does not go through your company VPN.)

Eric

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