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

Happy Thanksgiving 2011

Just a quick wish to all American freightdawgs wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving. This is a special day because it is a time to reflect on the welfare and happiness of family without the materialism of Christmas in its secular form most recognized today in media and markets.

I wish you a most happy and HOLY Thanksgiving. We Americans were once thankful for our survival and honored it with a feast meal with the Indians who helped those original settlers. That still has value.

Many folks today consider Thanksgiving a pit stop for fueling up prior to Black Friday and the Xmas season. Accent on the X. I am sorry for that.

I wish you and your family well during this happy time of year.

Eric

STS-135: Atlantis Takes the Greatest Transport System ever into the History Books

Yesterday, on July 8th, 2011, NASA launched the 135th and final space shuttle mission.   I had a lot of internal business stuff to take care of, so I worked from home.  I needed the alone time to get some stuff done, but selfishly, I also wanted to watch this lift off, which was scheduled for 11:26AM Eastern Time.    I have a small TV in my office, so I had it on in the background. I was listening to Anderson Cooper and the rest of the talking heads on CNN blather on about the Shuttle and NASA while the launch team worked through a weather delay, which stopped the countdown at about 9 minutes.

So, slogging through conference calls,  a couple of RFP's and some other business stuff, I kept peering over to see what was going on.   About the time my cell phone rang with a call from our Atlanta District Manager about some staffing issues,  NASA started the countdown again.   I had my back to the TV and was deep into the conversation, when I happened to turn around and saw the Shuttle had already launched and was screaming off into space!!!    My daughter was home at the time in another part of the house. 

Next thing she hears from me is "DAMN!, DAMN!, DAMN!!!!  I MISSED IT!!!"        

I know our local DM thought I had lost my mind. I started fussing "Dammit Rich, you made me miss the shuttle launch!!".    This guy is sitting in the office and and I am sure he thought I was sitting here in my Bunny Slippers.   The phone call ended quickly after that. 

I'm pretty attached to the Shuttles.  I grew up watching Gemini missions when folks like Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley and Eric Sevareid would announce the launches back in the 60's.   Then the Apollo missions came.   Alas, Apollo ended in the 1970's when the moon mission had fulfilled Kennedy's promise and the political juice ran out after the 1973 oil embargo.   

We waited 6 long years for the next launch system to come along.  It was the Space Shuttle.  Arguably the most complex, and most Herculean transportation system ever developed by man.    I vividly recall sitting in my parents home in 1981 when John Young and Bob Crippen took the first shuttle up from Cape Canaveral.   What an emotional event that was.    America was leading again.  Reagan was in the White House.  America was in the ascendency again.  Literally.

Then Challenger happened.   Like the Kennedy assassination and later 9/11,  I think every American remembers where they were when Challenger blew up.   I was in my office when my wife called and told me.  I felt like I had been kicked in the groin.  It hurt.  America hurt.    Two years later, the Shuttle returned, this time safer and NASA was humbled into a stronger, safer space program.    On the backs of Astronauts like Story Musgrave,  Hoot Gibson, Bruce McCandless, Sally Ride and others,  the Shuttle accomplished the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope,  its subsequent repair and ultimately the missions to build the first permanent International Space Station.   Despite the sacrifices of 14 American patriots in the astronauts who died in the Challenger and Columbia accidents,  the Space Shuttle has been an unparalleled success.

STS-135 was essentially a housekeeping mission, taking supplies to the ISS.  It wasn't even supposed to take place.  However, NASA has Atlantis ready to go as a back up shuttle for the earlier missions this year, and decided to fly one last time.  I'm delighted they did.

At some point in the future, America will have the political will to venture into space on its own again.  Whether through NASA and the Orion program, or through brilliant commercial minds who are developing private launch capacity,  America will go back to space.  I can't wait.   The sooner we get a Republican back in the White House again, the sooner that will be.

Enjoy the video above.  That's how I got to see the last mission blast off into space.  

Eric

Home from Europe. An Old Friend Revisited.

Yes, boys and girls, Freightdawg is still an active blog, for those of you who have written me.   I took on some newly increased job responsibilities in December and those have kept me running all over the place, including Latin America, Europe and China (next week). I got home from Europe on Friday, having spent the week on planes, trains and automobiles all over the Netherlands and Budapest, Hungary.   I had not been to Budapest before, but this is one beautiful city that I look forward to visiting again once the snow stops flying. 

I've been to Europe many times, but I am always amazed at the efficiency and low cost of the Dutch railways.   I commuted over several days between Amsterdam, Maastricht, Rotterdam, Utrecht and back to Amsterdam Schiphol throughout the week.   Quick, on time and very efficient.   I wish we had these kinds of trains even regionally in the US.  Granted, Holland is a small country with short distances between metropolitan areas.   The citizens are also motivated by very high fuel prices, which push them to seek public transport as well as old fashioned means of commuting, included bicycles.  Of course, it doesn't hurt that the whole country is flat, making biking an easy business.

While I have been an international traveler for years,  for the past 3-4 years my job has put me mostly in the Americas.   I spent my time in North and South America.   I had not been back to Europe since 2003.  On that basis, returning was like visiting an old friend.   When I was with P&O and later P&O Nedlloyd, I spent considerable time in the UK and on the continent.  At one point I had more friends in England than I did in Atlanta.  In fact I once took a weeks vacation in the UK where I had drinks or a meal with different former colleagues daily.

From a logistics point of view, Europe has always been complex.  Historically, you had different countries, different currencies, different customs regulations and different market constituencies based on geographical location within the European continent.  Today, much of the same complexity remains, but now with different twists.  These include a common currency and customs regulations within most of the EU, but still geographical market pressure based on location, whether eastern or western Europe.

New security regulations governing the EU's Import Control System (ICS) are now burdening shippers whose freight is either destined for European consumption or transiting through Europe to other markets.   Following the US lead,  the EU is now requiring additional information on European shipments.   Both air and ocean carriers are putting surcharges on these shipments in order to cover the administrative cost of governmental reporting.

Russia is continuing to grow as a major market in Europe, but also remains complex due to factors that include high inflation, changing tax and customs codes, and security around product transportation.  One area I am now just learning about is the Pan-European trucking market, whether FTL, LTL or Part load shipments.   This business is somewhat different from the US version.  I have little knowledge of that trade, but one of the nice things about working for a major European logistics player is that we have an extensive network and lots of product expertise to draw from.

I look forward discussing some of these Euro focused topics in more detail soon.  Living in a global economy, its a good idea to understand that regional differences and nuances still exist.  Understanding those differences is critical to understanding and designing global supply chains that work, both physically and culturally.   The goal is still satisfying the end customer, whether he lives in Moscow, Russia or Moscow, Idaho.

I'm off to Beijing on the 27th of February.  I'll have more to post from that trip and more in between. 

Eric

Ok, these things are CREEPY.

I spent the last couple of days in south Florida in some customer meetings.   I normally fly into KFLL, pick up a rental car, go to our corporate headquarters to visit my amigos, then go do what I need to do with the Latin American regional offices of my clients that are based in Miami.   This is all quite normal and regular business for me.  

On the return to Atlanta tonight, going through TSA security at Fort Lauderdale, I noted that they had a new (at least since the last time I was there) scanning unit in terminal 2.  It is a backscatter body imaging machine.  These are the units that can see through the clothing of scanned passengers, though said not to either store scans nor compromise the modesty of the scanned passenger. (see for yourself here.)

Since I work with customers who produce some of these kinds of security devices,  I figured I would go through the body imaging line.  No big deal really.  You take off any and all metal, then you proceed to hold your arms up and get scanned.  The TSA officer then tells you to move along.   However, I will say watching a young lady in front of me get scanned, then subsequently get frisked, gave me the willies.  The TSA officers did nothing unusual and were perfectly professional in the examinations. Standing in the unit, then holding your arms up to get scanned, was somehow just a little unnerving.   After a few times, I'm sure it will seem quite normal, but I can think of a few things that might seem normal if you did them enough.

Here is what the TSA says about those who observe these screenings:

"For additional privacy, the officer viewing the image is in a separate room and will never see the passenger and the officer attending to the passenger will never see the image. The officers have 2-way radios to communicate with each other in case a threat object is identified."

Why is this even more unnerving?     I do not want to even know what those people could be doing in the observation rooms, though I can pretty much assure the traveling public my image won't incite anything weird.

I really think it's time to go to a US domestic passport along with some kind of bio marker that says it's me.  Maybe a retina scan or a fingerprint scan, but something that shows I am a safe traveler and something that expedites travel through security. I am convinced that at least one true cost of 9/11 is being borne and costed out on the traveling public by the inefficient use of security measures.   

Politically, I am a center right independent.  Mostly I just want to be left alone by government to pay my own way, take care of my responsibilities and do my own thing.  Most conservatives rail at the idea of any kind of domestic passport on the grounds that it is like Nazi Germany "requesting your papers" just to travel in your own country.  

On a defacto basis I think we are already there.  We are just using technology to verify who is safe and who is not.

Stop screening my shoes and my underwear.   Neither of which is really that interesting.

Eric

Jetwhine's Great Train Article

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year everybody.  I'm on vacation this week, but after reading a great article by Scott Spangler over at Jetwhine.com,  I thought I'd post a link to it.

Scott's article details the pleasure of train travel where available in the US as an alternative to air travel hell.   I wish it were more available here in Atlanta where we only have the Amtrak Crescent, which goes between New Orleans and Washington DC.  It passes through Birmingham, Atlanta and Charlotte on the way.  

When I was a kid,  my girlfriend, (and later my wife) lived in Birmingham.  I recall with fondness taking the train to visit her.   It was only a 4 hour trip, but pleasant nonetheless.

With air travel becoming increasingly painful due to security, cost and schedule contraction, perhaps one day America will reinvest in passenger rail.   Scott Spangler lives in Chicago, where railroad travel both east and west, is still somewhat of an option, just as it is in the Northeastern US, Japan and all over Europe.

Eric

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Living Overseas - A Career Aspiration?

Purchasing.com has an excellent article on ex patriot life and considerations for taking an international assignment.   This was always something I wanted to do but timing, children and life always seemed to get in the way.  If you have the opportunity, take it and give yourself and your family a view of the world that puts American life in perspective.   Check it out here.

Eric

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Ferry Capsizes with Massive Loss of Life

Periodically the ocean reminds us that sailing the seas in ships is still a dangerous business.  Filipino Ferry Princess of Stars capsized on June 24, 2008 with only 62 survivors out of a passenger list of over 800.

The ferry capsized after being hit by Typhoon Fengshen on Saturday while sailing from Manila to Cebu City. Despite efforts by the Philippines Coast Guard, few passengers were able to be rescued from inside the capsized vessel. The ship remains afloat and rescue divers are still attempting to save those who may be trapped in air pockets.

Modern transportation has become so reliable in most cases that we often take it for granted until weather impacts the ships or planes involved. 

clipped from www.iht.com MANILA - What Rodel Laborte could not forget was the screaming of his fellow passengers. As the strong waves and wind tossed around the 24,000-ton ferry - "like a paper boat," he said - pandemonium broke out. The shrieks got so loud, he said, he could not determine if the captain gave an order to abandon the ship. "My heart was racing fast," Laborte said. "All I could think about was whether there were enough lifeboats for all of us." When the ship tilted heavily to the left, Laborte decided to jump, along with several others, into the churning water, where they clung to a lifeboat. It took only minutes for much of the ferry to disappear, he said. Laborte, 60, was one of the 62 survivors of the Princess of the Stars, which was struck by Typhoon Fengshen on Saturday, possibly killing most of the more than 800 passengers and crew on board. He and 27 others huddled in the lifeboat, which ended up Monday on the shore of Quezon Province, miles from the island of Sibuyan, near where the ferry capsized. The ferry disaster could turn out to be one of the worst in the Philippines in the past two decades. On Tuesday, rescue teams from the Philippine Coast Guard managed to penetrate the overturned ship and found many decomposing corpses floating inside.

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Some Days the Hammer...Some Days the Nail.

I spent the week flying around the southeastern US, between Atlanta and Memphis, then on to Charlotte before returning home to ATL.

That's a little unusual for me as I usually travel further afield than that, but I had customer locations to visit in all three places. I hate regional flying because the jets tend to be smaller and more likely to get messed with by weather, air traffic control, and generally weaker run regional air carrier/slaves to the bigger carriers. I was not disappointed.

My flights from ATL to MEM and thence onward to CLT were no problem. Flying back to ATL however was a charm indeed. Today was one of "those days".  You know the ones.  The days when everything starts well then the more stuff you touch the worse it gets.  I had a very nice and very successful visit with a customer this morning.  It was one of those fun visits where you have a nice buzz coming out of it. Prospects are good, the customer is happy, and you've just learned that they are PISSED at your major competition.  As they say in the military...a "target rich environment".   That was the morning.

I then figure, "hey, I'm done with my stuff here in Charlotte, I'll see if I can catch an earlier flight to get home earlier".  I turn in the rental car, get to the terminal and see that its wall-to-wall passengers waiting for security clearance. That was the first sign that life was about to get complicated. I go up to the Delta self check in kiosk and attempt to get my boarding pass. The machine can't find it. Not good. So I call the corporate travel agent and ask what's up. After some searching and a call to Delta, I am told that my flight has been canceled, and that lo and behold, I have been rebooked to tomorrow mornings flight.  Lovely. Nice to see what Platinum-elite status is worth these days. I ask the travel agent what other flights are available and am told that a US Airways flight at 7:45PM still has seats.  Book me Dano. I'll take a bird in hand over a promise. 

Whilst standing at the Delta ticket desk, I ask the agent why they canceled my flight and what the delays were about.  There were three geniuses standing at the check in desk.  Each had a unique answer, presented almost simultaneously.

Eric:  "Hey, what's the delay about today?"

Agent 1: "Its summer time!  The kids are out of school"

Eric: "I don't see any kids"

Agent 2: "It's the weather!"

Eric: "It's sunny outside and my wife says it's sunny in Atlanta"

Agent 3: "Might have been a mechanical"

Eric:  "Is that what it was?" All these people are on my plane?"

Agent 3 again:  "Well, we don't really know but we have a long list of excuses to work from!"

Eric: "Nuff said.  Please transfer my ticket to US Scare."

I get my new ticket, make my way to the US Airways counter, get my confirmed but delayed boarding pass and proceed to the TSA security line.  The one nice thing about US Airways in CLT is that they are the hub carrier in Charlotte.  The facilities aren't much faster, but they are bigger.  So, it only takes 30 minutes to get to the security check point.  On perusal of my documents, the TSA screener informs me I have been "selected" by the airlines for further screening.  Ok.  No biggie.  Just more wanding and prodding and baggage check.  I've got 3 hours to kill.  Knock yourselves out guys. 

The TSA guys are nice and efficient in this case, which is great.  However much depends on your sense of humor. I've lost all hope for anything approaching early or on time.  At this point its just make light of it and move on. If you have that attitude and are nice to the TSA folks, typically they'll move you on as quickly as the Federal Government can do so.

By 7:45, I am seated on the plane, we take off and arrive in ATL about 9PM. I get home around 11.  Later than I wanted.  Much more tired than I wanted, but this is a pretty typical day for a lot of travelers. 

I have always thought the true cost of 9/11 is in the experience above. Traveling and moving around in the United States is now HARD and much less civil than it used to be. Some wannabe terrorist-Jag off decides to try to blow up a plane with C4 in his shoes and now I don't buy lace up shoes any more because I have to take them off every time I fly.

Forget fuel costs. The reason I want to ride trains nowadays is this experience.

Eric

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