Logistics Review

Freight transportation provider Estes Express has launched three-day service to Toronto, Canada, from eight terminals in Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas.

The ability to offer three-day service is a direct result of an initiative to increase network efficiency. Estes accelerated processing time, reduced freight handling and utilized direct lanes to create the three-day service from terminals in Memphis, TN; Alexandria and Hammond, LA; Jackson, MS; Fort Smith, Texarkana and Little Rock, AR; and Houston, TX.

The company recently reduced delivery times to Vancouver from the Pacific Northwest from two days to one and initiated a three-day service to Calgary and Edmonton, Canada, from six terminals in Texas and Oklahoma.

One of the ways the company has achieved higher efficiency to Canada is by consolidating freight at inland regional gateways. This avoids congested border terminals and initiates document processing before a customer’s shipment arrives at the U.S.-Canada border. Estes also provides access to experienced, bilingual PARS and PAPS specialists to help prevent needless delays at the border.

Echo Global Logistics, Inc., (Echo) is a provider of technology enabled transportation and supply chain management services. Its Web-based technology platform compiles and analyzes data from its network of over 20,000 transportation providers to serve its clients’ shipping and freight management needs. Its technology platform, composed of Web-based software applications and a database, enables it to identify excess transportation capacity, obtain rates and executes shipments while providing services. Echo focuses on arranging transportation across the modes, including truckload (TL), less than truck load ( LTL ) and small parcel, and it also offers inter-modal domestic air, expedited and international transportation services. Its logistics services include rate negotiation, shipment execution and tracking, carrier management, routing compliance, freight bill audit and payment and performance management and reporting, including executive dashboard tools.

Saia was pleased to announce that it was honored with two awards for its exemplary 2009 safety record at the American Trucking Association (ATA) Safety Management Council’s recent Safety and Human Resources National Conference and Exhibition held in Rogers, Ark.

Saia took first place honors in the “General Commodities LTL/Local” category for companies driving 50 to 100 million miles. In addition to this award, the company placed third in the “General Commodities LTL/Linehaul” category for companies driving over 70 million miles.

Among other initiatives, Saia’s commitment to safety includes intensive, ongoing employee training, use of the Iteris Lane Departure Warning System and Eaton’s VORAD Collision Warning System, and participation in the ATA’s Safety Council.

The ATA is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. The ATA’s National Truck and Industrial Safety Contests are the only two national safety programs that recognize the extraordinary safety accomplishments of motor carriers across the United States by operation type and size. The ATA, through a federation of other trucking companies, industry-related conferences, and its 50 affiliated state trucking associations, represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States.

A Duie Pyle was recognized for providing the Northeast with the most customer-focused people in the transportation industry.  They continue to find new and better ways to meet the demands of the challenging Northeast. They use a reliable Regional model that keeps them close to the customer markets they serve.
A. Duie Pyle was awarded first place in safety by the Pennsylvania Motor Trucking Association. This  is recognition for being the safest motor freight LTL carrier in Pennsylvania was based on miles driven and accidents, in the under 15 million miles category.

With an investment volume of more than $59 million, DB Schenker Logistics is building its new hub and corporate office for Finland in Vantaa near the airport. In addition, logistics facilities are being built for the capital of Finland in neighboring Kiila.  A complex for warehouse logistic services with a length of 280 meters will be built in the first step. Construction work on the 25,000 square meters facility is scheduled to start in the spring of 2011. Operations are expected to begin in the spring of 2012.

Trucking companies activities will be concentrated near Helsinki-Vantaa airport. A 41,000 square meter logistics center for domestic shipping services and international land transport, for air and ocean freight as well as for parcel services and deliveries to end consumers is currently in planning. About 770 parking spaces for vehicles, trailers and containers will be provided on the area with a size of 15 hectares. Existing facilities are to be relocated to Kiila. Construction work is set to begin in the summer of 2012 and the facility is expected to enter into operations in the summer of 2014.

“The new locations have excellent transport connections and benefit from their proximity to the airport as well as to the new port in Vuosaari,” explains Göran Åberg, CEO of Oy Schenker East Ab.

The development of the new facilities also benefited from the cooperation with Technische Universität Dortmund. Detailed simulations facilitated the conception as regards functionality, safety and environment, while simultaneously strides have been made towards the sustainable use of land, water and energy resources. The new terminal activities also aim to optimize overall the number of truck runs.

DB Schenker Rail had some unusual freight shipping.  It transported 72 concrete elements of up to 37 meters in length each from Neumark in Upper Palatinate, Germany, to Wroclaw in Poland for the Max Bögl construction company. The concrete elements weigh up to 100 tons each and are being used to build a new soccer stadium that is being constructed for the “EURO 2012″ European Soccer Championship.

“A perfectly coordinated international network forms the basis for this unusual cross-border transport. Extreme dimensions and weights always represent a challenge for us. DB Schenker Rail Deutschland and DB Schenker Rail Polska are working closely together to provide our customer Max Bögl a single source for high quality and flexible solutions,” notes Karsten Sachsenröder, Member of the Management Board of DB Schenker Rail responsible for Sales.

DB Schenker Rail is using six block trains to transport the total shipment of 6,600 tons. Special cranes are being used to load the trains in Neumark. The trains cross the Polish border at Zgorzelec/Görlitz and then travel on to Wroclaw Kuzniki. The last kilometers of the journey take place at night when the elements are transported to their final destination by trucking company. The first train left on August 20 and the last one is planned for the end of September.

Freight transport and logistics business rebound, passenger transport stable and additional Customer and Quality Initiative measures announced

Deutsche Bahn posted notable gains in the first half of 2010. Above all, the Group’s freight transport and shipping logistics businesses, which had been significantly affected by the previous year’s crisis, benefited from the global economic recovery. Revenues recorded for the DB Group in the first half of 2010 rose by more than $2.36 million over the same year-ago period to $21 billion, for a gain of 12.8%. Adjusted results from operations rose by 26.1% to $11 billion in comparison to the same year-ago figure. During the Interim Results Press Conference held in Berlin, DB CEO and Chairman of the Management Board, Dr. Rüdiger Grube, stated: “We are back on track for growth. These gains are not only due to the recovering economy. The support given by all of our executive staff and employees to the measures we took to improve cost structures made a major contribution towards these good figures.”

If you are needing to ship furniture, there are several options.  You can use a full service mover put this is very expensive. You can pack the furniture yourself and ship it common carrier, which is the cheapest way to ship it. First you should wrap the item in plastic or bubble wrap. this keeps the cardboard from rubbing a whole in the fabric or rubbing the finish off the wood. The packaging doesn’t have to look pretty. You can take apart old boxes and use them to wrap around the item. Just tape them together so the whole item is covered.  So doing a little work can the furniture freight not that expensive.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported a .5% increase in durable goods orders for February, the third consecutive monthly increase. But this failed to meet analysts’ expectations for a gain of .7%.
Durable goods orders were slightly better than expected for February. The U.S. Commerce Department reported an increase of .5% in February for orders of durable goods. This was the 3rd consecutive monthly increase, but failed to meet analysts’ expectations for a gain of .7%. Commercial aircraft, one of the primary factors in the improvement factor rose 32.7%, after a massive increase in January. Outside of shipping transportation, orders for machinery rose 4.7%, primary metals rose 1.5%, and computers were up 0.4%. But, there were downsides. Automotive orders dropped by 1.9% and orders for communications equipment fell 1.7%.

“The 0.5% increase in overall orders in February followed a 3.9% increase in January and a gain of 1.8% in December” according to a report in The New York Times. “The three consecutive monthly gains pushed total orders to a seasonally adjusted $178.1 billion in February.” Economists believe that corporate spending will be the primary driver of economic recovery as the country exits this recession. The slight softening in actual performance vs. analysts’ forecasts for durable goods orders would suggest that some of the more robust inventory restocking may be slowing, which hurts carriers like USF Holland.

Transportation volumes across most modes still suggest that activity continues to improve in March–but to what degree? If the corporate and consumer demand side of the equation is not present to match this building of supply, orders will continue to be lackluster. The general sentiment on Wall Street remains “cautiously optimistic,” which is probably the best sentiment for the durable goods report.

The Eyjafjallajökull volcanic (EJ Volcano) eruption  in Iceland has been equally difficult on the global supply chain and shipping services over the past week. Costing the international air cargo industry an estimated $2 billion in its first week, the volcano has amazingly surpassed the impact of 9/11 on the airline industry. But, scientists are watching a more fearsome volcano just 12 miles from the current eruption. “Eyjafjallajokull has blown three times in the past thousand years,” Dr McGarvie senior lecturer at the Volcano Dynamics Group of the Open University said, “in 920AD, in 1612, and between 1821 and 1823. Each time it set off Katla.”

Scientists taking seismic readings on Katla are unable to truly distinguish between earthquake activity being generated out of the EJ Volcano, shifting of a glacier that overrides the volcano, and actual magma activity in Katla itself. But activity is up 2,000 percent in recent days. Predictions of an eruption are not forthcoming, but the risk remains.

The impact of the EJ Volcano shutting down European airspace for nearly a week is still being calculated. At one time, six million passengers worldwide were affected, with the total financial impact on the European economy estimated to be between one-quarter% and one% off of GDP for the region. Supply chains via freight transport have been affected and purchasing behavior is expected to change, with buyers in Europe potentially looking to stockpile more inventories in the event of further disruptions in the near future.

At the time of this writing, the EJ Volcano was not erupting as violently (down to 80 percent of recent intensity), which could signal that the volcanic activity is coming to an end. It is difficult to imagine an eruption of a volcano the size of Katla in modern times, and scientists are not willing to step out and make that prediction. But these situations change quickly, and an ash cloud capable of stopping air travel can swiftly move around the globe. It is a situation to keep one’s eye on as it unfolds–and the global supply chain starts to recover from just a “small” volcanic event.