inbound
3PL is all a-twitter
This will interest people who want information to follow them
everywhere. Aspen, a third-party logistics firm that operates 2. 5 million square
feet of temperature-controlled warehousing space for retail and health-care customers, is making alerts available to customers via Twitter.
The increasingly popular online service lets users send instant updates
to “followers” on their computers and cell phones. The “tweets,” as the
transmissions are known, are limited to 140 characters and allow users to
brief each other on their activities and whereabouts in real time.
Aspen says it’s providing operational performance data via a secure
Internet portal and using Twitter to send updates to clients about facilities and company developments. A check of the 3PL’s Twitter account
about three weeks after its launch found that Aspen had 24 followers,
who receive such missives as “Our Columbus Ohio Facility Sets a New
Record in Throughput!” and “We are Very Excited to Open up Our
Temp Controlled Ontario, Ca Warehousing Facility This Month! All
Inquiries Accepted.”
a new route to
finding backhauls
pack ’em up and ship ’em out
When you need to pack and ship supplies for the troops overseas, who
better to turn to than material handling and logistics pros? In January,
two such companies stepped in to help non-profit groups deliver treats
to U.S. soldiers abroad.
Buckhorn Inc., a manufacturer of
reusable plastic material handling containers, contributed attached-lid containers to “A Day of Service for Our Military.”
Operation Gratitude, Serve DC, and
Target Corp. teamed up for the event at
Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in
Washington, D.C., packing some 75,000
kits for delivery to soldiers and sailors
worldwide. The kits include snacks, entertainment items like music CDs, personal
care products, and letters of appreciation.
Among the 10,000 volunteers packing the containers were House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, Jill Biden, and First Lady Michelle Obama.
Just a few days later, DHL picked up thousands of deep-dish Chicago-style frozen pizzas on behalf of the Chicago non-profit Pizzas 4
Patriots. DHL’s mission: Deliver them to U.S.
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in time for
Super Bowl XLIII celebrations. Pizzas 4
Patriots’ director, retired Air Force Master Sgt.
Mark Evans, rounded up donations of food,
labor, and transportation to make sure the
troops would enjoy “a slice of home” in the
desert. DHL managed the delivery from start
to finish, including re-freezing the pies en
route to ensure freshness.
Load-matching services that
bring empty trailers and backhaul loads together typically
are the province of transportation brokers and online freight
exchanges. Soon there will be
some new players in the game:
the Voluntary Interindustry
Commerce Solutions Association (VICS), GS1 Canada, and
GS1 US. (VICS is best known
for its collaborative forecasting, planning, and replenishment standards. The GS1
organization oversees global
standards for identification of
goods and locations for electronic commerce.)
Retailers, consumer goods
manufacturers, and motor carriers have been testing the new
Empty Miles Service using real
shipment data, and they say it’s
ready to roll. VICS members
can sign up for $1,600 annually; non-members pay $1,850.
Pricing the service per year
rather than by shipment or by
mile will encourage more
companies to use it, the organizers say. The service is available in both the United States
and Canada.
GS1 has developed a calculator that measures the program’s financial benefits as well
as the reduction in carbon
dioxide emissions that will
result from eliminating empty
hauls. For more information,
go to www.emptymiles.org.
