inbound

Wondering why that shipment you’re expecting is late? In a number of states, you might be able to find out what the holdup is by checking Twitter or Facebook. According to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), 26 of the 32 state departments of transportation surveyed by the group are communicating with drivers through social media like Twitter and Facebook. (Since the survey was completed, at least three other states have also begun to use Twitter, says AASHTO.)

The survey found that the states are using Twitter to notify travelers of road closures or detours caused by major traffic incidents, construction, and severe weather. Travelers seem to like the service: Washington state’s DOT, for example, has some 8,000 followers on its main WSDOT Twitter account and 3,000 followers on its Seattle-area traffic account. Washington, along with Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, and California, uses multiple Twitter accounts, giving drivers the ability to personalize their information based on specific highway routes or geographic locations.

Asked what methods they considered most effective for reaching their primary audience, respondents cited Twitter ( 65 percent), RSS feeds ( 56 percent), podcasts ( 18 percent), and Facebook ( 13 percent). Fourteen of the 32 states that participated in the survey have an active Facebook page (one unnamed state said its Facebook page was designed for “transportation geeks”), and 23 reported using video on their Web sites. Eighteen states also have an active You Tube channel, and four have weekly video updates or news shows online.

This doesn’t mean the states are encouraging texting while driving. Most, if not all, warn followers to pull over before they access information.

To see the full report and a list of state DOT Twitter addresses, go to www.publicaffairs-ntpaw.transportation.org. ;

twittering on down the road
in case of fire …
you’re on your own
parcel carriers that deliver

There’s a fire in the new warehouse you built in a rural area, and the local volunteer fire department isn’t equipped to handle it. Is your inventory doomed to destruction?

Not if you have the proper fire prevention and suppression systems in place, according to the engineers who took part in a design challenge sponsored by the Fire Protection Research Foundation. At the foundation’s “High Challenge Warehouse Workshop” in February, the engineers presented a variety of solutions for achieving final fire extinguishment in a hypothetical warehouse without fire department intervention.

The engineers’ assignment was to design a fire protection system for a planned combination low-and high-bay facility to be built in a rural community on a site with a limited public water supply. The plastic commodity inside will be stored on wood pallets in racks that are a maximum 65 feet high and will be handled by both automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) and forklift trucks.

All of the solutions presented at the workshop were in compliance with National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards, yet there was plenty of room for creativity. One company, for instance, suggested attaching a camera-guided foam-dispensing nozzle to the AS/RS. Several proposed incorporating fire detection equipment into the AS/RS and using the machines to move product away from the flames.

You can find background information, details of the case study, and slide presentations of the various design proposals at http://nfpa.typepad.com/research foundation/presentations/. ;