Get the skinny on 3PLs
You’re probably familiar with websites like TripAdvisor, where travelers post reviews of hotels, restaurants, and so forth, or Angie’s List,
where subscribers give the thumbs-up or thumbs-down to contractors, doctors, and other service providers they’ve used. Well, now
there’s something similar for the third-party logistics community.
The market research and consulting firm Armstrong & Associates
Inc. has launched a new site called 3PLAdvisor.com that will give
shippers a platform for sharing their experiences with third-party
logistics service providers (3PLs).
The website will offer benefits to both customers and service
providers, according to Evan Armstrong, president of Armstrong &
Associates. Customers can anonymously rate their current 3PLs and
send “request for information” forms to 3PLs they’re interested in
working with. At the same time, 3PLs can receive feedback from customers at no cost. Each customer review and 3PL profile submission
will be vetted for accuracy before it’s posted online, Armstrong
noted.
As customer reviews are submitted, 3PLAdvisor.com automatically generates lists of “top ranked” providers by criteria like region and
specialty (for example, the top-rated North American 3PLs or the
top-rated European air/ocean 3PLs). At launch, the profiles in the
database include basic company contact information, the names of
top executives, services provided, market area, business roots, total
logistics revenue, number of employees, service-specific revenues,
and number of warehouses.
Armstrong & Associates, which specializes in third-party logistics,
is best known for its annual Who’s Who in Logistics and Supply Chain
Management guidebooks and 3PL market analyses. For more information, go to www.3pladvisor.com. ;
Logistics and the military have a strong affinity: After all, the U.S.
military runs the world’s largest logistics operation, and the very
term “logistics” originated with the U.S. Army. So it seems fitting that
Toyota Material Handling U.S.A. (TMHU) has launched a program
to provide discounted forklift-operator safety training for veterans.
Toyota has committed $25,000 to its new Giving Veterans a Lift program, which makes training available through participating dealers.
The company says it initiated the program to help ease unemployment among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, which can be as
high as 15. 2 percent. “We’re glad our dealer time and knowledge base
will help equip veterans with tools needed for those who seek a
career in the material handling industry,” said Brett Wood, president
of TMHU, in a statement.
The deadline to apply for the Giving Veterans a Lift tuition break
is Dec. 31, 2011. Training must be completed by Jan. 31, 2012. For
more information, visit: www.toyotaforklift.com/veterans. ;
Toyota gives veterans a lift
inbound
Music to ship freight by,
Part III
We’ve hit the road and ridden the rails
… now it’s time to turn our attention to
songs about water transportation. But
they were harder to find than we expected. While tunes about big rigs on lonesome highways and the good old days of
freight trains abound, it seems very few
songwriters have been inspired by cargo
ships. Still, we did turn up a few examples. (You can hear them all on
YouTube.):
▪ “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” by
Gordon Lightfoot, tells the gripping, true
tale of a Great Lakes freighter that went
down in a winter storm (“With a load of
iron ore 26,000 tons more than the
Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty …”).
▪ “The Lock Keeper,” by the late Stan
Rogers, lays out a poignant conversation
between a lock keeper on the St.
Lawrence Seaway and a merchant ship’s
officer. (“We’re laden even deeper than
the time before, Oriental oils and tea
brought down from Singapore.”)
▪ Rogers also wrote “The Watch,”
about a man who sees parallels between
his unhappy retirement and a once-proud merchant ship that’s about to be
scrapped. (“It’s the last watch on the
Midland … the last night she’s whole.”)
▪ “Barges” is a favorite at every summer camp. (“Silently flows the river to
the sea, and the barges too go silently.”)
Ask your kids to sing it for you!
▪ Who doesn’t remember Harry
Belafonte’s “Banana Boat Song” (“Day-O!
Da-a-ay-O!”), about Caribbean long-shoremen loading bananas on boats
headed for North America and Europe? ;
